After a two-year pandemic delay, NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” came to Buffalo Thursday night for a sold-out show at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. Diane and I donned our N95 masks and joined over 3000 other fans of “Wait Wait.”
The award-winning weekly hour-long quiz program tests your knowledge — and sense of humor — 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. Contestants vie for the most coveted prize in all of public radio: a custom-recorded greeting by any of the panel members for their voicemail.
On Thursday night, Hosts Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis led a panel of experts that included Emmy Award-winning VICE News Correspondent and comedian Alzo Slade; best-selling author, nationally syndicated columnist and NPR contributor Amy Dickinson; and Irish actress, comedian and writer Maeve Higgins. Maeve delighted the crowd with her Irish accent and off-beat humor. Amy Dickinson, who lives in Central New York and is very familiar with Buffalo, proved witty commentary on the region. Alzo Slade, who admitted this was his first time visiting Buffalo, commented on the chicken wings and the cold weather.
Peter Sagal, also visiting Buffalo for the first time, made a few snarky remarks (his specialty) about the Buffalo Bills and the cold. Sagal is a runner and the chilly weather forced him to buy warm running clothes in Buffalo. We thank Sagal for stimulating our Economy! Bill Kurtis also admitted to owning a dozen buffalo’s on his ranch.
“Wait Wait” airs typically airs on Saturdays at 11 a.m. and Sundays at 10 a.m. Check your local NPR station and you can hear–and laugh–at what we experienced a couple nights ago. Are you a fan of NPR? GRADE: A
No. I don’t know why I never took it up. I haven’t listened to any live radio in many years. I could listen to it on the podcast though.
Patti, Diane is a huge fan of WAIT WAIT. I enjoy the humor, too. I think you would enjoy WAIT WAIT on the radio or on the podcast.
I’ve tried a few times but have a hard time finding NPR and keeping it tuned in, so no. Sounds like a fun evening. Did you win?
Jeff, Diane picked the winner. It was pretty amazing to see 3000+ fans of WAIT WAIT show up on a cold night to be in the audience for a taping of a radio program!
I’m both a fan and supporter of NPR. I’ve been waking up to “Morning Edition” since 1982 when the person I carpooled to work with would listen to it. An hour of Morning Edition, plus an hour of BBC World News, and I feel as if I’m starting my day with a decent (if often depressing) overview of national and world news. I used to listen to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” every Saturday morning because it followed “Car Talk” which was one of my favorite NPR shows. But when the guys hosting “Car Talk” passed away, I started listening mostly to various book podcasts on Saturday mornings. I suppose I should get back to listening to WWDTM.
Deb, I think you would enjoy the WAIT WAIT episode taped in Buffalo. You’re going to hear the audience laugh…a lot!
from the WAIT WAIT site:
Doug Berman — Benevolent Overlord
Doug Berman is the Peabody Award-winning producer of NPR’s Car Talk and Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! For the last 30 years, he’s been on a one-man crusade to get NPR to lighten up. He was a news director at NPR member stations WFCR in Amherst, Mass., and WBUR in Boston before giving up his legitimate career for this stuff.
Todd, I’m all for NPR and all the news organizations to lighten up a bit. The actual news is soul crushing!
When I used to be in the car Sat mornings I’d listen. Now, no.
Rick, Diane and I listened to today’s WAIT WAIT, DON’T TELL ME! and we saw about an hour of fun and frivolity that didn’t make it into the hour-long broadcast. Very amusing!
I don’t even know what station it’s on!
Bob, you can just go to NPR.org and listen to it on your computer or smart phone.
Sure, if I wanted to hear it! I’ve heard it in the past and it’s not for me!
https://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/
As a fairly regular listener to WAIT. WAIT going back to its debut in 1998 (I would listen to it nearly throughout my run as a database editor/reporter/writer at TV GUIDE), and the slightest of possible acquaintances of Negin Farsad and 3-time panelist, and then host of ASK ME ANOTHER, Ophira Eisenberg, I can be said to dig it. WHYY-FM in Philadelphia in the late ’90s would run WAIT, WAIT on Saturday afternoons at 4p and Harry Shearer’s syndicated LE SHOW on Sundays at 4p, clearly the Humor Ghetto…that continued for some years. (CAR TALK and a few others have had a humorous component.)
ON THE MEDIA, the syndicated MARKETPLACE and its spinoffs, RADIOLAB, the now-vanished syndicated RADIO 360 with Kurt Anderson and a number others have been particular favorites. RADIO TIMES, the long-running interview/talk/call-in show on WHYY, is consistently better than FRESH AIR, its primary national contribution.
Todd, thanks for the NPR programming rundown. I miss Bob Garfield who lost his job with ON THE MEDIA. I still love Brook!
The degree to which NPR/public radio guys were literally or figuratively not keeping it in their pants is more than a drag. Even when they could indeed be good on air, such as Garfield and John Hockenberry, and Tom Ashbrook in his more orotund way. (That PBS managed to lose both of its weeknight late-night hosts within less than a year for similar reasons just was as much a drag, though neither of their series were as good.)
I often listen to NPR on Sirius in my car and if I’m out on Saturday I try to catch Wait Wait. For some unknown reason, I never think to listen to the radio while working in my home office even though I can get Sirius on my iPad. My radio listening habits have changed greatly in recent years. I used to turn on the CBC every morning, but can’t remember the last time I listened to our national station. For most of my life late at night I always listened to the 50,000W clear channel stations such as WGN, WCCO, KSL, KMOX, KOA and the one in Rochester that sometimes blasted in, but no longer bother.
Kent, Diane listens to NPR almost all day long. I listen to NPR occasionally, but most of my radio–Sirius/XM–listening happens in my car as I’m running errands.