QUESTIONS ARISE ABOUT MPR’S HANDLING OF KEILLOR FIRING • A TYPO INCORRECTLY SAYS “K-LOVE” HAS OVER 1.4 MILLION LISTERS IN LOS ANGELES

Image of Garrison Keillor you will not see at the Eugene Airport

Traveler’s alert: You will not see the photo on the left at the Eugene Airport. 

The photo is part of Flight Patterns, a 176-photo exhibit of people who have traveled through the airport. The entire exhibit is now in storage while the airport is remodeled. 

The City of Eugene, the airport’s owner, has announced that the photo of Garrison Keillor will not be re-installed.

Keillor, and works associated with him, have been erased at Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) following accusations of inappropriate behavior were made by an individual who worked for him on A Prairie Home Companion (APHC).

While no one is defending Keillor’s alleged bad behavior, a backlash has risen about MPR’s handling of the situation. The push back is coming from two directions: Fans consider MPR’s actions to be harsh, ungrateful and over-reaching, and public media insiders who wonder if there are other reasons for MPR’s actions.

Since the announcement on November 23^rd about the Keillor situation, MPR has appeared to scrub Keillor and APHC from public consciousness. Even the program’s name, A Prairie Home Companion, has been purged. Keillor’s weekly column in the Washington Post has been pulled and several upcoming concerts have been cancelled.  But the harshest reaction came from St. Paul.  

MPR’s actions regarding the matter have brought criticism from local and national sources. On Sunday (12/3) the Washington Post [link] questioned the veracity of the misconduct charges against Keillor:

Keillor’s response {to the allegations] stands out as unusual for a person accused of improper conduct. MPR hasn’t shared specifics and the alleged victim hasn’t spoken to the press, the only one publicly telling the story of what Keillor did is Keillor himself. And many of Keillor’s biggest fans have chosen to believe the master storyteller

Last year, Keillor retired from the show that made him — and to a great degree, MPR — famous. The public radio network has responded by appearing to re-create themselves as if Keillor never existed.

The New York Times accused MPR [link] of selective judgment:

“…scrubbing the culture of work produced by the complicated or compromised or conniving or criminal or contemptible is a practice with a chilling legacy. It is a policy that is typically carried out by those who lack all faith in people to make up their own minds.”

In Minnesota some MPR members are threatening to withhold their contributions. MPR itself reported that they have received several hundred complaints.

IS THERE MORE TO THE STORY?

Keillor and MPR have had a long and complicated business relationship. In these transactions Keillor has had the star-power leverage. During the years that Bill Kling ran MPR, Keillor used his leverage to craft financial arrangements that benefitted him more than MPR.

If Keillor was fired “for cause” MPR may have used the situation to cancel other existing deals that were costing MPR too much money.

It is no secret that Keillor was a difficult person to work with. Bridges he may have burned within MPR may have also been a factor.

MPR could have “fired” Keillor in a quieter, kinder manner. Plus, the public scrubbing of the name A Prairie Home Companion seems Orwellian and needlessly spiteful.

DID K-LOVE REALLY SIGN ON IN LOS ANGELES WITH 1.4 MILLION WEEKLY LISTENERS?

I am certain that I am not the only person who was surprised when I saw in Nielsen Audio’s November PPM ratings that K-Love, Educational Media Foundation’s (EMF) new affiliate, attracted 1,446,700 estimated weekly listeners in its first month in the LA market. The truth is, they didn’t.

The listening credited to KKLQ, the call letters of EMF’s new K-Love LA repeater, should have gone to KSWD The Sound. The reason for the snafu is that dates of Nielsen’s November survey were October 12 - November 8. KKLQ didn’t sign on until November 16. So, the numbers actually reflect the final book for The Sound.

Also in the November Nielsen PPM ratings, Classical music KUSC continued its slide, losing over 140,000 estimated weekly listeners when comparing November 2017 data with November 2016.

NPR News/Talk KPCC lost seven percent of its weekly listeners during the same period. We will keep you posted about other NPR News/Talk stations over the next few days.