Carl Kasell - Blog Posts

Very sad news to read. Rest in peace Carl Kasell.

Every weekday for more than three decades, his baritone steadied our mornings. Even in moments of chaos and crisis, Carl Kasell brought unflappable authority to the news. But behind that hid a lively sense of humor, revealed to listeners late in his career, when he became the beloved judge and official scorekeeper for Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! NPR’s news quiz show.

Kasell died Tuesday from complications from Alzheimer’s disease in Potomac, Md. He was 84.

He started preparing for the role of newscaster as a child. “I sometimes would hide behind the radio and pretend I was on the air,” he said in 2009, remembering his boyhood in Goldsboro, N.C.

He also used to play with his grandmother’s windup Victrola and her collection of records. “I would sit there sometimes and play those records, and I’d put in commercials between them,” he recalled. “And I would do a newscast just like the guy on the radio did.”

Kasell became a real guy on the radio at age 16, DJ-ing a late-night music show on his local station.

NPR Newscaster Carl Kasell Dies At 84, After A Lifelong Career On-Air

Photo: (Left) Courtesy Carl Kasell; (right) Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images