This isn't something we usually talk about, being a non-TV item, but it IS a DVD item, and it's worth a mention.
Long before TV became the norm, people were entertained by radio programs: adventure shows like Superman and The Shadow, comedies like The Bickersons, The Jack Benny Show, and Lucille Ball's My Favorite Husband (the show that inspired TV's I Love Lucy, and which you can find installments of on the various Lucy 1st Season DVDs).
Years later, in 1974, Garrison Keillor created a similar radio program, which is still running today. A Prairie Home Companion is a comedy/musical show that features characters who live in and around the area known as "Lake Wobegon." It airs weekly on hundreds of Public Radio stations, plus on Armed Forces Radio and on America One stations overseas. Millions of people tune in for every broadcast.
How does a radio show have anything to do with DVD, you might ask? It seems that Keillor and his troupe have consented to have one of their weekly live-broadcast shows filmed and put onto a new disc, released this past Fall, called A Prairie Home Companion - 30th Broadcast Season Celebration.
Every Saturday, just before 5 p.m., the crowd in the Fitzgerald Theater settles down and the ON AIR light flashes red and "A Prairie Home Companion" goes out live coast-to-coast on the radio airwaves into the homes and cares of its countless fans, most of whom have never laid eyes on the show. Now, thanks to an innovation called "Video," they can. The disc in this box contains not only audio but also Full-Color Moving Images of a live performance of the radio show, including the signature "News from Lake Wobegon" monologue, a Guy Noir Private Eye thriller, a western episode with Dusty and Lefty, and much more - gospel star Jearlyn Steele, jazz sweetheart Inga Swearingen, killer country band BR549, the distinguished Guy's All Star Shoe Band with piano wizard Richard Dworsky, plus the timeless Tim Russell, insouciant Sue Scott, and sound-effects genii Tom Keith and Fred Newman, and hosted by Garrison Keillor.
Includes: Introduction, "Tishomingo Blues," "Down Yonder," "Lighthouse," SFX (School); BR549: "That's What I Get," "Honky Tonkin' Lifestyle"; "Whatever," Powdermilk Biscuits, Guy Noir, "Give a Dog a Bone," Reaching Out, "My Minnesota Home," "Heart of the Heartland," Greetings, "Stagefright," Lives of the Cowboys, Elim Lutheran's 150th Anniversary, "Mouse House," Hush Little Baby," News from Lake Wobegon, "Cashdollar Berkshire Blues"; BR549: "No Train to Memphis"; Catchup, "Lighthouse" reprise, End of Show / Closing Credits
List-priced at $19.98, you can purchase it at Amazon.com for $14.99 (the above cover art and back-of-the-box description comes courtesy of Amazon). It's kinda cool to be able to see what we've been hearing all these years. Radio Shows On DVD? You obviously couldn't do it all the time, but when you can do it like this, it's not a bad idea at all!
  
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