Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame

Cedric Adams
Inducted 2002

For thirty years, the best known voice in the Upper Midwest belonged to Cedric Adams.

He was already a successful journalist when he took his first job in radio, a small dramatic role on WCCO Minneapolis/Saint Paul in 1931. He made his first newscast for WCCO in September 1934. He soon became an institution, reporting the news and hosting such programs as "Stairway to Stardom," "The Phillips 66 Talent Parade," and "Dinner at the Adams'," often even broadcasting from his home or his boat on Lake Minnetonka. With the coming of television, he substituted for his friend Arthur Godfrey as host of "Talent Scouts," appeared live from his home on Edward R. Murrow's "Person to Person," and did newscasts for WCCO TV Minneapolis/Saint Paul, all while still writing his daily newspaper column and doing twenty radio shows each week. Pilots claimed that they could see the lights go out all across the region promptly each night after he signed off his 10:00 p.m. newscast. His death, at the age of 58, on February 18, 1961 shocked and saddened his legions of viewers and listeners, for whom his warmth, humor, and gregarious, folksy style personified WCCO's image as "Good Neighbor to the Northwest."