I woke up this morning and realized I hadn’t written anything about the big anniversary yesterday. So I’ll do it today.
March 6 was the eighth anniversary of the first-ever broadcast of the Northern Alliance Radio Network.
In the beginning, the idea was a simple trade; AM1280 would get the promotional mojo that came from associating with a bunch of the leading bloggers in a conservative blog scene that, then as now, was the biggest and best in the US. We’d get time to do a show. Everyone would win.
And everyone did win. I have no less fun doing the show today than I did on Day One. In fact, it may be more fun – because those first two years made for some weird, if fun, radio.
The first two years, the show basically involved hourly relays from among the crowd of bloggers involved – and it was a crowd. Ed, King Banaian, John HInderaker, Scott Johnson, Chad the Elder, Brian “Saint Paul” Ward and (at the very beginning) JB Doubtless and Atomizer all tramped in and out of the studio, along with the occasional guest, with me usually directing traffic making sure only one person talked at a time and (often as not) introducing them so the audience would know which of the mass of voices was which. It’s not a kind of show you hear often on talk radio. There’s a reason for that.
So those first two years, I was probably more of a traffic cop than a talk show host. I like being a host a lot more.
It was two years later we split into two, and then three, shows. People left (John, Scott, Chad, Brian), people joined (Brad Carlson) and joined and left (Michael Brodkorb), but we’re still at three shows on two stations on two weekend days.
It’s also a whack upside the head to note that in my first go-around in radio, I probably had actual jobs for eight of the 13 years; in other words, half of my “radio career” has been spent doing the NARN.
And I gotta say, it’s been the good half!
So as we kick off Year Nine of the NARN, I’d like to thank everyone involved. General Manager Ron Stone, like John Hunt before him, continues to let us use his valuable air time. Lee MIchaels, like Nick Novak and Patrick Campion before him, is a great, supportive program director. Tommy Huynh, like Matt Reynolds and Irina Malanina and the late great Joe Hanson before, keeps making us sound good.
And of course Ed, King and Brad, like John, Scott, Chad, Brian, Michael and even JB and Atomizer before them, continue to help make the NARN the most fun I’ve ever had on the radio, and remain among my best friends off the air, and help make the show one of the highlights of the week.
I joke that “the worst day on the air is better than the best day off the air”. It’s not really true – or at least, I feel sorry for anyone for whom it is true. But week-in, week out, for the past 416 weeks and probably close to 400 broadcasts now, doing the NARN has been one of the highlights of my week.
And for way, way more of you than anyone would have figured eight years ago, it’s at least a stop on your weekend listening, too. And for that I’m profoundly grateful.
