Garrison Keillor started out on MPR in the days before Morning Edition as the morning personality. He would play the most diverse assortment of music that one could want to hear on the air. For variety, I guess, he started talking on air to his engineer Tom Keith aka Jim Ed Pool. He had a great bunch of 'sponsors;' The Fear Mongers Shop, Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery, Bertha's Kitty Botique in the Dale's.(Mon-Dale, Chip & Dale) The real Dale's in the Twin Cities are Southdale, Brookdale, Rosedale, Ridgedale. It was fun to wake up to.

On PHC back in those days the news from Lake Woebegone lasted just a few minutes. Keillor would report the news, but it was not his home town back then. The acts were a mix of locals and whoever was in town to perform at the Coffeehouse Extempore or other local venues. Performers at a folk festival would leave for a while late Sat. afternoon & say in some quizzical way that they were off to be on some radio show. The only thing Keillor sang was Hello Love. Advance ticket sales meant getting to O'Shaunessy Auditorium an hour early and listening to the sound checks. The house band was the Powdermilk Biscuit Band. There were no mini dramas. Knowing the show & the lore of the show was something different. I could not get my family interested at all.

Things changed gradually. A satellite up link made a national audience possible. The history of Lake Woebegone was retold. Keillor was now a native son. The News got longer, but was wonderfully funny. The budget grew, the show could bring its own acts in. Playlets got added. Advance ticket purchases became essential, no more showing up an hour before showtime.

For my money, the best of the shows were in the early 80's just after the show went national. The worst was just before he quit. I could not stand Buster the Show Dog. Right now, I do like Guy Noir, but it's beginning to get old. If all the dramas were dropped, I don't think I'd miss them. I sure don't listen a religiously as I used to, but more now then I had for a while.

Some of his humor is too much laughing at rather than laughing with. A sketch he did on Sacred Harp singing a few years ago is one that comes to my mind most especially. The News tends to avoid this & still sounds like it has affection for the people. He went through a stage of lots of toilet jokes, but I haven't noticed them in a while.

One of the gradual changes is that somehow the show became to more & more about Keillor. In the early years we knew almost nothing about his personal life. He did the Lutherans and the Bible so well we thought maybe he was a Preacher's Kid. Then he got big enough that bios were in the newspaper, but he brought more of his personal life into the show as well. He goes through stages of going on about things he should keep to himself. His marriage advice was obviously off the mark or something he failed to listen to. I did not like hearing about the wonders of his new baby & chid rearing.

I understand the Danish woman he married had been an exchange student in High School & they re-met at a reunion. Whatever else crappy was involved there she was not a much younger woman.

I don't entirely mind his singing, but that's not his forte & I think he does it too much. It seemed to me a couple of weeks ago, he managed to intrude himself into almost every act. I wish he still had some of the inexpensive up & coming acts instead of so many already established ones.

Just some observation by a former Minnesotan.