Ed Byron

Ed Byron (born Edward Armour Byron, October 1905 Byron was a native of Newport, Kentucky and attended the University of Cincinnati. He was a newspaper reporter for United Press before he began working in radio.

Byron became a freelancer in 1935. He created the Mr. District Attorney radio program, which was later adapted for television.

Byron was called "a stickler for authenticity". Dunning described him as "a student of crime, with a library of 5,000 books on the subject". Once a week for more than a decade he dressed like a working man and went to dangerous parts of the city, including rough bars, seeking ideas for stories from "thieves, lackeys, and off-duty cops". He learned more about crime by reading five newspapers daily.

He also produced the radio programs Pot o' Gold, Music by Gershwin, and What's My Name?.

During World War II Byron served in the U. S. Army, becoming a major. When he was radio officer for General Douglas MacArthur he was one of the creators of Radio Guinea, which enabled MacArthur to broadcast during the war. and by May 1947 he had become head of the national guild. In the latter role he produced "an unprecedented series of air shows costing about $400,000" to oppose passage of the Taft–Hartley Act.

Byron went to work for NBC in 1960 as an account executive in the special program sales department. The result was Theatre-Five. He married actress Maxine Jennings on May 17, 1940, in Warrenton, Virginia. At the time of his death, he was married to the former Catherine McCune. He had two sons. He died of cancer on November 21, 1964, in Veterans Hospital in West Haven, Connecticut, aged 59.