LOS ANGELES — Garrison Keillor, host of long-running radio show "A Prairie Home Companion", says he is planning to retire in 2013 but hasn't yet come to terms with making any firm decision.
The humorist and writer created the show of sketches and music in 1974 and it is now broadcast on U.S. public radio to an audience of about four million across the country.
"I am planning to retire in the spring of 2013, but first I have to find my replacement," Keillor, 68, told the AARP Bulletin, which is aimed at those over 50..
"I'm pushing forward and also I'm in denial," he added.
Keillor, whose "Prairie Home Companion" is also broadcast in Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, suffered a minor stroke in 2009 but has continued making the weekly radio show.
"When I was younger, I was all in favor of it (retiring), and now that I'm at that age, I'm not sure," he said. "I sure don't want to make a fool of myself and be singing romantic duets with 25-year-old women when I'm 75. But on the other hand, it's so much fun. And in radio, the lighting is right."
Keillor is also the author of poems and books, many of them about small town life in fictional Lake Wobegon, "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."
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