Meet the irreverent St. Paul radio host who set his writing chops on Minnesota's favorite season

Tommy Mischke grew up in a newspaper family. His dad bought the Highland Villager in 1970, and Mischke said a journalism career was his expectation.

Along the way, though, he discovered the power of creativity and irreverence. Tommy Mischke became TD Mischke, radio host. Then podcaster. And now, an author, chronicling the genetic imprint that winter has on our being.

Eye on St. Paul recently talked with Mischke about his career and how, when it comes right down to it, he just loves telling stories — no matter the medium. This interview was edited for length.

Q: You grew up with your family at the Villager.

A: They're still there, believe it or not. That paper's hanging in there. It's the family business. My two brothers are there. I sometimes think, "Would I have gone to journalism school if not for that newspaper?" That might have been the reason for everything I do.

Q: Tell me about your move to radio. When did that happen? How did that happen?

A: Radio came about really serendipitously. I was working at the Highland Villager, and my brother said, "Do you ever listen to talk radio? Well, you ought to listen to KSTP. There's this guy named Don Vogel, he's funny."

And I listened to it. He told people to call in. So I pulled up to a payphone, called, got right on and thought, this is too tempting. They're going to let me on a 50,000-watt radio station, I'm going to start something.

I started to call and create a character that just presented something and hung up. I never allowed any conversation. I think I was too nervous. But they started to collect these calls and present them. They called me the Phantom Caller.

I got to be friends with the host. Through that friendship, I was eventually invited on as a sidekick. Then they got the thought that I could have a show. They gave me a nighttime program and when I got in, I said, "This is it." A combination of journalism and creative freeform improvisation. We created this sort of unique hybrid and it strangely worked.

Q: What did it take for you to be successful in radio?

A: You have to trust your view of the world. You have to trust that you have something to say in a different way. You have to be kind of fearless.

Q: What was your view of the world?

A: I think I have a very unusual perspective. I always felt like a bit of an outsider. My [show] at KSTP, the "Renegade Radio Hour," had kind of a renegade take. An irreverent take. I like to poke fun at a lot of the big institutions. The big shots. Also, celebrate the average person. I created a community of people who maybe saw themselves as misfits.

Q: What got you canned?

A: I was not a well-behaved talk show host. There were rules that I broke all the time. Not letting people know they're on the air. Making random calls to people and talking to them for 20 minutes [and] not letting them know they were on a 50,000-watt station. I eventually got fired for putting someone on the air who didn't know they were on the air.

To tell you the truth, it worked out for me. I had a one-year non-compete clause. I couldn't work in radio for a year, and that gave me an opportunity to go to City Pages to do what I always thought I'd wanted to do when I was a kid.

Q: How did the podcast start?

A: After I went to 'CCO for four years, I felt really burned out. I remember I went to the guy at WCCO and said, "Can I quit?" And he said, "Well, if you're not going to any other radio station, you can. When do you want to do that?"

And I said, "How's Thursday?" I gave them two days' notice. I've never regretted it. I took nine months off and started this podcast.

Q: Tell me about it.

A: I created a road show, looking all over the United States for eccentrics and iconoclasts. Remember I said I was sort of a misfit? I wanted to find other misfits. People seeing life differently, living life differently. Having experiences wildly different than the average person.

Q: How often do you do it?

A: I do it monthly. I have to find who I'm going to talk to — usually they say no, or refer me to someone else. Or we do it and it's not any good and I have to find something new. Then I have to travel back home and sit with six hours of interviews that I have to edit. And writing — narration, commercials.

Q: Where do people find you?

A: Mischkeroadshow.com is one place. But you can also find me on iTunes. You can find me in about half a dozen places … Spotify, Apple podcasts.

Q: Can you really make a living doing this?

A: Yes, you can. Is it a great living? Well, it's a great living in the sense that I travel and enjoy my life. I live frugally. But when I started at KSTP, I was getting $20 a show. And I said, "Are you kidding? You're paying me for this?"

If you can make a living doing what you like, you've won the lottery.

Q: Are you still in St. Paul?

A: Never left St. Paul.

I tell people if they're moving to Minneapolis, "I'll take your stuff in my pickup truck halfway across the Lake Street Bridge, and you're on your own from there."

Q: Now a book?

A: The last couple winters I've spent writing a book about winter in this part of the country. The North. Not the Midwest. The North. And the unique relationship that exists between the people in this part of the country and the season. It has shaped us. How it's helped raise us. How it dominates — and I mean dominates.

Q: What's it called?

A: "Winter's Song: A Hymn to the North."