Bob Edwards, the longtime host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” has died. He was 76.

The death of the longtime radio personality was announced Monday by NPR, where he spent 24 years as a morning show host and was the baritone voice who told many Americans what had happened while they slept.We are saddened to hear that Bob Edwards has passed away,” NPR president and CEO John Lansing said in a statement. “In 1979, in what would become a career-defining moment, he helped NPR launch the morning newsmagazine ‘Morning Edition.’ He continued to be the voice that NPR listeners started their day with for another 24 and a half years as host of ‘Morning Edition.'”

Edwards died Saturday, the public radio organization confirmed in an email to USA TODAY Monday. A cause of death was not givenHe became co-host of “All Things Considered” with Susan Stamberg in 1974 shortly after joining NPR, and was the founding anchor of “Morning Edition” in 1979. “His was the voice we woke up to,” Stamberg said in a statement.

For 12 years, he had regular conversations with veteran sportscaster Red Barber, which led to Edwards’ book, “Friday with Red: A Radio Friendship.”