NPR's Carl Kasell Delivers Last Newscast

"I'm just saying, 'I'm Carl Kasell, NPR News, Washington,’” went the veteran newsman’s last broadcast for Morning Edition on NPR today. “I'm not saying goodbye, because I'll still be around.” And that he will, continuing on as judge and scorekeeper for quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! even as he casts off the shackles of early morning current events. “The only thing I'm retiring is my alarm clock.”

The 75-year-old entered the news business in the thick of Vietnam and Watergate, and has reported more than his fair share of bad news. “Unfortunately, it’s the disasters that stick out in your mind.” Reporting big breaking news is an art and a science for Kasell—“you’re not making it up, but you are putting it together as you go along”—which appears to have endeared him to listeners. “If you polled 100 listeners and asked them to name one NPR voice,” a producer says, “Carl would come up 9 times out of 10.” (More Carl Kasell stories.)