Posted by chicagomedia.org on May 07, 2009 at 10:04:41:
'Wait, wait' radio star calls Oak Park home
May 7, 2009
By JOHN P. HUSTON | Pioneer Press
While he's got some stiff competition from the non-living, Peter Sagal might be Oak Park's most famous current resident.
He is heard by more than 3 million people each week when he hosts National Public Radio's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me," a news-based quiz show. He's also a playwright, essayist, marathoner and Twitter user.
Sagal, his wife and three daughters live in a large Victorian home on Oak Park's north side. Like many others, he and his wife chose Oak Park to raise their family.
"We moved to Oak Park in 1998 when I got this job for NPR," he said. "I said to people we were moving to Chicago and almost everybody said the same thing: 'Oh, you have a kid. You're going to want to live in either Oak Park or Evanston.' I mean, this was repeated to us many, many times."
But the decision was also partly due to financial reasons.
"I have to say - the houses were cheaper," Sagal said. "At that time, the Oak Park real estate market was depressed, and so we could get much more for our money here so we moved in. But we love it."
They moved into their current home in 2003, which is within a minute's walk from four Frank Lloyd Wright houses.
Even though his isn't a prairie-style, Sagal is proud.
"This house was built in 1903," he said. "But what I like to imagine is Mr. Wright walking up and down the sidewalk to his construction sites - in his cloak - and just looking at this big, old Victorian pile and hating it and looking up at it and going, 'Oh, I hate that. I'm going to completely destroy that form of American architecture.' Then moving down the street to make some masterpiece."
As far as his news trivia show goes, Sagal hasn't incorporated any Oak Park stories into the mix yet.
"We came close once with the Lane Bryant controversy about five years ago," he said. "It was a big deal and it actually made the national news under the idea that 'Illinois town doesn't want fat people.' That seemed to be the take ... But of course that turned out not to be exactly true and it didn't quite make the show."
Oak Park just doesn't create enough fodder for humorists to grab onto, it seems.
"The incredibly complicated politics of Oak Park and the Village Board and the township - it makes my head spin," Sagal said. "And I know that I can't use it professionally so my mind wanders. I do sometimes like to pick up the local papers and just read the angry letters. Those are great."
To watch part of the interview with Sagal, log onto John P. Huston's blog, The News Peg, at blogs.pioneerlocal.com/thenewspeg. In addition to the usual line of questioning, Huston turns the tables on Sagal and quizzes him on his local news knowledge.