Ed Bradley

His dream of becoming a radio DJ lead him to news

• Leandra Abbott
• Lenore Allen
• Ed Bradley
• Audreen Buffalo
• Earl Caldwell
• Marquita Pool-Eckert
• Joy Elliott
• Gerald Fraser
• Charlayne Hunter-Gault
• George Goodman
• Charles Hobson
• Jane Irving
• Claude Lewis
• Nancy Maynard
• Gil Scott
• Wallace Terry
• Melba Tolliver
• Mel Watkins
• Hollie West

One could say that Ed Bradley in part owes his career to a popular Philadelphia radio DJ.

Georgie Woods, after all, was the one who came to Bradley's college and gave a talk that inspired Bradley to become a DJ. Cheyney State was a teacher's college and Woods was there to talk to the senior class about using community resources to reach out to kids.

Bradley, however, was more interested in Woods' work in the studio. Woods invited the young teacher to WDAS and as Bradley toured the station his life's mission became clearer.

"I just knew when I walked out there that night that I was put on this earth to be on radio," he says.

Bradley spent everyday at the station, turning his attention to music, sports and some news. When he graduated from Cheyney and began teaching, he went to the station in the evenings. His friend and mentor Del Sheilds, the station's jazz DJ, always encouraged him to focus on news. That, Sheilds told him, was where the opportunities were.

WDAS served as a conduit connecting community leaders with residents so that by 1965 when riots broke out in Philadelphia, Bradley knew all the important local players in the civil rights movement. WDAS, with its mainly music format, had little to no recording equipment to use out in the field. Bradley covered the riots calling in stories from a pay phone, pulling in an occasional city official or community leader to respond to questions.

Impressed with his work, the station hired him for $1.50 an hour.

While at WDAS, Bradley covered one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches in Philadelphia. Other riots and protests broke out in the city and he was there. As a young reporter he initially struggled with his desire to take part in some of the protests he covered. He quicly learned, however, that if he wanted to give a fair and objective representation of an event he had to detach himself.

Bradley continued his teaching career in tandem with his radio career and soon found juggling both dissatisfying. He also toyed with graduate school but working both jobs made going back to school unfeasible. By this time, Bradley, who had been appointed as interim vice principal of a local school, had spent six months away from the classroom and wasn't excited about having to return. He couldn't hold on to the vice principal position because he didn't have an advanced degree. Something would have to give.

"I knew I wasn't suited to be a classroom teacher," he says. "I knew I wouldn't get a raise because I didn't have a graduate degree."

He started looking for a job in broadcasting, applying to positions in Detroit and New York. His mentor, Sheilds had moved to New York by this time and had heard about a position at WCBS. Bradley auditioned for the job and got it.

Bradley was one of three black people on staff. One served as the radio technician, another as a janitor. In 1968, Bradley was the only African American on air at the station, or at any New York City radio station.