Saturday, July 23, 2005

PHC

What am I thinking of this morning? What odd scraps of information are floating about in my mind? I’m on my second cup of coffee so all of that information should soon be coalescing into something worth writing about.

OK. What comes to mind is Garrison Keillor. And with his name, Prairie Home Companion. They are synonymous of course. I have been a fan of Mr. Keillor for many years and that tells you that I have been listening to public radio for just as many years. http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/

I think that Prairie Home Companion is on for an hour and a half, maybe more? Imagine a radio variety show being broadcast in the 21st century…it just doesn’t compute! And I suppose that the fan base for the show is growing grayer every day.

The reason I’m not sure how long the show runs is because I rarely heard the whole show. When I traveled for a living, I would always look for the local NPR station in each city I visited and then lock the rental car radio onto it. And I would have no idea of the program schedule for that city, so I would listen to whatever came along and I was always happy to hear Mr. Keillor’s distinctive voice.

Why PBS? Because I could depend on it to be the same in every city I visited. Some cities had their own local shows as well and they were usually great. KANU, 91.5 in Lawrence, Kansas is a good example. They had two shows, Right Between the Ears and Trail Mix, that were simply outstanding. If I was traveling into KC on a Sunday, I knew that my Southwest flight would get me into town just in time to hear Trail Mix.

http://www.rightbetweentheears.org/
http://kpr.ku.edu/trailmix.shtml

And finally, try listening to another of Mr. Keillor’s projects, Writer’s Almanac. It’s short and very informative…great stuff! “The Writer's Almanac®, a daily program of poetry and history hosted by Garrison Keillor, can be heard each day on public radio stations throughout the country” http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

OK, that's the best that two cups of coffee will do...if it wasn't satisfactory, you're on your own.

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