spicedogs | 'Prairie Home' to make Abilene debut

By Brian Bethel
Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Jearlyn Steele

Garrison Keillor

COURTESY PHOTO Prairie Home cast members Fred Newman, Tim Russell, Sue Scott and Garrison Keillor.

Cindy Cashdollar

Elana James

About two years ago, John Best, general manager at KACU, Abilene’s public radio station, first visited with radio personality Garrison Keillor about bringing his famous “A Prairie Home Companion” radio program to Abilene.

The show went to Austin instead, but Best said that Abilene was pledged to be at the top of the list — next time.

Next time is now.

Keillor and roughly 30 others — in addition to technical crews from Dallas — are coming this weekend to put on a performance of the program’s old-timey mix of music and skits, which will be broadcast live to the world from Abilene Christian University’s Moody Coliseum.

KACU has its work more than cut out for it in return, though things have actually gotten somewhat easier than they once might have been.

“It used to be that when you wanted ‘Prairie Home’ to come, you had to create a booklet about your city and your radio station,” Best said. “You laid out the reasons why. It was a 30 to 40 page booklet, kind of like your sales pitch. But they don’t do that anymore.”

It will cost close to $100,000 to put on the program, which will be subsequently heard by 4 million public radio stations. Lighting and sound alone accounts for almost $30,000 of that cost.

Sound and lighting equipment is being shipped in from Dallas, as is a Steinway piano. ACU has to pay for hotels, cars, food and more.

Abilene’s customary generosity has helped some.

For instance, people and businesses have come through with sponsorships and furnishing services, said Myra Dean, development director with the radio station.

“Prairie Home” itself pays for a substantial number of components, including airline transport for cast and a satellite truck.

From baskets and buckets placed outside so greetings can pen messages that just might be read on the air, to 24-hour access to copy machines and other items, there are dozens and dozens of small details that must be carefully coordinated before, during and after show time.

“For a small staff like this to pull this off, it’s a very large undertaking,” Best said, requiring, in addition to the resources devoted by the station, substantial volunteer help. About 40 ushers and roughly 30 more volunteers will help make sure everything goes as planned.

But the people the station has worked with so far as been “delightful,” Dean said.

The only thing the program was really picky about is “the piano and the sound,” she said, though some special requests have been made.

The program’s band leader, is about the strictest vegan one can imagine, Best said.

“You would not believe his special menu list,” he said. “It’s incredible”

The troupe will rehearse Friday night, potentially rewriting all night long, Dean said.

“He’s often rewriting right up until the moment the show goes on the air,” Best said of Keillor.

The show requires at least a 2,500-seat capacity auditorium. About 3,800 can see Saturday’s show. The program’s road manager and production man visited the venue, a crucial step in actually getting the performance at the college.

“The (Taylor County) Expo Center was too large, and Moody Coliseum was perfect as far as they were concerned,” Best said.

Guests are coming from Ohio, Arkansas, Atlanta, Ga., New York, Albuquerque, and Tulsa. The show ran a newspaper ad in the Tulsa paper after a show there sold out in eight hours.

Keillor, also a columnist and an author, is considered one of the “founders” of public radio.

“It is one of the most listened-to programs in the country,” said Ron Harden, director of programming/operations at KACU.

The program touches a chord with people because it creates, in certain ways, “the America we wish we had,” Dean said.

From its first broadcast on July 6, 1974, at the Janet Wallace Auditorium at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn., attended by 12 people, the show has grown to 4 million listeners and 580 public radio stations, and abroad on America One and the Armed Forces Networks in Europe and the Far East.

The journey to hosting the program started with Best meeting Keillor at a public radio program director’s conference.

“I introduced myself and said that he should come to the third most conservative city in the nation,” Best quipped.

Keillor, who often lampoons conservatives in his syndicated newspaper columns and (on occasion) on “Prairie Home” itself, chose to go to Austin that year, a performance that featured the late (and famously liberal) columnist Molly Ivins.

Dean said that she tends to view Keillor akin to Will Rogers and Mark Twain.

“They picked on whoever was in office,” she said.

But all signs point toward some potential pre-election shenanigans.

“They asked specifically to come two weeks before the election,” Best said.

SOURCE: Reporter News