Bob Edwards takes on new show

Bob Edwards, who recently was removed as host of National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” after nearly a quarter-century, is leaving the network to start a new morning show on satellite radio.

Edwards’ new program will be distributed through the XM Satellite Radio system, a fee-based, commercial-free digital provider. It begins Oct. 4, airing from 8 to 9 a.m. — opposite “Morning Edition.”

“They want to give me a program, so I can continue to host and be heard every day instead of occasionally, as I would have been at NPR,” said Edwards, 57.

“It’s also new,” he said. “It’s like being at NPR when I joined NPR in 1974. It was less than three years old — as old as XM is now. I get to be a pioneer again. How often does someone get that opportunity twice?”

Edwards was host of “Morning Edition” — a daily program offering news, commentary and coverage of arts and sports — from its start in 1979 until April 30, when he was reassigned as an NPR senior correspondent.