MICHELE NORRIS, host:
And now for some memories for our co-host Robert Siegel for today, the 40th birthday of this program.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
This is Robert Siegel on leave this week but here in spirit.
I came to NPR as a newscaster in December 1976, and my first shift for a couple of weeks was doing the newscast on this program. There was no booth in those days. I sat at a table with Susan Stamberg and Bob Edwards. She was drawing. We were smoking.
The hour two newscast ran seven minutes, and for me, it was seven minutes of them grimacing or grinning. At the end, when the semi-musical tones known as The Dinks came on, Susan took my copy and graded it. One grade for content and one for posture.
It was the strangest radio program I'd ever imagined and by far the best. And for me, it still is.
It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.