Hunley: The best radio not on the airwaves

“A Prairie Home Companion” has never hooked me like it has attracted some people.

I love radio, even now when lots of folks think iPods have rendered the airwaves obsolete. But I’m too lazy to figure out when the program is on public radio, I think host Garrison Keillor is probably a bit too satisfied with himself and I probably wouldn’t get some of the jokes about the Midwest.

Also, I got kind of put out with Keillor when he decided to make fun of then-Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, whom I liked watching when I was a kid and he was the wrestler called “The Body.” Keillor might even have been on target in his criticism of Ventura. I just thought it was funny that a wrestler was elected governor. Sue me.

However, seeing the “River City Radio Hour” at The Gateway downtown Friday night made me think about giving Keillor another chance (not that, as a multimillionaire, he’s losing any sleep over whether I tune in).

Yep, I could care less about Lake Wobegon, and there’s a good chance that I’ll never visit Minnesota, as it seems possible that a Virginian could freeze to death there even in the middle of the summer.

But there’s something special about the variety format, even when, as in Waynesboro, the “radio show” is live entertainment that’s not actually broadcast anywhere.

Maybe it’s the combination of music, drama and comedy, the actual “variety” of the programming.

Or maybe it has something to do with those great radio sound effects. (This is particularly interesting at The Gateway because you can see them being produced right there in front of you by the show’s foley team, Julie Scott and J.D. Robb. It’s like you’re behind the scenes, and everybody loves to see something that seems like it ought to be kept secret.)

Maybe it’s the silly commercials between segments. On Friday, hearing a recording of a Kermit-sounding character singing about local business and a rapper rhyming about the “wraps” made in Stone Soup Books’ cafe was priceless.

Of course, the whole shebang wouldn’t go off well without the performers, whether we’re talking national acts or local talents. Wayne Theatre Alliance Executive Director Clair Myers kept the show running smoothly Friday, the Boogie Kings and Peggy and Fritz Horisk provided the tunes, the River City Players carried on a funny and entertaining installment of a mystery serial, and I was retelling some of comedian Marsha Howard’s jokes a couple of hours after the proverbial curtain closed.

It also doesn’t hurt that this was the kind of family fare that both my mother and my 5-year-old son would enjoy. If Jesse Ventura came to town, I think he’d like it, too.

Perhaps the best part, though? If the local show is this good in the Wayne Theatre’s temporary home in The Gateway, imagine how much better it will be when it’s set up every month in the actual, refurbished Wayne just up Main Street.

Jonathan Hunley is editor and general manager of The News Virginian. Contact him at 932-3556, or at jhunley@newsvirginian.com.