Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avagan.

This day, April 16, 1962, Walter Krunkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as the

Anchor man of the CBS's nightly feature newscast, which was tentatively named Walter Krunkite with the news, and then later became the CBS Evening News.

Which, by the way, that's a little bit of a weird one, where you start with your name on the show and then they take it off even though you become

the most trusted news person in America and that is the truth. Cronkite became not

just the voice of CBS but he became in many ways the voice of America.

So much so that six years later, L.B.J.

when faced with eroding popularity and the Vietnam War

spiraling out of control, reportedly said,

if I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America. So let's talk about

Cronkite's role in shaping the political life of this country. No surprise he

weaves in and out of basically all the major stories from the 60s through the 70s and into the 80s and

beyond here as always Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of

Wesley hello there hello Jody hey. We will talk about how maybe there is no equivalent right now. I mean it's very clear

there's no equivalent right now and what does that say about our current culture but I'm you know none of us I don't think watched

Walter Cronkite but I definitely sort of had him looming in my imagination in this

role I'm just curious kind of just like growing up so what is it that you think of when you hear his name? I mean that that

sober pet the most trusted name and news and the most trusted man and news or the most trusted man in

news or the most trusted man in America all of that is what you think of when you think of

Walter Cronkite because that's the little tidbit that you hear growing up, it's that you

sort of like get from the ether because none of us was alive and watching news when Walter Cronkite was on air, but that sort of legacy and that glow around him continued on well past the time and I think probably even more so as

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