Car hits NPR host Peter Sagal

Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me host Peter Sagal is recovering from injuries he received when a car struck him Wednesday (Aug. 11) on his bicycle at an intersection in suburban Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reports. Sagal was hospitalized with minor injuries. He described the aftermath of the accident in a blog post: "I tried to sit up and an invisible angry dwarf with a knife stabbed me in the back. So I enjoyed a relaxing scream and lay back down, carefully, and they put me on the backboard with the neck brace and put me in the ambulance and I stared at a series of changing ceilings until I got the emergency room at a nearby hospital." He added, "At any rate, the news is that I’ll be fine, but in pain for a while, and that I am indeed very lucky." Program production won't be affected as Sagal is on vacation.

Pubcasting execs heading to Aspen to ponder Communications and Society

Several public broadcasting system leaders are participating in next week's (Aug. 15-18) 2010 FOCAS (Forum on Communications and Society) at the Aspen Institute. Meeting to discuss "News Cities: The Next Generation of Healthy Informed Communities," will be government officials, media and business executives, civic leaders and user representatives. Pubcasters include CPB President Pat Harrison, PBS President Paula Kerger, American Public Media President Bill Kling, Native Public Media Executive Director Loris Ann Taylor and NPR President Vivian Schiller. Click here to register as an observer -- for $1,000.

Whad'ya Know? celebrates 25 years on public radio

"The audience brings the show. . . . I am the vessel," says public radio host and humorist Michael Feldman in this local TV news feature on the 25th anniversary celebration of Whad'ya Know?, the weekly comedy and quiz show from Wisconsin Public Radio. "They fill me--half-full or half-empty--that's hard to say," he quips with typical self-deprecation. In the run-up to tomorrow night's Silver Jubilee Celebration at Madison's Wisconsin Union Theater, Feldman has been getting lots of media coverage. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports colorful anecdotes about its native pubradio star's early career--including a tug-of-war with a female co-host for control over the microphone. Feldman has no plans to retire and he's not grooming a successor, according to the Capital Times. “I am taking it with me....I don’t know what world there is after this one, but there’s gonna be a Whad’ya Know? with Michael Feldman in it.” The Jubilee show, to be recorded for this week's national broadcast via Public Radio International, will feature musical guest Robbie Fulks, the alt-country star with a big sense of humor.

Virginia station pairs with university for civic engagement

Virginia's WHRO-TV/WHRV-FM and Old Dominion University are partnering on civic engagement opportunities, the university announced today (Aug. 12). Cathy Lewis, host of HearSay with Cathy Lewis on 89.5 WHRV-FM, will work with the university's new Office for Community Engagement on projects such as a series of symposia where business, community, and government leaders and faculty experts and researchers identify challenges to the region and collaborate on potential solutions. "That initiative will utilize WHRO's broadcasting and video streaming capabilities to further the discussion and engage a broader audience," the university said in a statement. The station is licensed to a group of 18 local school systems and offers services to the schools including professional development for teachers.