Ed Bradley of '60 Minutes' dies of leukemia

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/ebradley2002.htm

...Some may not know that Bradley, 61, is also a longtime jazz fan. Before he embarked on a journalism career that has won him a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Paul White Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association, as well as Emmys and a Peabody Award for his reports on "60 Minutes," he was a jazz disc jockey, back in the day, in Philadelphia, making $1.50 an hour spinning the records of John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. That gig, he admits, was done out of joy for the music, while he earned his living by day as a teacher....

..."What I do now as a journalist, when I'm doing a story, I have to do homework. I have to read everything I need to read about that story, so I know what I'm talking about. When I was a disc jockey, I had to do homework to find out about this music that was really new to me. So, I did a lot of listening on my own and exploring people whom I didn't really know a lot about, and discovered some great musicians. I just loved it. It's never stopped. My tastes are very eclectic and catholic in the universal sense. I like music and I see jazz as one category in music. I like all kinds of jazz."...

....

Bradley probably thought, with his career blossoming and his plate full with the success of "60 Minutes" that his days of radio were long gone. Not so.
"I got a phone call one day from Gordon Davis, who was on the board of Jazz at Lincoln Center. At that time, I think he was chairman of the board of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He said, 'I'd like to talk to you about coming to serve as a board member and I'd like you to do a radio show for us.' I'm not fond of boards, but I thought this was a good one. I thought it was some way I could give back to this music that has given me so much. So I said OK. I was so naive, I thought what I would do was show up once a week, bring some records and play them," he said, chuckling. "It turned out to be a very different kind of radio show, but one that I love doing."

 

Sad day, he will be missed... raying: