Radio was a wonder, oh, say seventy years ago, before everyone
had one or more television sets in the household. Radio, you see, brought
voice, and story into our lives.
While I am not old enough to remember an age before television, I
did grow up with old radio shows. Our local public radio affiliate would
broadcast the old comedy and mystery shows each week. CBS Mystery theatre
always had me on the edge of my seat on the ride home from dance class. Likewise, the Shadow raised questions and
eyebrows. Tuesday night meant comedy shows, like Fibber Maggie and Molly, or
The Bickersons.
However, from the age of eleven, I was glued to the radio on
Saturday nights when Minnesota public radio would broadcast A Prairie Home
Companion. For two hours each week, audiences tuned in to a real old-fashioned
live broadcast, complete with musicians, sound effects, skits, singers, and of
course Tales from Lake Woebegone. Comedy, mystery, drama, satire, conversation,
all combined on that stage to make the world seem a bit smaller, and for a
moment, suspended in time.
In our imaginations, we the audience, could visualize each
performer, and each character at the mic. Our minds would envision the roads
and houses that filled Garrison Keillor’s “hometown”.
We could almost smell the rhubarb pie.
Radio was the bard. It told us stories, brought us news,
delighted us and humbled us with world events.
Radio allowed us to share our grief over Pearl Harbor, JFK’s
assassination, and even 911.
Storytellers and radio fans everywhere, shed a tear as we
listened to Garrison Keillor say good-bye this past week. For forty two years,
he has drawn American audiences together, and has given us a glimpse of
ourselves, through the spyglass of that Norwegian hamlet where~well, you know.
No doubt the velvet voiced narrator will find new adventures.
Whether it be in the performance halls that dot the midwest, or the bookstores
that offer his memoirs, his own story will continue to move forward. For many
of us, though, the best adventures came from Lake Woebegone, where “all
the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are
above average.”
