Le Show - WikiHQ

Le Show is a weekly syndicated public radio show hosted by satirist Harry Shearer.

The program is a hodgepodge of satirical news commentary, music, and sketch comedy. Shearer, an impressionist known for his voice work on The Simpsons, writes the sketches and usually performs all the voices.

History

The show first aired on December 3, 1983, and ran under various titles for several months before Le Show at the suggestion of a long-time friend of the host. A satire of a popular marketing trend at the time to add "Le" to product names such as the Renault 5 which was heavily promoted in the US as Le Car.

Until April 14, 2013, for almost 30 years, Le Show usually originated live on Sunday mornings from "The Le Show Dome" (its reference for the studios) at KCRW in Santa Monica ("The city known around the world", Shearer says in his sign off, "as the home… of the homeless"). It is also frequently recorded at or broadcast from other NPR and public stations when Shearer is on the road. After the KCRW broadcast on April 14, 2013, KCRW moved the program from broadcast to webcast only. While the show continues to air on numerous other sources, primarily public radio stations (listed at the end of each show), Shearer expressed dismay over losing his home base radio broadcast, without any notice or being allowed to say goodbye on the air. Shearer has since ended each program by stating that Le Show originated from the "'Change is Hard' Radio Network", referring to a press statement from KCRW announcing the show's departure from its lineup. At the beginning of the July 14, 2013 episode, Shearer announced that the program is now airing on KCSN, bringing the show back to the Southern California airwaves roughly three months after it was taken off the air at KCRW. While KCSN provides live streaming of the show as well as the archives thereof, WWNO in New Orleans has taken over hosting its broadcast and podcast feeds. In Shearer's eyes, this prompted the change to the "'Change is Easy' Radio Network" (referring to the city's nickname "The Big Easy").

Several shows a year are broadcast from New Orleans, where Shearer has a residence. The New Orleans shows usually feature very prominent local musicians.

Availability

The program is carried on many NPR and other public radio stations throughout the US and abroad. It is also available internationally on NPR Worldwide, the American Forces Radio Network, USEN440 in Japan and over shortwave radio via WBCQ The Planet (7490 kHz). Since the merger of the XM and Sirius satellite radio services into SiriusXM Satellite Radio, the program is no longer available on the merged service; on which Shearer commented, "because I guess, you know, mergers are good". The program also aired on NPR Berlin from its launch in 2006 through to its 2017 shutdown; it was not picked up by its successor, KCRW Berlin.

The show is also available as podcasts of previous episodes from Shearer's website and as free downloadable files from Audible.com, The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes along with other KCRW programs, although KCRW no longer broadcasts the show. The podcasts differ from the broadcast and streaming versions, in that they generally include only a few seconds of the music Shearer spins for the show. Exceptions are musical parodies and original songs written and performed by Shearer.