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Local 'All Things Considered' host Alex Crichton signs off after 42 years at WXXI

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED is heard across hundreds of local stations, hitting your radio on the drive home or on your smart speaker while you're cooking dinner. And every evening, your local station's hosts are part of this team, bringing the national news home to you.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

ALEX CRICHTON, BYLINE: This is WXXI News. I'm Alex Crichton. Good afternoon. Forty-seven degrees, a little sun downtown. The head...

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Well, tonight, people in the Rochester area in New York are hearing Alex Crichton's last broadcast as the ALL THINGS CONSIDERED host for WXXI. He has been there ever since the station joined the NPR network back in the 1980s.

CRICHTON: We were set to sign on on July 2, 1984. So here I was - my new station, my new job - had no idea what the heck I was doing.

CHANG: Of the 45 years that Crichton spent on radio, 42 were at WXXI.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

CRICHTON: Governor Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Bruno, and Assembly Speaker...

CHANG: He was a real lover of radio, covering sports, producing news and music programs throughout his four-decade-long career. Then he began hosting this program alongside us in 2012.

SUMMERS: Looking ahead to life after retirement, he had this to say.

CRICHTON: I'm going to miss the routine of having a job and getting into it every morning, but I'm worn out.

SUMMERS: Ultimately, though, he'll miss you, the people tuning in every day.

CRICHTON: I'm going to miss the listeners, and thanks for everything. It's been a great ride, and here we go.

CHANG: Here we go. Alex Crichton signed on for the last time as a local host for WXXI this afternoon with our broadcast starting at 4 p.m. Eastern.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

CRICHTON: Here on FM 105.9 and AM 1370. We're also online at wxxi.org. Alex Crichton along. It's Friday, finally.

SUMMERS: And with that, we congratulate the work and contribution of Alex Crichton and wish him a happy retirement from the hosts and all of the listeners of the show.

CHANG: Congrats, Alex. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Corrected: March 3, 2026 at 1:17 PM EST
An earlier headline misspelled Alex Crichton's last name as Chrichton.
Gabriel J. Sánchez
Gabriel J. Sánchez is a producer for NPR's All Things Considered. Sánchez identifies stories, books guests, and produces what you hear on air. Sánchez also directs All Things Considered on Saturdays and Sundays.