Pointless Digressions redux

It all began--as Ted, the dim-witted anchor on The Mary Tyler Moore Show liked to begin his reminiscences--it all began in the lounge of a West Hastings hotel when Brian Brenn, over a glass of wine, suggested that I might consider a program on the Vancouver radio station AM-1040, of which he was then manager.  Mr. Brenn and I were alumni of CHQM, that fine 1960s vintage crafted by Bill Bellman.  The old QM was a terrific place to be, despite sloping floors, low ceilings, bad coffee, and an air conditioning system composed of an electric fan blowing over a block of ice in a wash tub.

I proposed several ideas for AM-1040, the most promising being "Sports Reports from Mars," but this seemed not to be what audiences were desperate to hear.

Well, I had other ideas, equally strange, since I had been doing this kind of thing for years, as a means of avoiding actual work.  It all began--he said again--in a radio station that might have been the setting for Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion."  It was the kind of station that had quiz programs like "Third Degree."  Contestants were forced to sit on uncomfortable chairs staring into a bright light while the good quiz-master and the bad quiz-master took turns grilling them.

It occurred to me that in a milieu like this, I might be able to digress my way through life.  And that's why I gave the inspirational messages I produced for AM-1040 the title "Pointless Digressions."

AM-1040 no longer exists in that format.  It is now Team 1040, an all-sports station.  I still maintain that "Pointless Digressions" had nothing to do with the old format's demise.

Right, Brian?  Brian?