While I never grew up with any aspirations of working in radio by any means, I must say that co-hosting two online radio shows from July 2008- April 2009 made me give it some serious thought. The first, with which I worked on with Alan Bass, who has since gone on to write a book about the 1967 NHL Expansion and work with The Hockey News, introduced me to the field, and although it was a little stressful, proved to be a rewarding experience. He was a freshman in college at the time, and I was a high school senior. With absolutely nothing on our resumes, we were still able to get some pretty neat guests on what we quickly dubbed NHL 2Day, which made the show more interesting, and allowed us to be a little more daring with our interview requests in the future. While broadcasting on the free sports service YouCastr, we landed analysts Jim Jackson (TV; Flyers), Dave Mishkin (Radio; Lightning), and Kenny Albert (Radio; Rangers), as well as my favorite guest, then-current New York Rangers goaltender Steve Valiquette, and a prospect who is currently playing for the Nashville Predators, Colin Wilson. After I left the show in November because of scheduling conflicts, Alan was able to get the legendary Mike “Doc” Emrick, and later, the General Manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Scott Howson. Within weeks after leaving, though, I started up another show, called Rinkside!, with a fellow senior at my high school, Brett Bodner, who is now a journalism major and my assistant editor over at The Proprietary Times in Perth Amboy.
