A two-hour weekly variety show, hosted by Garrison Keillor. It began in 1974 (the year before I was born). I don't remember exactly when I first heard the show; it could have been the late 80s or the early 90s. I believe it would air live on Saturday evenings, but I always listened to it (or part of it) on Sundays at noon. After church, we'd go to my grandparents' house for Sunday dinner (probably the only day of the week I'd ever think of calling lunch "dinner," which any other day if I used the word at all, it would mean supper). I'd go upstairs and listen to the radio in my uncle Wayne's old bedroom. Um... according to Wikipedia, the show went off the air in 1987, and returned in 1993, I guess. I feel like I must have heard it prior to '93, though the idea that I'd heard it prior to '87 seems like a slight stretch. Maybe in the intervening years I heard reruns, or something. Or... I dunno. My memory is totally unreliable, anyway. But it's not important. What matters is that whenever I listened to the show, I always enjoyed it, and now I find it very nostalgic. Of course, it's still going on, producing new episodes, and I pretty much never bother to listen, because it just never occurs to me to turn on the radio, these days. I really should, especially since Keillor's planning to retire in 2016 (though the show will go on with a new host). Also I need to mention that in 2006, there was a movie also called A Prairie Home Companion, which was about a radio program that was clearly a fictionalized version of the real show. (Pretty meta, no?)

Anyway... what to say about the show? Keillor does a monologue, and he's very amusing, with a very dry, old-fashioned sense of humor. The whole show is very old-fashioned. There's folk music, country, blues, gospel, etc. Keillor does some singing himself, as do the show's regular performers, and there are always guest performers. And there are various comedy sketches, including some recurring ones. Most notably, there's "Guy Noir, Private Eye," and "The Lives of the Cowboys." But the centerpiece of the show is "The News from Lake Wobegon," in which Keillor tells a story about his (fictional) hometown in Minnesota. And... there are various other features in each episode. It's just a really fun, comforting show to listen to. A very retro slice of Americana, the kind of radio program that there used to be a lot more of, before TV dominated home entertainment. And I'm really happy that something like this still exists.