Minnesota Public Radio has signed playwright, storyteller and humorist (and Minnesota resident) Kevin Kling to a three-year "residency" where he'll be presenting live performances, giving workshops and doing commentaries for the state's public radio network (he already does commentaries for "All Things Considered")--however, what people are actually think is that MPR is grooming Kling to replace Garrison Kellior, who has said that he wants to leave "Prairie Home Companion" and find other things to do on Saturdays by 2013:
http://origin.avclub.com/twincities/articles/could-kevin-kling-be-the-next-garrison-keillor,60541/ For the record, Kling is not related to former MPR CEO and ten-ton public radio gorilla Bill Kling, who is both credited with MPR's great success (and spreading out to running the American Public Media network--Bill also founded PRI, as well, although MPR has no connection with them now other than as a customer--owning stations in other cities and selling a for-profit direct-response division initially created to sell "PHC" merchandise to Target for big bucks) and hated by other non-commercial radio stations in Minnesota, who claim that he wants a monopoly on public radio in Minnesota, and classical music purists, who claim that MPR's classical network is too much 500-Most-Beloved-Classical-Music-Pieces and were angry when MPR bought up competitor WCAL to flip it to the highly-successful modern- leaning AAA KCMP "The Current" (which is currently beating Clear Channel's commercial competitor "Cities 97" in the ratings). The problem here is that Kellior co-owns "PHC" with MPR (who rehabbed part of an abandoned shopping mall in St. Paul to give Kellior and his staff their own offices and studios for "Writers' Almanac" and other programs, both of which so far--"Comedy College" and "Pop Creatures"-- were unsuccessful) and Kellior himself has said that he would prefer that "PHC" be more music-driven after he leaves. The only "PHC" guest host that has appeared since he first started talking retirement was Sara Watkins of the bluegrass group Nickel Creek, who didn't even get a clean shot on fronting the show because Kellior was in the building and did his "News from Lake Woebegon" monologue that night. One wonders that if MPR tries to pressure Kellior to have Kevin Kling fill in for him one week, he might tell them to go screw themselves. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
