Thomas and I did our last radio show for 2018 this afternoon, it was one hour long. Our next show will be the usual two  hours, it will be live on January 2, from one to three p.m. on WBTN AM 1370.

The program has only been on the air for two months, but it is evolving already.  I wasn’t sure if Thomas Toscano, the station director, would be on the broadcast at all.

On the first show, he answered the first call himself and took the call over, and I thought, oh-oh, this is going to be complicated.  But it turned out to be quite a blessing.

Thomas is bright and opinionated, a perfect co-host for a radio broadcast, and I think he is the only human who knows how to operate the stations Korean War era equipment.

We respect each other, and are at ease with one another.

We work well together and I’ve started beginning the show with a philosophical question or issue the two of us can discuss.

We see the world of animals quite differently in some ways, but I love our discussions, people find them interesting, and so do I.

Thomas, a conductor and composer in his other life, has a healthy ego, and no shortage of strong opinions. You could say the same about me,  yet we are respectful of one another and have a strong chemistry together.

Saving and running the station is pretty much Thomas’s whole life right now, he is there day and night. He is thinking about a New Year’s Eve Talk Show and Maria and I are invited.

We might go.

If so, you can live stream the broadcast here.

I get a lot of e-mail from people all over the country, it seems people are listening. I get very few calls still, and I’m not sure why. It might be the phones, which are quite old, or it might just be not too many people are out there.

We really don’t know, the station has no money to research audience size. Thomas believes it’s catching fire.

The calls are quite wonderful – great questions stories, ideas and discussions. I wanted the show to be intelligent, thoughtful and comfortable – no nastiness. I think we are getting there.

I’ve learned a lot about new radio technology. I’ve learned that every radio station is national now, thanks to live streaming and radio apps.

I’ve learned that I could do this broadcast from my study with a Web Cam if it came down to it. I like going to a real studio, sitting next to a real human taking calls from real people live, so we can hear each other’s voices.

But it’s good to know I can do this myself one day if I need to.

If we can make it work – I define that as getting calls regularly – I will judge it a success.

I’m also learning that e-mail is almost as good as phone calls, I can read questions, discuss them, even ask additional questions of the senders.

I think we are helping dogs and pets, we are raising people’s consciousness about animals, getting them to think about how they love their dogs and cats and why.

We talk about training (today Thomas and I had a good discussion on Darwinism and dogs) the emotional issues driving people to put photos of dogs on their greeting cards, and attachment theory. We even talked about our different experiences with coyotes and bobcats.

I have a gut feeling a growing number of people are listening out there. I have no idea how many or how often. Time will definitely tell.

Thanks to those of you who are listening in, calling and e-mailing me. This is an exciting, stimulating and worthwhile project for me, I’m grateful to be doing it.

This is all very exciting to me, and I  love doing it. It’s a great gift to me to be challenged expected to learn many new things. Stay tuned.