The END of NPR (and Garrison Keillor)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Jane Pauley (CBS); Ellen Gamerman (WSJ, June 16, 2016)

For fans of the old-time radio program "A Prairie Home Companion," recent news about Garrison Keillor marks the end of a historic run. This coming Saturday's broadcast from the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles will be his last. He talks with Jane Pauley.

• TICKETS: Last L.A. show, Hollywood Bowl, July 1, 2016
• Hey, G, what's “The News from Lake Wobegon”?

Public Radio’s Existential Crisis

"Car Talk" guys, hosts Ray and Tom Magliozzi, broadcast ~1,200 episodes (NPR)

Ira Glass: Each episode of "This American Life" averages 2.5 million downloads--more than the radio show’s 2.2 million weekly listeners. Launched: 1999 (Larry Busacca/Getty Images).

Functionally autistic, mildly neurotic Garrison "Guy Noir" Keillor (Ann Heisenfelt/AP)

"2 Dope Queens," comedienne hosts Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams, hit #1 on the iTunes podcast chart shortly after their debut. Launched: 2016 (Mindy Tucker)

.

With both its stars and audience aging, NPR is struggling to adapt to the digital age: "The most innovative people are doing podcasts"

"Prairie Home Companion" tops 3 million

Elsewhere on the dial, “Car Talk” ranks near the top of National Public Radio’s ratings even though co-host Tom Magliozzi died at age 77 nearly two years ago—his jovial cackle still echoing in “best of” versions of the show on more than 600 stations nationwide.

Diane Rehm, 2.4 million listeners (S. Voss)

Later this year, Washington talk-show doyenne Diane Rehm, 79, who boasts one of NPR’s 10 largest weekly audiences, will end more than three decades on the air.

Old hosts die hard in public radio. When 73-year-old Garrison Keillor retires as host of “A Prairie Home Companion” next month, he’ll leave more than 3 million weekly listeners loyal to a show that began more than 40 years ago.

• Garrison Keillor [says his show went] from 12 people at the host’s first "A Prairie Home Companion" broadcast, the weekly audience now tops 3 million. Launched: 1974 (David Joles/Minneapolis Star Tribune/Zuma Press).

(Stephen Webster)

“We’ve known that the so-called old guard would eventually have to retire,” said Mike Savage, general manager of public-radio station WBAA in West Lafayette, Indiana, which has aired all three shows for decades. “There’s concern because these programs are well-known and well-loved.” 

Public radio is facing an existential crisis. Some of the biggest radio stars of a generation are exiting the scene while public-radio executives attempt to stem the loss of younger listeners on traditional radio.

At the same time, the business model of NPR—the institution at the center of the public-radio universe—is under threat: It relies primarily on funding from hundreds of local radio stations, but it faces rising competition... More

• Related: 5 Buzzy New Podcasts to Catch
• Tiny company hits king-size diamond jackpot 
• Fireworks and Fido: 4th of July tips for dogs 
• How Pacific Palisades residents are fighting homelessness
• Stanford researchers discover gigantic reservoir
• POT: recreational marijuana makes California's fall ballot