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WEMU50: Presenting NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! October 1, 2015

YPSILANTI:89.1 WEMU, Eastern Michigan University’s public radio station, presents its 50th anniversary signature event, a live recording of NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Thursday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. in Hill Auditorium on the University of Michigan campus.  The performance is co-presented by the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.

Known for its wacky and whip-smart approach to the week's news and newsmakers, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! bills itself as “the oddly informative news quiz from NPR.”
 
During each fast-paced, irreverent show, host Peter Sagal leads what might be characterized as the news Olympics. Callers, panelists, and guests compete by answering questions about the week's events, identifying impersonations, filling in the blanks at lightning speed, sniffing out fake news items, and deciphering limericks. Listeners vie for a chance to win the most coveted prize in radio: having Scorekeeper Emeritus Carl Kasell record the outgoing message on their home answering machine.

The program, which has nearly four million listeners nationwide, airs each Saturday at 10:00 a.m. on WEMU.

 
“WEMU has always had a special bond with Wait Wait,” said General Manager, Molly Motherwell.  “We hosted Peter Sagal’s very first station visit in 2005, have  presented the live show three times, and have taken a busload of donors to the Chicago live show for the last four years.  We couldn’t be more thrilled that they are coming to celebrate our 50th anniversary with us in October.”
 
Ticket information is available through WEMU’s website at wemu.org.  A special $300 donation to WEMU includes two prime seats to the performance plus an exclusive post-show reception with the cast, crew, and WEMU air personalities.

Signing on air for the first time on December 8, 1965, WEMU is a listener-supported, NPR affiliate with a format of local news, jazz, and blues in addition to NPR news, information, and cultural programming.  The station broadcasts to an eight county area that includes all or part of Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Livingston, Jackson, Lenawee, Monroe, and Lucas (OH), webcasts live twenty four hours a day at wemu.org, and has a free, downloadable app for iPhone and Android.
 
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Mary Motherwell, known as Molly, joined the WEMU staff in November of 1991 as Marketing and Development Director after stints in public relations at Domino’s Pizza International, and as an account executive first at the old Ypsilanti Press and then the former WIQB-FM. In December 2010, upon his retirement, she succeeded Arthur Timko as General Manager, only the third GM in WEMU’s 57 year history.