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LEILA FADEL, HOST:
No, it's not the weekend yet, but we do have some weekend news. The latest batch of inductees to the Radio Hall of Fame are out, including NPR's very own Scott Simon, who started saying this in 1985.
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SCOTT SIMON, BYLINE: This is Weekend Edition from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Before he hosted Weekend Edition, Scott started with NPR in 1977 as our Chicago bureau chief. Scott was interviewed by LAist last year and described what he values in the stories he tells.
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SIMON: I welcome those stories that can sometimes upset preconceptions, and I always want to be open to that. I don't want to go into a story thinking this is what we know, this is what we're going to get, and come out of there with it.
MARTIN: Scott's reporting has taken him to all 50 states and to five continents and an off-the-record conversation with the late President Jimmy Carter about UFOs. Here's how Scott told it.
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SIMON: Mr. President, is there anything we should know? The president chuckled and replied, no. But remember, he added, a UFO is simply something we haven't identified. There are dozens of unexplained incursions of our airspace every year. But if there were other civilizations out there, I asked, would the government have to keep it a secret so we wouldn't panic or feel worthless? The way I see it, said Jimmy Carter, there's nothing to fear. If there is life out there, we're still all a part of the same master plan. God's hands are big enough to hold us both.
FADEL: Scott has said what's so special about the work we all do at NPR is that it builds a community of listeners across the country.
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SIMON: It is never lost on me this is a very intimate thing that we do. You know, we're with people in kitchens, and we slip under doors and through keyholes, in a sense. And we accompany people on drives to work and drives to school. There is a responsibility in this. But there's also a wonderful obligation for companionship that I think we have a right to say that this is something we've been able to - a relationship we've really been able to establish with millions of Americans across the country. And I'm just very blessed to have had so much of my life devoted toward it.
FADEL: This year's inductees, alongside Scott, include former MTV VJ Martha Quinn and rocker Alice Cooper, who are now both radio hosts.
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ALICE COOPER: (Singing) So give the radio. Yeah, give the radio back. Yeah, give the radio back. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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