Jayme Deerwester | USA TODAY

Time

Garrison Keillor, creator of A Prairie Home Companion, has been evicted from his longtime radio home at Minnesota Public Radio after reported "inappropriate behavior" by the 75-year-old host.

MPR communications director Angie Andresen confirmed his dismissal in a statement posted to the broadcaster's website Wednesday that did not detail the nature of the allegations. The organization announced it would “end its business relationship with Keillor’s media companies effective immediately.”

The broadcaster will erase Keillor, one of public radio's most famous voices, from its air and website, including renaming Companion, the variety show he created in 1974 and hosted until 2016, when he retired and handed over creative control to his handpicked replacement, musician Chris Thile. In addition, MPR will no longer air rebroadcasts of Keillor’s old shows, nor will it produce or distribute his remaining syndicated series, The Writer’s Almanac.

“Garrison Keillor made A Prairie Home Companion into an institution for public radio. He helped define public radio for many decades," says Ron Simon, curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media. But this recent news "certainly has to be a crucial part of when you look at the career of Garrison Keillor.”

What happened?

Andresen said, “Last month, MPR was notified of the allegations, which relate to Mr. Keillor's conduct while he was responsible for the production of A Prairie Home Companion." From there, MPR President Jon McTaggart initiated an inquiry using an outside law firm.

Keillor told The Minneapolis Star-Tribune that in one case, he simply "put my hand on a woman's bare back" while attempting to console her. "I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.”

What now?

A concert featuring Keillor in Massachusetts on Wednesday night was canceled, according to an announcement on the Berkshire Theatre Group website. It said in its notice that it "finds any victimization of people deplorable."

Newspapers that run Keillor's syndicated columns must decide whether his infractions warrant cutting ties with the veteran writer. Azhar AlFadl Miranda, a publicist for The Washington Post, told USA TODAY his outlet "takes allegations of this kind seriously and is seeking more information about them.”

And what of his legacy? Given that the allegations came more than a year after Keillor stepped down from Companion, how will they mar his nearly half-century broadcasting career?

It's too soon to hazard a guess, says Michael Harrison, publisher of the trade journal Talkers Magazine.

"The industry and the broadcasting community have got to get used to the idea that now he’s on 'the list,' " he says. "And I think we will see how this settles over the next few months when this becomes less of a current phenomenon."

Harrison says Keillor "is in the very special position and category of being a unique entity in broadcasting. He was an unusual broadcaster, a great storyteller, a very homespun, eclectic kind of guy, and he marched to the beat of his own drummer."

In his own statement to MPR, Keillor expressed concern that the "country is caught in the grip of a mania" when it comes to reporting sexual misconduct and that he wishes someone would resist. But he was customarily pragmatic, noting, "I expect MPR to look out for itself, and meanwhile, I feel awfully lucky to have hung on for so long."

Contributing: Bill Keveney

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Garrison Keillor through the years