Interview with Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion

Interviewer: "Joining us for "Sound Burst' is Garrison Keillor. Garrison, host of 'A Prairie Home Companion,' and poet laureate of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. Welcome to 'Sound Burst,' Garrison." Keillor: "Well, thank you, Tom." Interviewer: "I say poet laureate because you say you've been writing this morning." Keillor: "I've been writing this morning but actually the poet laureate of Lake Wobegon is Margaret Haskins Durber. I wouldn't take it away from her. And it's not an enviable position, either." Interviewer: "During this one week, we are participating in our spring fundraising campaign and we're delighted to have you as a part of that, because the 'Prairie Home Companion' is one of the programs that we're very pleased to utilize some of the funds that are contributed to us during this time to purchase." Keillor: "Well I'm glad that you enjoy it. I'm a little bit surprised, I was never sure that this show would export beyond the borders of Minnesota. But I guess there are a lot of Minnesotans who've moved out to Oregon is the only thing I can think about that." Interviewer: "I think there are a lot of folks in Oregon who enjoy the music. You have a very high quality of performance on the show." Keillor: "Well, we try, we try from week to week. Of course

it's a live radio show, so it's not like the greatest hits or anything like that. We stand up in front of the microphones live, and that's 5 o'clock our time, it's 3 o'clock out there on the coast. And whatever comes out is what people hear." Interviewer: "Well they have a lot of fun with it every week. The first year that the program was on the air it was fully underwritten by your sponsor, Buttermilk Biscuits, and, however, due to the increase of satellite costs and everything else, we understand it's going to cost us here in Oregon about thirteen hundred dollars to keep that program on the air. And so a major part of that will have to come from this 'Sound Burst' campaign that we're undertaking now." Keillor: "Well I'm not surprised, I'm not surprised. Public radio, as you know all around the country is, well, it's sort of

trembling nowadays. A lot of stations have started up, the seed was the seed was sown with, with government money, state and some federal and now we appear to be losing some of that in the near future. And there really is just one way for us to turn, And that is toward the people who listen to public radio and. The Number in Portland for people who hear station KOAP FM is 229-3111. I'm not sure if that came through on the phone so I'll say it again, it's 229-3111. And then you have a statewide number which is good, for people in Corvallis or anywhere in Oregon outside of Portland and it's an 800 number. I guess you would dial 1, then (800) 452-0480.

Let me give you that again - it's a toll free number: 1(800) 452-0480. toll free number 1 800 4 5 2 0 4 8 0. Interviewer: "Thank you, Garrison. Do you conduct fundraising campaigns like this at Minnesota Public Radio?" Keillor: "We do, we have different phone numbers [laughter] which have remained the same now for I think about 10 years. So over 10 years of doing our membership and fundraising campaigns on the air out here we've said these numbers, I would guess, about 156,000 times. So that they're permanently embedded and engraved in people's minds. Keep repeating those phone numbers - that's my suggestion to you for a successful fundraising week. Don't be ashamed of it [laughter]."

Interviewer: "Must be very difficult for you to say a different one." Keillor: "Well it's confusing, isn't it?" Interviewer: "Yes, we're we're suggesting a, of course, we're pleased to have any contributions that our listeners wish to make which but we are suggesting a $25 pledge for an individual and $35 for a family, and then we have the sustaining level at $60 which works out to $5 a month, and and a $100 patron level. On the last two we have a special record album premium. The premium that our volunteers will tell about. Are those the kinds of contributions you find there?" Keillor: "Yes, we find them in all amounts, and I think contributions in any amount are to be, are to be welcomed. And I think that people who are just starting to contribute to public radio sometimes come in at a lower level of contribution and then keep raising it from there at whatever they can afford, maybe $100.

if there's some rain and the crops come in and a $35 would be the, uh, would be the drought membership." Interviewer: "All of our contributors receive monthly copies of our program guide which we call 'The Hungry Eye,' and it contains all of our radio listings as well as the listings for the television. And in this month's edition, the May edition of 'The Hungry Eye,' we have the the map of Lake Wobegon and your inimitable descriptions of the locale there." Keillor: "Well that map is now a few years old, but nothing changes very fast in that town." Interviewer: "You haven't, you haven't put up the Prairie Dale edition yet?" Keillor: "No, the the housing development has not gone in, no high rises. None are expected, either." Interviewer: "Well, we expect to continue the 'Prairie Home Companion' each Saturday afternoon at 3:00 o'clock with your help, and a little help from Minnesota Public

Radio, and a lot of help from our listeners through their contributions. And I'll take your advice and give the numbers again." Keillor: "OK." Interviewer: "229-3111 in the Portland metropolitan area, 229-3111, and elsewhere throughout the state of Oregon wherever you're listening to OPB/PBS radio 1 (800) 452-0480. 1 (800) 452-0480." Keillor: "You say them a lot better than I do." Interviewer: [laughter] "I doubt that very much." Keillor: "Well, listen, I admire you for carrying our show on Saturdays. It's very brave of you; and I especially admire your program schedule. I appear on Saturdays. You know, commercial radio, to my mind, the secret of success in commercial radio is trying to come up with one sound and sort of cranking it out, you know, 24 hours a day. But one of the,

the beauty part of public radio is the variety and the 'unlike' things that you find in public radio and you really do it on Saturdays with the opera, followed by 'A Prairie Home Companion,' and followed by 'All Things Considered.' Now there are three very type different shows." Interviewer: "And yet, I know that that some of the listeners, our classical listeners, really surprised us when we started carrying the program because they were some of the ones who must be those misplaced Midwesterners or something, because they started talking about it. And there was a lot of word of mouth. And then we've run some advertising and as I say we do the spread in the in the program guide." Keillor: "Well, it's word of mouth and it's also a sort of hand to mouth from time to time, but I hope people will rally around the stations out there in Oregon.

Some of my fondest memories of Oregon was coming down the coast on that train from Seattle down to San Francisco and through the Cascades and through Portland. And, whatever happens to Amtrak, I hope it doesn't happen to public broadcasting, that's all I can say." Interviewer: "Yes, well let's not not even put those two in the same paragraph." Keillor: "No, I don't think so, I think public radio is run a little bit differently." Interviewer: "Garrison, thank you so much for participating with us during 'Sound Burst.' Do you feel up to giving the numbers one more time?" Keillor: "You betcha, I've got 'em right here. The number in the metropolitan Portland area, people who listen to station KOAP FM is 229-3111. 229-3111, and the toll-free state- wide phone number, good anywhere in Oregon outside of Portland, is an 800 number: 1 (800) 452-0480."

Interviewer: "Thank you Garrison, we'll let you get back to your typewriter. Is it this week's script of 'Prairie Home Companion?'" Keillor: "I'm working on it at the last minute. I never have learned my lesson." Interviewer: "All that, what they say, you work best under pressure." Keillor: "I hope so." Interviewer: "Thank you again." Keillor: "Thank you, Tom. Good luck now." Interviewer: "OK - let me just... make sure we have that."