Dennis Miller's official bio lists his stints on "Saturday Night Live" and "Monday Night Football," noting that he has never been part of a show with the words Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday in the title.

Dennis Miller Listen in Listen to excerpts of a conversation with Dennis Miller about his upcoming radio show : About the show and moving from a TV format. Possible guests, including Dana Carvey. Why liberal talk radio hasn't caught on, and his political views. His favorite Pittsburgh radio and TV personalities. Related coverage Paulsen, McIntire enter The Zone

But Westwood One is hoping to change all that and make Miller a daily listening habit with the launch of a syndicated radio talk show airing in 80 markets.

One is his hometown of Pittsburgh. "The Dennis Miller Show" is part of a lineup of humorous and edgy talkers on the new talk format in town, WTZN-FM (93.7) -- "The Zone" -- which includes new weekday shows with local hosts Scott Paulsen and John McIntire.

Miller's syndicated daily talk show launched nationally last week and premieres here tomorrow, when The Zone debuts.

Miller says the prospect of being on the air in his own hometown is exciting, although in an interview a few days before the national launch, he pondered the reality of doing a live daily talk show.

"I'm sitting here thinking, 'Three hours a day?' It sounded good way back when. That's a lot of talking. My esteem for Jack Bogut goes up. When I was a kid, he was the guy."

Miller sees radio as a good fit for someone who grew up in the city where broadcast radio was born. The Zone's talk format -- a mix of politics, funny or bizarre news events of the day and sports -- seems like an ideal platform for Miller, whose politics have a comic edge and whose comedy has always mixed with politics.

"I don't want to turn it into the regular fractious Sturm und Drang" of most talk radio, he says.

It won't be completely comedy-driven, either. "I'm not going to be like Opie and Anthony or [WDVE's] Jimmy Krenn. It will be more topic driven, but it will also have some of my comedy perspectives."

The show will be a mix of guest interviews, listener calls and comedy. "I'm going to talk about the same events in the world that most people talk about, but obviously it will have my sense of humor attached to it."

Miller is a TV talk veteran, having hosted shows on CNBC and HBO. Making the transition to radio will require some re-calibration, he says. "[Bill] O'Reilly tells me he finds [radio] a little easier. In TV you cut to the chase and get to the point and hammer it before they go to a break. In radio, I think you have a little more time to meander. I used to listen to guys do baseball announcing when I was younger. Bob Prince used to always meander through the game."

Being a well-known commodity makes the learning curve a little tougher, he says. "The thing about rolling shows out when you've already had -- and I use the word loosely -- a modicum of success, is that you're very visible at that point. I used to learn things under the radar. And then I found myself one night learning things in the 'Monday Night Football' booth."

Last week's premiere episode featured Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and comedian Dana Carvey. Carvey will be a semi-regular guest, bringing his cast of political character impressions to the mix. "You get a whole minivan full of guests when you ask Carvey to come on," Miller says.

Miller is bringing his political stance to a medium full of talk shows, most leaning decidedly to the right or left. The conservative shows have fared better in terms of ratings and revenues than the liberal ones, such as the beleaguered progressive talk network Air America.

"I think liberalism right now is pessimism," Miller says. "I think on a daily basis, most people don't want to hear how bad their country is. I think that wears on you, even if you believe it."

His own politics aren't as dualistic as most of talk radio's hosts: "I'm a libertarian in most things, a liberal in very few things, but I still have some liberal leanings." In terms of the war, he is conservative, or as he puts it, "a pragmatist."

"It doesn't matter if we've declared war on Islamic fundamentalism. They've declared war on us. ... It seems like common Pittsburgh-ese knowledge to me that if you're getting bullied four or five times, you walk away. The fifth time you have to sucker-punch the guy."

But while Miller is getting a new national forum, he still maintains a sense of where he came from. Growing up here, he remembers broadcasters like Bogut, now the morning host at WJAS-AM (1320) and the late Pirates announcer Prince. Sports talk's Stan Savran is another favorite: "He was brilliant -- one of the best sports talk shows I've ever heard."

But it's a TV personality -- the late Fred Rogers -- who was an early childhood idol.

"As a young, young kid, obviously who you remember is Fred Rogers. Like most kids in Pittsburgh, my first TV star was Fred. It was the sense of pride that you thought, 'Wow, a star lives here.' When I found out he was right out in Oakland, I thought, 'Wow, we are cool.' "