Peter Sagal, host of Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me, at PBA
December 11, 2009
About seventy five Cornerstone members and their guests met for breakfast in Studio A to hear Peter Sagal, host of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. The Wait, Wait cast had taped a live performance at the Cobb Energy Center. Peter was up early on Friday morning to be with us at 7:30 a.m.
Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! is NPR’s weekly hour-long quiz program. Each week, on the radio listeners test their knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what’s real news and what’s made up.
In 1997, Peter joined the panel of a new news quiz show on NPR, co-produced by WBEZ-Chicago, which made its debut on-air in January of 1998. In May of that year, he moved to Chicago to become the host of the show. Since then, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! has become one of the most popular shows on public radio, heard by nearly three million listeners on 520 public radio stations nationwide, and heard by a million people every month via podcast.
In 2008, Wait Wait celebrated its 10th anniversary on the air, and was the recipient of a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.
Peter took us through the history of Wait, Wait and how it eventually found its present format. Basically, the secret is twofold: a live audience and having fun! He believes that if the cast is having fun then the audience will pick up on that and also have fun and then this will transfer to the radio listening audience. The key is for the cast members to be having fun.
