Hawai‘i Public Radio has dropped the syndicated “Live From Here With Chris Thile” Opens in a new tab show from its Saturday evening programming less than three months after allegations of workplace misconduct against former “A Prairie Home Companion” host Garrison Keillor Opens in a new tab prompted a name change
for the weekly broadcast.
Effective Saturday, the
6 p.m. Saturday time slot on HPR-1 (88.1 FM) will be filled by “American Routes,” Opens in a new tab which has been on the air for more than 20 years with host/
producer Nick Spitzer, a folklorist and a professor of anthropology and American studies at Tulane University. The two-hour weekly show plays music ranging from jazz, blues, gospel and soul to old-time country, rockabilly, Tejano and avant-garde.
Minnesota Public Radio, which produced “Prairie Home” in partnership with a company owned by Keillor, ended its relationship with him in November Opens in a new tab amid allegations by a former staffer, and renamed the show after its current host.
The move by HPR to
replace “Live From Here”
was a financial decision, said HPR President and General Manager Jose Fajardo in a statement announcing the change.
“We could not justify purchasing what was in essence a new show for the same $25,000 we had paid (annually) for the iconic ‘Prairie Home,’” said Fajardo, adding the station would be saving $22,000 a year by airing “American Routes.”
Also departing HPR is “Sinatra: The Man and the Music,” which has been produced and hosted locally by Guy Steele for nearly 20 years. He said goodbye to terrestrial radio listeners Sunday, but fans still will be able to find the show online via New York-based purejazzradio.org Opens in a new tab at 3 p.m. Saturdays,
2 p.m. Sundays and 6 a.m. Mondays starting March 4.
According to HPR, Steele’s current time slot on HPR-2 (89.3 FM), along with a preceding encore broadcast of “Live From Here,” will be replaced with classical music programming from 7 to
10 p.m. Saturdays. Find updated program schedules online at hawaiipublicradio.org Opens in a new tab.
