Carl Kasell

I was saddened to hear of the death of Carl Kasell, a distinctive voice on NPR’s "Morning Edition" and "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" before retiring in 2014. It was particularly troubling to hear that age 84, he passed away from complications with Alzheimer's, a disease that took my mother’s life and the lives of too many other people in my family.  



Like me, Carl was from North Carolina. As a child, he would play records and perform “commercial breaks”, something I used to do when I was child as well. Unlike myself, Carl transformed that play into a long and fruitful career in radio.  Attending the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Carl worked on the campus radio station, WUNC. He was also a morning DJ and newscaster at WGBR-AM in Goldsboro, NC. He spent a decade at radio station WAVA in Arlington, VA, going from morning anchor to news. 



Carl Kasell joined NPR part-time in 1975 for "Weekend All Things Considered" and then announced the news on the first broadcast of "Morning Edition" in 1979.

In 1998, Carl took on an additional challenge at NPR when he joined the Chicago-based news quiz show "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!", a show that has long been a favorite of mine with a very funny and comprehensive look at the week’s news. A prize for winning quizzes was Carl Kassell’s voice on your answering machine.



"I look out the window in the morning sometimes, and the sun is rising, and the people are going to work. I look at Washington as being that big, sleeping giant, just stretching and waking up, and going about its business. And to know that I'm working in the capital of the most powerful nation in the world — I feel good about that."  
Carl Kassell upon his retirement in 2014  



You did good work, Carl. Rest in peace.