Le Show

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, 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.
News segments.
The show features a number of recurring news segments, each referred to by Shearer as "a copyrighted feature of this broadcast". Currently many episodes include the following:
Other news features that recur less often on the program include:
Comedy segments.
There are many recurring comedy sketches or parodies on the program.
Continental Public Radio.
Shearer often parodies the other programming found on public radio, often as part of a fictional "Continental Public Radio" (CPR). These are populated with such personalities as host Aviva Schlorman, reporter Ira Zipkin, political editor Jonathan Ziziks and others, all voiced by Shearer. Recurring parodies include:
Presidential or political parodies.
Among the many presidential and political parodies are:
Other sketches.
Other recurring comedy sketches include:
Comedy interviews.
Shearer will interview someone in-studio or via telephone. For the phone interviews, he claims to be opening up the phone for listener calls (even though no phone number was announced) or will reveal that there is an incoming call on "the newsmaker line". These are among the few comedy segments in which voices other than Shearer's are heard. Many are voiced by writer Tom Leopold, who has worked with Shearer on several other projects. These include:
Other personalities not voiced by Leopold include:
On very rare occasions Shearer has announced a phone number and taken actual listener calls.
Interview segments.
A few times each year the show will feature Shearer conducting a serious interview as a major segment of the program, often with a musician who will play music as well. Sometimes these interviews will comprise the bulk of the program, other times they will be interspersed with the usual mix of other segments.
Musician interviews.
Musicians are often pianists associated with New Orleans and will appear on one of the programs Shearer records in that city. They have included:
Other interviews.
Non-musicians interviewed will usually be a scientist or author who has insight into a news issue, often the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. These have included:
Music segments.
"An eclectic mix of mysterious music" is how KCRW describes the music played between other segments on the program. The tracks are not announced on air, but the names are published a few days after the show airs on HarryShearer.com.
Aside from the musicians already mentioned, tracks played frequently include such acts as
Johnny Adams,
Astral Project,
Marcia Ball,
The Beach Boys,
The Beatles,
The Bobs,
Bonerama,
Charles Brown,
Oscar Brown, Jr.,
Henry Butler,
Jon Cleary,
Nat King Cole,
Shawn Colvin,
Ry Cooder,
Elvis Costello,
Dr. John,
Dave Edmunds,
Eliane Elias,
Georgie Fame,
Finn Brothers,
Ella Fitzgerald,
John Fogerty,
Fountains of Wayne,
Michael Franks,
Marvin Gaye,
Gilberto Gil,
The Hi-Lo's,
Dan Hicks,
Dick Hyman,
Jamiroquai,
Louis Jordan,
Keb' Mo',
Sonny Landreth,
Lenine,
Los Lobos,
Lyle Lovett,
Phillip Manuel,
Peter Martin,
Paul McCartney,
The Meters,
Van Morrison,
Mr. Scruff,
Randy Newman,
Rosa Passos,
Nicholas Payton,
Alan Price,
Brian Protheroe,
The Quantic Soul Orchestra,
The Radiators,
Bonnie Raitt,
Marcus Roberts,
Smokey Robinson,
Shorty Rogers,
The Rolling Stones, Kermit Ruffins,
Alice Russell,
Frank Sinatra,
Jill Sobule,
Steely Dan,
They Might Be Giants,
Irma Thomas,
Richard Thompson,
Mel Tormé,
The Whitlams,
The Who,
Brian Wilson,
Charlie Wood & the New Memphis Underground,
XTC and many others.
When a notable musician has died, the next aired program will often feature mostly or only that artist's work during the music segments. People so featured have included George Harrison, Ray Charles, Oscar Brown, Jr., Blossom Dearie, Les Paul, Robert Kirby, Gerry Rafferty, Jerry Ragovoy, B.B. King, and Prince.
Criticism.
On July 2, 2006, Wisconsin Public Radio cancelled "Le Show" as part of a revamp of the network's programming. On the July 16 edition of the program, Shearer claimed WPR was "displeased with the political content of the broadcast". WPR Director of Radio Phil Corriveau told the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" that the program's political content was a minor factor and the decision had to do with "Le Show"'s consistency: "I think he's brilliant. But I think if you listen to the show, they can be brilliant, or they can really ramble on."