I’ve told the story so many times, I sometimes wonder if the details have gotten burnished in the re-telling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of the things in my life that actually worked out, started as offhanded, sarcastic, frustrated or intoxicated jokes. My move to the city, my career, this blog…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…and, in 2003, the kind of “what the heck, why not?” vibe that caused me to send an email to the other principals of the “Northern Alliance of Blogs” and ask “Why not try to do a talk radio show?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer was…well, “find the opportunity, and we’ll think about it”. I can’t imagine how far out of left field the idea must have sounded to the rest of the guys – John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson of Powerline<\/em>, Brian and Chad and Atomizer and JB Doubtless from Fraters Libertas<\/em>, Ed Morrissey then of Captain’s Quarters<\/em>, King Banaian of SCSU Scholars<\/em>, and – trivia alert – a husband and wife pair of lawyers from a short-lived blog called Spitbull <\/em>whom Hugh Hewitt had added to the NAoB in a frenzy of solicitousness, who weren’t interested in doing the show, and whose names I can’t even begin to remember. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So on Halloween 2003, we met with AM1280 – and to my amazement, they were interested. On January 23, 2004, at a get-together with Hugh Hewitt at the long-defunct Billy’s Lighthouse in Wayzata, we got the formal go-ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And 20 years ago today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network did its first show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a very different production back then: I was the only one who’d done radio (other than King Banaian’s stint as a college radio jock), so I served as more of a traffic cop to keep people from stepping on each other’s lines and prevent the pandemonium that’s usually inevitable with these sorts of group shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It has, of course, morphed a lot over the years: <\/p>\n\n\n\n