Posted by chicagomedia.org on November 24, 2009 at 10:41:13:
Carl Kasell signing off from NPR News, not side gig
Longtime newsman to continue work on 'Wait Wait'
Phil Rosenthal
Media
November 24, 2009
Wait, wait ... from NPR News in Washington, Carl Kasell is semi-retiring.
Kasell, who did the first newscast on the first edition of "Morning Edition" for National Public Radio 30 years ago this month, is relinquishing that role, as of Dec. 30.
Fortunately for his fans, however, Kasell, 75, will continue as official judge and scorekeeper of the Chicago Public Radio-produced quiz show, "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" the wry current events program that, his NPR bosses noted in a staff memo Monday, "turned him from a newsman into a rock star."
And, to fully take advantage of that "rock star" status, NPR plans to deploy Kasell as an ambassador of sorts, sending him to stations for fundraising and other causes as needed.
"So I don't know that I'm going to be cutting (the workload) a heck of a lot," Kasell said by phone with the same perfectly understated delivery that's treasured by "Wait Wait" contestants who vie to win a recording by him for their "answering machines."
Kasell, who joined NPR part time 34 years ago and came aboard full time in 1977, did more than merely help launch one of its signature shows with "Morning Edition," where his "From NPR News, I'm Carl Kasell," was prelude to how the world had changed while the nation slept.
As a high school student, Kasell got drama tips from Andy Griffith before Griffith was much of a household name outside his own household. "I never really had a course under him, but I worked with him from time to time," Kasell said.
While still a teenager in 1953, he helped launch the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's campus radio station, WUNC, along with classmate Charles Kuralt, who went on to distinguish himself at CBS News.
"We were on the air four hours a night," Kasell said. "We did a lot of work together. ... We turned out these half-hour plays and vignettes from American history -- he and I both were on them -- and NBC carried them one summer. Must have been pretty good."
And at the suggestion of his station owner he would hire a particularly promising intern at Arlington, Va., all-news station outlet WAVA in the summer of 1976, an energetic 19-year-old student named Katie Couric.
"He said, 'If you need some help this summer, there's a family that I know and their daughter is looking for an internship and she's free labor,' " Kasell recalled. "She was a delight to work with, and she's always been a delight as far as I'm concerned."
Kasell first started working at NPR part time in 1975, while still at WAVA. But with a new owner coming in, he jumped to NPR full time a couple of years later. "When I first went to work there, we ... had maybe 200 people working there and our audience consisted of mainly our families," Kasell said. "But it was beginning to grow. I liked the atmosphere."
NPR's David Sweeney, managing editor for news, and Margaret Low Smith, vice president of programming, told staff that Kasell "has been a teacher and role model for NPR newscasters ... not only because of his skill and experience, but also because of his kindness, integrity and professionalism."
Because he is a pro, one wouldn't necessarily know of the sense of humor that's showcased on "Wait Wait."
But as fortune would have it, "Wait Wait" creator Doug Berman was in the audience at some NPR function where Kasell was asked how early he had to get up to do "Morning Edition." He said five after 1 a.m. Asked why not 1 a.m., Kasell responded that he liked to sleep in.
"Berman liked that joke so much they talked to me the next day about coming on the show, sort of George Fenneman to Groucho Marx (on the old 'You Bet Your Life')," Kasell said.
Radio once was full of shows like that but went through a fallow stretch. NPR, and folks such as Kasell, have been trying to bring the medium back.
"In some respects," Kasell said, "we're going back to my childhood -- certainly with 'Wait Wait.' I grew up with those kinds of programs and I loved them and I really wanted to do them someday. I got lucky and I am on one. Radio was good back then."