The voice of National Public Radio was stilled Tuesday, as Carl Kasell died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 84.
NPR announced his death in a blog post.
In 1975, Mr. Kasell joined NPR as a part-time announcer for “Weekend All Things Considered.” By 1979, he joined the staff of a new show, with which he became identified until the end of his career in 2009 — “Morning Edition.”
Bob Edwards, a former host of “Morning Edition” told NPR that he relied on Mr. Kasell most on mornings such as Sept. 11 terror attacks.
“That morning and a thousand others, awful things happened in the morning,” he said.
His other best-known gig at NPR couldn’t have been more different — as judge and scorekeeper of NPR’s news quiz show “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” from 1998.
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“The greatest thing about Carl was anything we came up with, he was game,” host Peter Sagal told NPR. “When we were in Las Vegas, we had him come onstage in a showgirl’s headdress. No matter what we asked him to do — silly voices, or weird stunts; we had him jump out of a cake once to make his entrance onstage — he did it [with] such joy and such dignity.”
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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