Most likely, they won't--public radio programmers are some of the most risk-averse people around, perpetually scared of the "If you take off (long-running show), I'll never give you money again" crowd. Back in 1987, when Garrison Kellior went off to Norway with his girl friend for their ill-fated marriage, Minnesota Public Radio made the mistake of continuing to offer repeats of "Prairie Home Companion" along with "Good Evening," the replacement show for "PHC." More stations took the repeats than the new show and "Good Evening" disappeared after one year--at which point Kellior returned to the U.S., took a grant from the American Booksellers Association and reopened "PHC" as "The American Radio Company" in New York, attempting to dump all of the Lake Woebegon folksiness for New Yorker-before-Tina Brown-style sophistication. Turned out the audiences didn't want him to be sophisticated and the drive time NPR news shows became the main pledge drive attractions, so Kellior was doing the Lake Woebegon monologue again after one year and when the American Booksellers Association grant ran out, moved the show back to St. Paul, brought back the "PHC" title and acted as if 1987 to 1993 never happened.
And even though Marian McPartland officially retired from "Piano Jazz" last year, her replacement Jon Weber is not really her replacement--he's hosting a show called "Piano Jazz Rising Stars" while NPR continues to feed reruns of the McPartland shows and will probably will continue to do so long after she dies. Mark Jeffries Saints Spotlight Editor [email protected] On Sat, Jun 9, 2012 at 2:20 AM, Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 5:21 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Same here. I have tried three times now (mostly based on how popular it > > seems to be here) to get into Top Gear, and each time have walked away > > shaking my head and just not getting it. OTOH, I just love Car Talk, and > > will probably keep listening to it in reruns. > > The key difference is tipped in the fact that Car Talk (theoretically) > has a future in permanent repeats. Car Talk is about Ray and Tom > talking, and the fact they talked about cars was simply the method > they used to launch into their conversations. Top Gear is about the > cars. While the hosts/presenters are important, if Mr Clarkston spun > an episode into a different non-car world, I doubt anyone would watch. > > As an aside: I hope every station drops the permanent repeats. It's > for the same reason I get pissed when I see "Classic Peanuts" or "For > Better Or For Worse v2.0" in the comic section: there's someone doing > something new out their, and leaving a perennial in the limited space > just makes a hard job even harder. > > -- > 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 -- 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
