RADIO’S ‘COMPANION’ ORIGINATES LOCALLY

Garrison Keillor broadcasts public radio’s popular “A Prairie Home Companion” live today from the Claremont Colleges’ Bridges Auditorium.

Airing in a delayed broadcast over KUSC-FM (91.5) at 6 tonight, the two-hour performance will feature country stars Willie Nelson and Chet Atkins in addition to Keillor and his Lake Wobegone monologue.

The program, which is heard nationally by an estimated 2 million listeners over 260 affiliates of American Public Radio, sold out with no advertising for both today’s performance and one Friday night, which was taped for broadcast at a later date.

Keillor’s second book, “Lake Wobegone Days,” is currently No. 2 on the New York Times best seller list and, this week, went into its 13th printing with nearly 1 million copies in print. The 43-year-old St. Paul, Minn., humorist appeared on the cover of Time magazine last month as the chief figure in what the magazine construed to be a major resurgence of national interest in radio.