Garrison Keillor, Host

A Prairie Home Companion
Saturday 4pm

Said the Washington Post recently, "Garrison Keillor ... is a distinctive American voice, a humorist and storyteller in the tradition of Mark Twain and Will Rogers, and a writer whose best medium is radio." Keillor, of course, is the host of the weekly variety show, A Prairie Home Companion, which was first broadcast in Minnesota on July 6, 1974.

It was not an auspicious beginning: it attracted an audience of 12 in a hall that seated 400, and more than half of the crowd had left by intermission.
On February 17, 1979, A Prairie Home Companion aired its first national live broadcast, as part of National Public Radio's "Folk Festival USA" series. The broadcast, live from Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota, featured a cast of more than a hundred and a standing-room-only audience of almost 5,000. On May 3, 1980, A Prairie Home Companion began national weekly broadcasts through its newly formed distributor, American Public Radio, which later became Public Radio International.

Each week, the program features:

Original comedy sketches performed by Keillor and cast, and punctuated by sound-effects wizard Tom Keith;

Music by guests like singer Greg Brown, blues singer Kelly Hunt, bluegrass award-winners like Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Rhonda Vincent, and The Rage;

Stories from the town "that time forgot and decades cannot improve" in Keillor's signature monologue, "The News from Lake Wobegon."

Each season features special shows, including the ongoing "Talent Show" contest, tour broadcasts, and theme shows such as the "Joke Show" and the "Polka Show."


URL: http://prairiehome.org/