PHC to be renamed

[Mandobar]

Mike is correct. Keillor owns the names, so things need to change from a legal perspective.

[jdchapman]

I’d prefer it was cancelled, to be honest.

[John Legg]

I've loved the show since the early 90's. I think his singing is horrible but I really liked the old time radio show theme.

What exactly did he do to get fired?

Personally, I'm very leery of the uber sensitivity world we live in right now. I refuse to be politically correct. I say it like I see it. Facts are facts.

With that said, if he is guilty of breaking a law he should pay the price.

[Alex Orr]

I've loved the show since the early 90's. I think his singing is horrible but I really liked the old time radio show theme.

What exactly did he do to get fired?

Personally, I'm very leery of the uber sensitivity world we live in right now. I refuse to be politically correct. I say it like I see it. Facts are facts.

With that said, if he is guilty of breaking a law he should pay the price.

Speaking as someone whose GF has been sexually harassed (actually, openly groped) by an old man in charge of a powerful company, and whose sister was repeatedly sexually harassed while she worked at a well-known defense contractor, I am happy to see this kind of thing coming to light. In the case of my GF, one man's uber-sensitivity is another woman's outrage at having someone literally come up and grope her breasts in the middle of a conference because...well..he can get away with it, and when she did report it to her superiors she was told to just avoid him and not say anything because he donated far too much money to the organization she works for for anyone to actually confront the guy. But maybe she's just being uber-sensitive... In any case, this is dangerously non-mandolin related territory for this forum.

As far as PHC...the name should have been retired with Keillor IMO, and the show should have been retired entirely about ten years ago. I like what Thile is doing with it musically, but everything else just needs to be jettisoned. I will say that I will dearly miss The Writers Almanac. I've listened to it every day for at least a decade and its absence will be sorely missed.

[John Legg]

Sorry. Maybe you misunderstood my stance. I am NO WAY saying that inappropriate touching is ok. Not at all. I honestly don't know what he is accused of. I only knew the announcement was made that he was actually fires for sexual misconduct or something to that effect.

My uber sensitivity comment is aimed at what has been happening over the past several years [USA]. I think people need to (as said in the cycling world) HTFU. (Harden The F Up). As a nation, we should be less concerned about hurting everybody's feelings and more concerned about the general weakening it results in.

Again, sorry of if confused you. It's late.

[Alex Orr]

Sorry. Maybe you misunderstood my stance. I am NO WAY saying that inappropriate touching is ok. Not at all. I honestly don't know what he is accused of. I only knew the announcement was made that he was actually fires for sexual misconduct or something to that effect.

My uber sensitivity comment is aimed at what has been happening over the past several years [USA]. I think people need to (as said in the cycling world) HTFU. (Harden The F Up). As a nation, we should be less concerned about hurting everybody's feelings and more concerned about the general weakening it results in.

Again, sorry of if confused you. It's late.

I feel like it's easier to say to someone, "toughen up, stop being so offended" when you'e not the one on the receiving end of the abuse, or unwanted sexual advances.

I've honestly been repeatedly surprised at how well Thile has done on the show. He really did not seem like the kind of guy who could pull this off. I've always seen him as a very niche talent, both in terms of what he plays and just his general demeanor. Of course I suppose you could just as easily say the same about Keillor, but he was a radio guy through and through whereas Thile is a musician's musician and to be frank, someone who's always seemed at times to not care so much about his audience as much as his own vision, which in a lesser talent could be a disaster but when you're a once-in-a-generation talent like Thile it sort've behooves you to tune out everything else and follow your muse, so to speak. And yet...that's not exactly the mind-set that immediately springs to mind when you want a host for a variety show that will reach a broad listening audience. That said, I'm biased, like most of us here are, by his skill on the mandolin. I love hearing him in the different musical contexts. I am both in awe of his talent and vision while rarely actually liking a lot of his music, but in the shifting (and less visionary) contexts of a lot of the music on APHC, I hear so much that I really enjoy from him, and he honestly sounds like he's having a blast doing it. Like I said earlier, I think a name-change would have been appropriate earlier, so hopefully that's all that happens and Thile's variety show keeps on keeping on.