Despite the advent of social media, including YouTube and podcasts, live radio show events continue to have devotees across the country.
After 41 years, Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion is carried by approximately 700 radio stations across the country, attracts 4 million listeners and, in a busy summer, will take its show to 27 U.S. cities between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
“In terms of public radio events, Prairie Home was the first of its kind,” said Albert Webster, stage and tour manager of Prairie Home Productions, based in St. Paul, Minn. “We wouldn’t keep doing this if it wasn’t successful, and these types of touring shows have continued to grow.”
What many venues have discovered is live broadcasted radio shows attract audiences that may not otherwise come to smaller theaters and mid-size arenas.
“We bring in a different demographic, and venues see this as a big advantage,” Webster said. “It’s also interesting to see that a theater we’ve been in a few times over the last decade is now hosting similar live broadcasted shows.”
Not only does Prairie Home’s touring live radio broadcast bring fans face-to-face with the show’s stars and production, but traveling helps generate new material for the show.
As part of the show, Keillor conducts extensive research on the areas he’s broadcasting from and provides information as part of his show to give listeners a snapshot of the town and an in-depth feel of the location.
“This is one way Garrison brings interest, a theme, new people and new material to the show,” Webster said. “It’s a good way to add variety after 40 years.”
Another advantage to bringing a live broadcast on the road is to help endorse public radio.
“This is one way we provide a benefit to public radio stations and its members,” Webster said. “These stations promote the show for underwriting and ticket sales opportunities.”
Prairie Home Companion is typically held at theaters containing between 2,500 and 3,500 seats, but can be scaled down for smaller venues. Tickets sell for $35, $55 and $65 apiece.
St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theatre is considered Prairie Home Companion’s home base, along with The Town Hall in New York City.
“The venues we’ve broadcasted from have become bigger over the years, but Garrison also likes to perform in smaller theaters,” Webster said. “We’ve formed a lot of great relationships with venues he’s performed in numerous times, but are always looking for new ones.”
Wits, a live public radio show that blends comedy and music, also makes its home at the Fitzgerald Theatre. Performances have included a number of well-known celebrities, such as “Weird Al” Yankovic, Anna Kendrick, Zach Galifianakis, Eric Stonestreet, Aimee Mann, Neko Case, Ed Helms, Rufus Wainwright, Andy Richter, and Henry Rollins.
Although its first live show debuted at the Fitzgerald Theatre in 2010, Wits did not become a weekly nationally broadcast show until January 2013.
“From the beginning, we were selling out shows and getting a lot of support behind us,” said Larissa Anderson, Wits’ senior producer. “In 2012, American Public Media, the national distribution arm of American Public Radio, contacted us after discovering there was a big appetite for cultural programming.”
By 2013, Wits became a weekly show that is now broadcast over public radio and distributed to more than 130 stations nationwide as well as podcasted.
Ticket prices for Wits’ shows, which typically sell out, range from $35 to $45, depending on the theater and seat location.
Unlike Prairie Home Companion, Wits is a live taping that is recorded before being broadcast. The majority of its shows are divided into two radio programs.
“We just started touring in January 2014, with our first show at Los Angeles’ Largo at the Coronet,” Anderson said. “Last year, we began working with touring agent CAA to help us determine the best markets and venues to go to.”
Venues that have developed a reputation for similar types of programming and have markets that support Wits’ guests are targeted.
At press time, Wits was scheduled to appear as part of the Wild West Comedy Festival at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Polk Theatre in Nashville and at Austin, Texas’ Paramount Theatre in May.
Wits is aiming at a more robust touring schedule this winter, which will include four- or five-day legs in different cities. The goal is to streamline the tours as much as possible.
“We’re working on a couple models in an effort to tour light and easy,” Anderson said.
Prairie Home Companion has been broadcast from the Orpheum Theatre almost every year since 2006, with most shows selling out.
“We’re also looking to get Wits here, due to its success at the Fitzgerald,” said Rick Hansen, director of booking for the Historic Theatre Group, which is contracted by Hennepin Theatre Trust to manage Minneapolis’ State, Orpheum and Pantages Theatres.
In addition to these radio shows, the Historic Theatre Group’s venues also have held live podcasts, including the twice monthly Night Vale. Described as a cross between Garrison Keillor and Stephen King, this show provides community updates for the fictional town of Night Vale, including local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff’s Secret Police and cultural events. The show, which plays to sellout crowds, tours in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Because the first show at Pantages Theatre last July was a sellout, two more have been scheduled at the theater in early May.
Generally, all that’s required for a venue to accommodate a live broadcast is a phone line.
“It takes about two hours for CenturyLink, our phone provider, to install an ISDN line for the weekend,” Hansen said.
Part of what makes Prairie Home Companion’s show travel-friendly is that its production crew takes care of all the technical requirements. Venues just need to provide ISDN lines, which give standard phone lines the ability to broadcast the show. Technical setup begins on Thursday, with the rest of the crew arriving on Friday for the show’s Saturday broadcast.
“We take care of the broadcasting ourselves, utilizing a truck containing everything we need except the phone lines,” Webster said. “We mix the show with our equipment and send it through the phone lines to St. Paul, where it’s broadcast from.”
The Prairie Home Companion provides its own staff, producer and technical director, so only the normal complement of stage hands are required for the theater to produce the show. Despite recording live without editing, there have been no big glitches with Prairie Home’s shows in the last four decades.
For Wits, morphing from a live show to a weekly broadcast involved changing production, but the show works with the same skeleton staff it has had from day one. This includes three full-time production, communications and marketing personnel in addition to a new technical director.
Because some theater setups and acoustics are not conducive to Wits’ production needs, its staff has to ensure a venue is a good fit.
“Mainly, we need to make sure we can record at the theater, and this wouldn’t work if the space echoes or it’s difficult to hear the material,” Anderson said.
“We don’t travel with a front of house engineer for live sound, so we defer to the venues to provide a skilled engineer to work with our technical director on show’s sound,” said Corey Schreppel, Wits’ technical director.
Although the technical needs are more easily met, venues hosting live broadcasts may incur additional labor costs. As a union house, the Orpheum Theatre’s stage hands charge an extra $150 per labor hand per live show.
“This is one of the extra expenses we incur with live broadcasts, which cost us about 25 to 35 percent more in labor,” Hansen said. “The other thing theaters need to be aware of with these productions is the seat kills needed if cameras will be brought in for broadcasting.”
Wits' Technical Requirements
Wits’ technical needs more closely resemble a touring rock band than a radio show.
The most important aspect is a room that doesn’t swallow the sound, especially at medium-to-loud volumes. Also, PA bleed into talking microphones doesn’t translate well to radio, so house sound engineers usually have to pull back on their volume 10 to 20 percent from what a rock show might be.
“The house sound systems need to be able to accommodate a typical rock band and the volume associated with it,” said Corey Schreppel, Wits’ technical director. “Any standard PA package usually works fine, whether that’s a line-array system or separate boxes.”
Depending on the musical guests, Wits uses between two and 10 monitor mixes. Venues also need to handle 48 inputs from the stage, including a dedicated split for recording.
Interviewed for this story: Larissa Anderson, (651) 290-1279; Rick Hansen, (612) 373.5671; Corey Schreppel, (651) 290-1279; Albert Webster, (651) 247-1337