Even though he left the Twin Cities two years ago before "Electric Arc Radio" was unplugged, Sam Osterhout wants to make it clear he did not move to New York City specifically to re-create the locally adored music-and-skits program there.

"No, I didn't come here with the goal of doing another radio show that's not actually on the radio," he said last week from New York, his Midwestern self-deprecation still intact.

Osterhout and three other ex-Twin Citians who were involved in "Electric Arc" return Saturday with their new show in tow, a wry, profane and murderous webcast/podcast series called "Radio Happy Hour." Think of it as sort of "A Prairie Home Companion" for Strokes and Wes Anderson fans.

Just like the New York installments of the program -- whose guests have already included Norah Jones, Andrew W.K. and the Hold Steady's Craig Finn and Tad Kubler -- Saturday's episode at the Cedar will feature local musicians in a familiar setting but in unfamiliar scenarios. In addition to playing a couple of songs, the musicians on "Radio Happy Hour" are always hoodwinked into the show's scripted narrative segments -- where they always wind up portraying "weirdo versions of themselves," as Osterhout described it.

Jones, for instance, was still Norah Jones on the show, but in addition to her music career she also owned sleazy motels where people wound up dead. Finn and Kubler were still Hold Steady bandmates, but they were also brothers from small-town Manhattan, Minn., where rock scribe Chuck Klosterman became their stepdad. Someone was murdered in that one, too.

Osterhout believes both the musicians and their fans appreciate these twists on the usual on-air music sessions. "How many times can we hear one musician get asked who their influences are, and hear them go on and on about Tom Waits?" he said.

A 33-year-old native of Hutchinson, Kan., Osterhout came to Minnesota to attend grad school at Hamline University, where he met author and fellow "Happy Hour" co-creator Geoff Herbach. The two brainstormed "Electric Arc Radio" as sort of a lively literary event with rock 'n' roll overtones. The show enjoyed a run of 30-plus episodes and was picked up by the Current.

New York audiences have reportedly taken to "Happy Hour Radio" as happily as Twin Citians did "Electric Arc." "We weren't sure if they would get it as much out here, because it's essentially still just a hokey radio show by heart -- something Minnesotans know more about," Osterhout said. "But they also get 'hokey' out here."

That he had to throw murders into every show for the New Yorkers to appreciate it speaks volumes, though.