WLT: A Radio Romance (original 1991; edition 1991)

by Garrison Keillor

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Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:In the spring of 1926, the Soderbjerg brothers, Ray and Roy, plunge into radio and launch station WLT (With Lettuce and Tomato) to rescuer their failing restaurant and become the Sandwich Kings of South Minneapolis. For the next quarter century, the �Friendly Neighbor� station produces a dazzling array of shows and stars, including Leo LaValley, Dad Benson, Wingo Beals, Slim Graves and Little Buddy, chain-smoking child star Marjery Moore, and blind baseball announcer Buck Steller. Francis With, a shy young man from North Dakota, entranced by radio, gets into WLT through his uncle Art and quickly becomes the Soderbjerg's right hand. Soon Francis is a budding announcer adored by Lily Dale, the crippled nightingale of WLT kept hidden from her fans, whose firing contributes to the downfall of the station. And then comes television. .… (more)

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Member:	cameronl
Title:	WLT: A Radio Romance
Authors:	Garrison Keillor
Info:	Viking Adult (1991), Hardcover, 416 pages
Collections:	Your library, Humor
Rating:
Tags:	Read

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WLT: A Radio Romance by Garrison Keillor (1991)

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a mid west radio station in the golden years of radio

ritaer | Jul 7, 2020 |

#116

I kept hearing how funny Keillor is? To whom? Funny is: Carl Hiaasen, Jennifer Crusie, Christopher Moore, Elmore Leonard, Janet Evanovich, et. al., not Keillor.

This was awful & boring: Brothers Ray & Roy own a restaurant which they partially convert into a radio Station, WLT. Ray, although married, is a womanizer. Roy is mostly an inventor & farmer. The book revolves around WLT, its owners, those who work there, & the programs.

300+ pages of boring... (

)

Auntie-Nanuuq | Sep 25, 2018 |

Read during Fall 2003

I was rather dissapointed with this one. WLT features in a few of the previous stories I had read. This begins with the start of WLT (a radio station in Minneapolis) and eventually becomes the story of Francis With/Frank White. However, I was not amused by all the crude sexual references and the whole story just lost interest for me. I think this one will go into the BookCrossing pile.

amyem58 | Jul 3, 2014 |

I bought this book in an airport shop, and read it on the plane. It was a bit of a problem, as I had to struggle not to laugh out loud and disturb the people nearby.

mulliner | Jan 17, 2010 |

Listened to an audio version of this read by Garrison Keillor. I could listen to him for hours on end. His voice lent such a warm feel to the story, I'm not sure that a reading would do as well as the audio.The way that Keillor build his characters makes them a believable as if they were friends of your own. (

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pictou | Jan 30, 2009 |

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▾Awards and Honors

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New York Times bestseller (Fiction – 1991)

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Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

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Epigraph

I learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live that life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to estabish themselves around and within him. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where thy should be. Now put the foundations under them.
--Henry Thoreau, Walden

Dedication

To Bill and Judy and Russ and all the musicians on the bus

First words

Studio B was the snakebiite studio at WLT, the tomb of the radio mummy, and bad things happened to people who went in there.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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Terkel, Studs

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▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:In the spring of 1926, the Soderbjerg brothers, Ray and Roy, plunge into radio and launch station WLT (With Lettuce and Tomato) to rescuer their failing restaurant and become the Sandwich Kings of South Minneapolis. For the next quarter century, the �Friendly Neighbor� station produces a dazzling array of shows and stars, including Leo LaValley, Dad Benson, Wingo Beals, Slim Graves and Little Buddy, chain-smoking child star Marjery Moore, and blind baseball announcer Buck Steller.

Francis With, a shy young man from North Dakota, entranced by radio, gets into WLT through his uncle Art and quickly becomes the Soderbjerg's right hand. Soon Francis is a budding announcer adored by Lily Dale, the crippled nightingale of WLT kept hidden from her fans, whose firing contributes to the downfall of the station. And then comes television.

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