April 16th, 1962 - March 6, 1981
On April 16th, 1962, Walter Cronkite made his debut as the anchor of the CBS Evening News replacing Douglas Edwards. He was not only the anchorman for the network newscast, but also served as its "managing editor." the dual position gave him considerable latitude in the selection, timing and arrangement of the day's news stories. It was during Cronkite's early says at anchor that the nightly broadcasts expanded from fifteen to thirty minutes. The first half-hour show aired September 2, 1963, a week ahead of NBC's Huntley-Brinkley first expanded newscast and featured a special interview with President John F. Kennedy.
Color broadcasts of the evening news began early in 1966, about two months after NBC's. During this year most Network television transitioned from Black And White to Color.
From the late 1960's until his retirement in 1977, Eric Sevareid commentated on The CBS Evening News.
NOTE:
Moving images of Walter Cronkite reading the news in his studio every night for six years (1962–August 2, 1968) are mostly gone and not extant in any broadcast form. Exceptions are his coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 and the November 1963 events in Dallas, Texas: the JFK assassination, the shootings of police officer J. D. Tippit and Lee Oswald and all three funerals, as well as his introduction of the Beatles and his criticism of the Vietnam War.
Douglas Edwards anchored the live five-minute segment The CBS Afternoon News five afternoons a week between 1962 and 1966. He started the segment immediately after the twenty-five minute broadcast of the Goodson-Todman game show To Tell The Truth. Not one second from four years' worth of The CBS Afternoon News was preserved in any way.
Archival Television Audio original off the air sound recordings of network and local television news broadcasts, pre-1968, are extremely rare and not preserved at The Library of Congress, Paley Center for Media or UCLA Film & TV Archive.
Communist push deepens into Laos, the Senate led by Senator Thomas Dodd investigates sex and violence in TV programs such as the CBS drama, "Route 66," stock market reversal for the sixth day in a row, future planetary vehicles discussed by space expert.
CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (1962–1981)
ANCHOR:
Walter Cronkite 1962-1981
EMINENT CORRESPONDENTS INCLUDE:
Roger Mudd 1963-1980
Eric Sevareid 1963-1977
Bill Plant 1968-1980
Robert Pierpoint 1963-1980
Charles Kuralt 1968-1975
Bob Schieffer 1975-1980
Dan Rather 1963-1980
Richard Threlkeld 1968-1977
Bruce Morton 1968-1980
Lesley Stahl 1974-1980
Harold Dow 1974-1980
Marvin Kalb 1963-1979
George Herman 1963-1975
Nelson Benton 1963-1968
Bob Gregory 1968
Harry Reasoner 1963-1980
Bernard Kalb 1963-1979
Terry Drinkwater 1974-1975
Bob McNamara 1977-1980
Ed Bradley 1978-1980