I still listen to the weekend show if I'm driving, and looked into tickets for the live show when it was going to be broadcast from somewhere out here in the West, but the ticket were astronomical, over $100 per person for cheap seats.

PRI, Public Radio International, will no longer be distributing it to stations. The "This American Life" staff will now be doing that, with assistance from Public Radio Exchange.

But on that note, though, "Tell Me More," another NPR show, **did** get cancelled because of budget reasons, and that is a damn shame.

The show goes on WAYYY too long, the skits aren't funny, the music is tedious, and (you're right) the former success of the show has gone to Keillor's head. If I switch on the car radio and it's on, the radio goes to another station or off altogether. The show has long, long passed its sell-by date.

PHC has somehow gained cult status, and I've never really understood why.

If I may add another show to your list, I like Vinyl Cafe, which may or may not be on your NPR affiliate. It's from the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and the format is a little like PHC, only not as long and more entertaining. Also, I've discovered some new musicians who I never would have heard of otherwise, which is always cool.

precious is right. and he doesn't know when to stop. time to retire, garrison...

NT

I've said before that A Prairie Home Companion, more than any other radio broadcast, actually makes me a little embarrassed to be a liberal. It's hopelessly pretentious--mental cotton candy for intellectual posers.

The standalone musical acts are generally terrific, but the skits are so terrible and, as you note, Keillor murders every song he sings.

And it's a shame, because Keillor's writing is so strong, and I usually love his Writer's Almanack when I'm able to catch it.

I wish Garrison would come through with his declaration to retire.

since I live in Minnesota and once met Keillor, way way back before PHC hit the big time. I always used to listen to his morning program on the car radio in the early '70s when he was just getting his Lake Wobegone routine started. This show was initially broadcast from a college FM station, KSJR, which, with KSJN, became Minnesota Public Radio, one of the first really successful local public radio stations. PHC really struck a chord with people who are from here - I actually had a couple of old great uncles who were exactly Lake Wobegone's Norwegian bachelor farmers. Unfortunately, though, there's only so much material one can wring out of any situation, and I'd tend to agree that maybe it's time to retire the show. He's not much of a singer, but he's still a very good, very funny writer, so I hope he keeps writing.

after they fell through the ice until the EPA came along and told them that the cars were leaching all kinds of nasty chemicals into the lake.

And I had a Swedish bachelor farmer uncle who was much like his Norwegian counterparts in Minnesota. May he RIP with his coffee cup in his hand.

I loved Keilor back in the '80s and early '90s, but I think that the show is a little stale now.

I saw the show live twice in those days.

I've met him several times and he does have a big ego and is pretentious. Of course, it is possible he is shy offstage and it is a defense mechanism.

Tim Russell is a great guy. I used to work with him. Tim is kind of a quiet guy when not performing.

he just seemed very quiet and reserved and didn't have much to say. I couldn't get much of an impression one way or another. It could be that success has assholified him; that happens a lot.

I'm a better singer than Keillor and I'm not very good.

Keillor's a great orator and a great writer. However, I will admit a great singer he is not. And the whole thing where he sings on and on for 10 minutes about whatever city they happen to be performing in is truly dreadful. If I could fast forward through those, I would.

The skits can be hokey as all get-out, but I still happen to laugh at a fair amount of their material. And News from Lake Wobegon would probably be horribly boring if it were read by anyone other than Keillor himself. His narrative voice draws me in to what otherwise would be very dry and uninteresting material.

I will say that I probably wouldn't listen to it had I not been raised on it. Growing up, a good amount of my family's hour and a half weekend car trips to see my grandparents would be filled up with it, whether we'd be traveling on Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons (when they were rebroadcast). So listening to it now brings back old memories.

In terms of Keillor being considered something of a liberal icon, I've got no problem with that. The dude's an American treasure. Give him any day over someone like Bill Maher's schtick if we need some figure to represent a liberal point of view.

We used to hear it on late night car drives and it was wonderful to have that actual radio show with stories and running gags, warm and not cynical, as an accompaniment. I don't listen a lot any more and I wasn't filled with warmth the one time I met him, but as as writer who likes to weave stories, I think he's a fine weaver. Singing? No. But it's like putting up with the uncle with more enthusiasm than talent.

(I just love that word. I don't know why.)

I thought he passed years ago.

I hate it when that happens.

Garrison's clearly not above average anymore.

Don't get me started with some of the ATC hosts. This American Life and late night Joe Frank after Harry Shearer's "Le Show" is all I'll do now.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is on, then Whadya Know, then Car Talk on our station. Still not used to that line up.

It became an easier decision to play re-runs than produce the live stuff for Click and Clack. I think I'm right on this, but I'll check.

The concept of national public radio is NOTHING like it was, and more unlistenable these days. That doesn't mean I won't support it. It just has gotten SO far away from an objective media reporting the news, which is what really turned me off.

I have to go to the internet or Al Jazeera for news, NOT NPR.

I hear ya....

Shark-jumping is when the writers for a long-running show, typically a sitcom, have run out of ideas and throw in some really absurd situation in an attempt to give the show new life, but end up making the whole thing look desperate and silly. Keillor hasn't done that with PHC - he's just doing mostly the same shtick over and over. There's not much left after 40 years of the same routine, unfortunately. Maybe Keillor could do a shark-jump and have the entire population of Lake Wobegon wiped out by an epidemic of ebola or an accidental nuclear incident, and then just hang up the whole show and retire.