Robert Trout was radio broadcasting's first true anchorman. The concept was purely a practical innovation: the networks' foreign correspondents and highly paid analysts were the stars, yet someone had to introduce their reports, kill time during technical problems, or read late-breaking bulletins as they poured into the studio. Trout was hand-picked for this role as war clouds gathered over Europe in 1938, and gradually—broadcast after broadcast, day after day, crisis after crisis—he turned what had been a simple announcer's chore into a star role, creating the "broadcast news" institution that continues to this day.

Trout came out of local radio in Washington. Assigned to introduce President Roosevelt's "fireside chats," FDR was said to be so impressed with the young announcer's ad-libbing skill, he sometimes delayed the start of his talk a few seconds just to see how Trout would fill the time. The...