Bill Shadel

Birthday: July 31, 1908

Death: January 29, 2005

Willard Franklin "Bill" Shadel was an American news anchor for CBS Radio and ABC Television. He was musically talented and in his early years provided music for silent movies. He covered D-Day for CBS Radio during World War II. Out of more than 500 U.S. reporters in Europe, Shadel was one of 28 who was present to give firsthand reports on the D-Day landings. Tapes of his wartime broadcasts are still used in journalism schools around the country. He worked with Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid and Howard K. Smith at CBS. He and Murrow were the first reporters to see the concentration camp at Buchenwald on April 12, 1945, the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. He was the first host of “Face the Nation” and after helping to launch “Face the Nation,” he became anchor of the ABC evening news. This role landed him the job of moderator for the third presidential debate between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960. He later became a University of Washington communications professor.