Twenty years ago, I picked up the kitchen phone late at night and dialed a radio station. I was 12 years old and calling The David Brudnoy Show on WRKO for the first time.

I didn’t know if I would get on or if they even let kids call, but something prompted me to give it a try. Listening to Brudnoy and his guests as the night wind howled off the Atlantic made the bullies at Hull’s middle school seem a world away. Speaking in hushed tones so that my mother wouldn’t know I was up so late — but still in the high squeak of a prepubescent — I told the producer what I wanted to discuss. I heard the show come on over the phone, a slight buzz, and then the words “Seth from Hull.”

Rather than rush me off the radio, Brudnoy gave me a hearing. My topic, as I recall it, was rather obscure: something about the reasons for the demise of the Roman Empire. Brudnoy let me make my point — or try to, anyway. I was hooked.

In the months and years that followed I became a regular caller, along with Bob from Billerica and Ed from Quincy. Sometimes I called about local politics, sometimes the Middle East. Over time my calls became conversations, and Brudnoy became something of a friend. He was as much my teacher as anyone at school. When my points were too discursive and my subjects too rambling, Brudnoy suggested I outline my calls. Make one point, he said, rather than a slew of them. If he had authors on, such as science-fiction scribe Ben Bova or mystery novelist Robert Parker, Brudnoy — unlike Larry King — actually read the book.

Brudnoy filled a void. Instead of childhood insomnia, I had a chance to listen to first-class political and cultural discussion. A latchkey kid with a divorced mother, I had an outlet.

The calls seemed to mean something to Brudnoy too. Sometime in the early 1980s, the Boston Herald printed a short story headlined david brudnoy’s favorite callers. There I was, along with Bob and a few others. “A teenager who’s been calling since he was a young boy,” Brudnoy said. “Bright as a whip. One of the joys of radio-talk hosting is observing kids who grow up as friends through the show.” You better believe my mother cut out that article and had it laminated.

Over the years, my voice deepened and I didn’t have as much time for talk radio. I graduated from college and my father — by then having taken my place as a regular caller — kept me posted on Brudnoy’s whereabouts. Living away from Boston, I learned of his sickness and recovery. It seems unbelievable that Brudnoy is celebrating his 25th anniversary — now, of course, on WBZ (AM 1030) — and that I’ve been a guest on his show talking about pieces I’ve written for the Phoenix. Who’d have thunk it?

Issue Date: March 29 - April 5, 2001