Radio

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.”