AOL’s ‘You’ve Got Mail’ voice, Elwood Edwards, dies at age 74

Elwood Edwards, the dependable of AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail” greeting, has died astatine property 74 aft a agelong illness, according to local Ohio quality presumption WKYC, wherever helium was employed for galore years.

During a 2016 interview, Edwards recounted however helium became the dependable of AOL. His wife, who worked astatine Quantum Computer Services (which aboriginal became AOL), heard that the institution was looking to adhd a dependable to its software. “I’d been an announcer passim my full broadcasting career, and she volunteered me,” Edwards said.

In 1989, Edwards recorded the once-ubiquitous phrase, on with “Welcome,” “Files done,” and “Goodbye” connected a cassette portion for conscionable $200. “It started disconnected arsenic a trial conscionable to spot if it would drawback on, and lo and behold, successful the mid-90s, it had truly caught on.”

As a longtime AOL idiosyncratic (yes, I inactive usage AOL to this day), I’m ashamed to admit that I ne'er knew determination was a idiosyncratic down that iconic dependable — I thought it was computer-generated. Even now, Edwards’ dependable volition proceed to unrecorded connected successful my inbox, which inactive declares, “You’ve Got Mail.”