Changes Come As Longtime Prairie Home Companion Host Departs

For Immediate ReleaseContact:
Jeff Bieri

(719) 473-4801, ext. 26

COLORADO COLLEGE’S KRCCADDS NEW PROGRAMMING
TO WEEKDAY AND WEEKEND LINEUPS

Changes come as longtime ‘Prairie Home Companion’ host departs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – June 20, 2016 – KRCC, Colorado College’s NPR-member station, announces a new lineup of programs beginning Saturday, July 9. The weekend lineup includes “Dinner Party Download,” “On the Media,” “Ask Me Another,” “Live Wire” and “Reveal.” KRCC also is adding a show to the weekday lineup, BBC’s “Newshour.”

Departing from the weekend lineup is “A Prairie Home Companion,” with the last broadcast with Garrison Keillor live from the Hollywood Bowl being aired on KRCC at 6 p.m., Saturday, July 2. There will be a final repeat at 1 p.m., Sunday, July 3, with Chris Thile taking over for Garrison Keillor as the host of the show beginning in October.

Jeff Bieri, KRCC’s program director, says the financial resources needed to continue broadcasting “A Prairie Home Companion” effectively pays for five new programs on KRCC.“We believe the lack of Garrison Keillor’s trademark sound, along with the continued expense of ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ under the new direction of Chris Thile are an investment that we cannot commit to at this time,” says Bieri. “We very excited about the new programs we are bringing to Colorado Springs and Southern Colorado.”

The new weekend programs include “The Dinner Party Download,” airing Saturdays at noon, which is a fast and funny hour of culture, food and conversation. Think of it as public radio’s arts and leisure section: Listeners can bone up on an odd bit of history and then wash it down with a themed cocktail recipe; meet artists of note; have burning etiquette questions answered; savor an emerging food trend; and hear new and soon-to-be favorite songs.
NPR’s “Ask Me Another,” airing Sundays at 11 a.m., is a new show featuring puzzles, word games and trivia played in front of a live audience. It brings alive the spirit and competition of trivia night with a rotating cast of funny people, puzzle writers and VIP guests.
“Live Wire,” airing Saturdays at 6 p.m., is a one-hour show recorded in front of a live audience at the Aladdin Theatre in Portland, Oregon. The show features music, entertaining conversations, sketch comedy and performances from the famous and fascinating to the unknown and unabashed.

KRCC also will be supplementing weekend news programming with “On the Media,” which covers anything that reaches a large audience — either electronically or otherwise. It’s a weekly investigation into how the media shapes our world view, with recent stories on a baby girl born in New Jersey with microcephaly, a reminder that the Zika virus is not a distant threat, and a segment on 28 pages in a congressional report about Saudi Arabia and 9/11. KRCC also is adding “Reveal” to the weekend lineup. This Peabody Award-winning investigative journalism program for public radio was created by The Center for Investigative Reporting.

KRCC’s new weekday program, BBC’s “Newshour” airs from 1-2 p.m. Monday through Friday. The show will provide live coverage of global issues for residents of Colorado Springs and Southern Colorado, communities which have a vested interest in international affairs because of numerous military installations and institutions of higher learning.
Additionally, Season 2 of “Invisibillia” began airing on Saturday, June 18, in the 2 p.m. timeslot. Season 2 consists of seven episodes which deal the invisible forces that control human behavior — ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions.

Please visit for a list of programming additions.

About Colorado College

Colorado College is a nationally prominent, four-year liberal arts college that was founded in Colorado Springs in 1874. The college operates on the innovative Block Plan, in which its approximately 2,000 undergraduate students study one course at a time in intensive 3½-week segments. The college also offers a master of arts in teaching degree. For more information, visit