Click here for Mobile Site: http://m.wcco.com
  • Font Size    

Featured Entertainment Stories

52nd Annual Grammy Awards
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

'Prairie Home Companion' Celebrates 35 Years

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   
Jul 4, 2009 12:52 pm US/Central

'Prairie Home Companion' Celebrates 35 Years

AVON, Minn. (AP) ― "A Prairie Home Companion" is celebrating its 35th anniversary with a Saturday Independence Day broadcast from Avon -- part of the central Minnesota region that inspired the fictional town of Lake Wobegon.

Garrison Keillor says he plans a grass-roots show, with longtime special effects man Tom Keith, the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, the Lake Wobegon Brass Band, the St. John's Boys' Choir and singer Andra Suchy.

Keillor's public radio variety show debuted on July 6, 1974. That show, broadcast live at Macalester College in St. Paul, was watched by about a dozen people. Now, "A Prairie Home Companion" is heard on nearly 600 public radio stations nationwide, attracting more than 4.3 million listeners a week.

--------

According to the show's website, "A Prairie Home Companion" began in July 6, 1974 at Janet Wallace Auditorium at Macalester College in Saint Paul.  It cost $1 to attend.

(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.