For nearly the past two decades, I’ve been an on-again, off-again reader of PC Magazine, having first picked up an issue at some point in the mid 80s to learn more about the computer I had purchased a year or two earlier. After a couple of issues, I was hooked, and was a subscriber for many, many years. I still visit their site regularly, and have seen various columnists and editors come and go. One notable (or one could say notorious) columnist is John C. Dvorak, who has had not one, but two columns in PC Magazine (his own opinion column, and “Inside Track”). I’ve always admired his style, even if I never agreed with him 100% of the time. He’s been on TV as well as radio, so he’s no stranger to the broadcast world either, and has written for countless other publications in addition to PC Magazine.

I came across his Cranky Geeks show just last week after perusing PC Magazine’s website. The show is basically a half hour tech news/editorial broadcast, but with a unique spin: the host and his guests are “cranky!” Or, that is how it’s billed anyway. Rather than being just a news recital, Dvorak, his sidekick and “co-crank” Sebastian Rupley, and two different weekly guests, banter back and forth about various tech issues. I wouldn’t consider the banter to be “cranky” but, instead, insightful and opinionated…and entertainingly so. What I like about it is that Dvorak, Rupley and the guests get to exchange and inject their own perspectives into current hot tech topics. Like Dvorak’s own long-running column in PC Magazine, the show makes you think, and gives a little more insight into the story behind the story.

Cranky Geeks is available for download from the show’s official site, or can be retrieved via TiVo. The show streams live at 12:30pm Pacific time each Wednesday, and downloads are available the same evening. A lot is packed into the half-hour broadcast–I feel anyone who’s tech oriented will really enjoy this program. Recommended!