Tacoma, Wash.; December 20, 2001  -  The resumes of the WebTalkGuys look like a quick history of the Information Age.

Among them, they have work experience at Internet retailer Amazon.com, free Internet provider FreeI Networks and delivery box maker ShopperBox. Then there's Yahoo!, ZDnet, America Online and half a dozen Web design, e-commerce and streaming media companies in the United States and Australia.

That broad experience has given these Tacoma-based radio show co-hosts a certain irreverent optimism and respect for financial realities that have kept their radio show alive and growing long after some of their former employers have hit the "delete" key.

In February, the "WebTalkGuys" radio show will celebrate its third birthday. In Internet years, that's close to ancient.

And Saturday, the show moves its home base from small Tacoma radio station KLAY to Internet computer information service CNET Networks and its two all-technology radio stations in San Francisco and Boston. The show also will be available on the Internet both at the CNET site, and at WebTalkGuys.com and on Channel 130 on XM Satellite Radio.

And while the new network deal doesn't promise to make hosts Rob and Dana Greenlee and Pat Scanlon wealthy, it could be a steppingstone to much greater possibilities, they said. CNET and WebTalkGuys share advertising revenue from the show.

"This is definitely going to expand our reach," said Rob Greenlee. Greenlee, formerly marketing director for ShopperBox and FreeINet, now works as marketing chief for Lakewood's Personal Design Concepts.

The hourlong show will be heard from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday and from 7 to 8 p.m. Sunday in Boston and San Francisco and any time on the Net.

CNET operations director Bobby Cole said the network is on the prowl for more stations to add to its network. "We're interested in being in Seattle and Washington, D.C., and we've looked at a number of stations in other top 25 markets," he said.

San Francisco investment banker Mitch Ratcliffe said the CNET connection will greatly expand the WebTalkGuys' audience and exposure.

"I think there's a strong market for this kind of content, which can be produced in a small studio at reasonable costs," he said. Ratcliffe helped finance the start-up of "WebTalkGuys" and served as one of the show's co-hosts for about 14 months.

The Greenlees say the program has survived while many like programs have died because it's been well-received by its audience and because it wasn't cursed, as some Internet companies were, with an overabundance of funding. A rival California-based Web radio show died this fall.

"We've kept our overhead down, and that's helped us survive," said co-host Dana Greenlee, who goes by the moniker WebGirl on the show.

Dana, a former University of Puget Sound librarian and Amazon.com product reviewer, handles the many of behind-the-scenes details of producing the show. She writes scripts and books guests with the help and advice of husband Rob and co-host Scanlon. She acts as the show's engineer.

The show studio is now housed in the spare bedroom of the Greenlees' University Place-area home. Formerly the studio was located in a downtown Tacoma loft, but the downturn in the economy forced the relocation to less-expensive quarters.

Scanlon is the most recent addition to the show. He joined as co-host last April after a career as a Sports Illustrated photographer and Internet businessman in Australia.

"I'm what they call a 'serial entrepreneur,'" he said, recalling his successful information technology career Down Under. Scanlon, now a consultant who makes a career serving as an interim chief executive for technology companies, receives no salary for co-hosting the show.

The show consists of several distinct segments. The three, for instance, spend several minutes discussing the Internet news of the week, interviewing a guest or two from well-known Internet companies and talking about developments in technology or in Internet business.

For a coming show, for instance, the co-hosts talked about how the Internet is becoming a powerful tool in the automotive business for selling cars, attracting new customers and researching car prices.

Because the show is produced in distinct segments, it can be rebundled on the Net as separate parts, so Net users can listen to a segment at a time.

The three believe that although Internet stock boom has imploded, the demand for intelligent and entertaining content is still very much alive.

Even before their CNET deal, the demand for their programming was growing, as evidenced by the inflating bill from their Internet provider. When their site and the availability of their programs was listed on the Windows Media site earlier this year, their traffic more than doubled.

Since Nov. 1, 2000, the public has downloaded more than 37,000 hours of "WebTalkGuys" programming from their Web site.

Rob Greenlee said the future for such content providers like the WebTalkGuys is good because of developments like XM Satellite Radio, which will beam content from satellites directly to specially equipped radios, plus the coming availability of streaming audio on cell phones.

Ratcliffe said there's profit potential in tie-in promotions and Web site links to WebTalkGuys.

"We're not exactly going to be lighting our cigars with $20 bills, but there's the potential for a reliable and reasonable profit there," he said.