A Prairie Home Companion is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from to In , musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed Live from Here and ran until The show is known for its musical guests, especially folk and traditional musicians, tongue-in-cheek radio drama, and relaxed humor.
Keillor's wry storytelling segment, " News from Lake Wobegon ," was the show's best-known feature during his long tenure. Distributed by Minnesota Public Radio 's distribution arm, American Public Media , A Prairie Home Companion was heard on public radio stations in the United States at its peak in spring and reached an audience of four million U. After researching the Grand Ole Opry for an article, Keillor became interested in doing a variety show on the radio.
That show was broadcast from St. Twelve audience members turned out, mostly children. Thompson stayed with the program until and frequently performed on the show until its conclusion. In , the show moved into the World Theater in St. Paul, which Minnesota Public Radio purchased and renovated in and renamed the Fitzgerald Theater in This is the same venue the program used to the end.
A Prairie Home Companion began national distribution in May The show went off the air in , with a "final performance" on June 13, and Keillor married and spent some time abroad during the following two years. For a brief time, the show was replaced—both on the air and in the World Theater—by Good Evening , hosted by Noah Adams , a live variety show designed by ex- Prairie Home and All Things Considered staffers to retain the audience Keillor had cultivated over the years.
The new program featured a broadly similar format to A Prairie Home Companion , with sketches and musical guests reflecting a more New York sensibility, rather than the country and folk music predominant in APHC. Also, while Keillor sang and delivered a regular monologue on American Radio Company , Lake Wobegon was initially downplayed, as he felt it was "cruel" to talk to a Brooklyn audience about life in a small town.
