‘Prairie Home Companion’ to Stay in Minn.
"Features"12/30/2005
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” won’t be permanently leaving its St. Paul home after all.
The humorist said he expects to do about a dozen shows during the 2006-07 season from the Fitzgerald Theater, the longtime base of the public radio program.
The rest of the season’s shows will air from the road, including a return to the Minnesota State Fair, he said.
Keillor said last month that the show was looking for a new home.
But in the end, he said, it was an impulsive decision to stay at the Fitzgerald, based partly on people he met at coffee shops or parties.
“They said it would be terrible if the show were not in St. Paul,” Keillor told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I listen to people who tug at my sleeve.”
The program had been in negotiations to do its coming New Year’s Eve show in New York, he said, but that became too complicated. A deal to hold it at the Fitzgerald was worked out in 25 minutes. “The point was not lost on me,” he said.
St. Paul has been the show’s permanent home since 1992, when Keillor returned from a five-year absence. “Prairie Home” started broadcasting from the Fitzgerald, then known as the World, in 1978.