"Live From Here," the Saturday night radio musical variety show that American Public Media created as a successor to Garrison Kellior's "A Prairie Home Companion" after Kellior resigned in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct in 2016, is going off the air as part of the letting go of 28 employees at APM's Minnesota Public Radio--APM stated that reduced revenue thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic was responsible:
https://www.startribune.com/live-from-here-successor-to-prairie-home-companion-has-been-canceled/571294402/ Ironically, public radio stations have been enjoying record ratings in many markets as a result of the pandemic, with listeners turning to the NPR news-talkers to get the latest information and then turning to public classical music stations for escape from the news (to the consternation of classical music hardcores who believe that their music should not be considered the replacement for beautiful music and smooth jazz formats). The increased news coverage caused some reduction in pledge drive hours, but APM says most lost revenue comes from corporate underwriting (or as commercial stations call it, ad sales--their numbers are also down thanks to the pandemic) and various ticketed events (you don't get to attend broadcasts of "Live From Here" or "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!" for free). In the case of "Live From Here," the audiences had gone down considerably from Kellior's heights as Chris Thile pursued a more music-oriented and less folky show than Kellior and some stations dropped the series--and when APM ended Kellior's long-standing requirement that the Eastern and Central time zones had to air the show live at 5 p.m. CT, many stations, including WBEZ in Chicago, took advantage and moved the show away from its "Weekend All Things Considered" lead-in (in Chicago, the old 5 p.m. time slot is now filled by two episodes of "The Moth Radio Hour" storytelling fest back-to-back). Oh yes--APM had already given 20 people, including MPR's interim news director, voluntary buyouts a month ago. With "Live" gone, APM's best-known national programming is the business news show "Marketplace" and U.S. rights to that public radio overnight standby the BBC World Service. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/3cb015df-87c5-4647-b1d0-370b78e8d412o%40googlegroups.com.
