Tuesday the 23rd will be my last broadcast on KSTP for this decade. I'm taking a longer holiday this year, and I'll be back on the 4th of January. I want wish you a very Merry Christmas, and thank you personally for your support of the Prebil and Murphy show. I can't tell you what a thrill it is to be on the station I grew up listening to, and I look forward to a great 2010. Personally, I can't complain too loudly about the 00's. I began this decade playing love songs on a 50,000 watt radio station in Springfield, Illinois and am ending the decade as a talk show host on a 50,000 watt radio station in the Twin Cities. But let's be honest in our assessment of the soon to be completed 00's. The Third Millennium is off to a slow start.

This decade will be remembered first and foremost for the attacks on New York and Washington on 9-11-2001. For the first time ever in my life, I was scared. Really scared. As a father of two young children, I feared that day for the world they were about to grow up in. That night I dumped the love songs and took phone calls all night from listeners who felt the exact same way I did. We were all scared together, and yet somehow that gave us comfort. The worst day in American history would set the tone for the rest of the decade. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, security checks at airports, anthrax sent in the mail, troops leaving and coming home, all became the symbols of the decade.

Even the triumphs of the decade came with a price. We celebrated the incredible eight gold medals of Michael Phelps, only to be disappointed when he smoked pot at a party. We celebrated the home run hitting of Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, only to find out they both used steroids to obtain their records. And just recently, we've had a front row seat for the rise and incredible fall of the decade/s greatest athlete, Tiger Woods.

While I admit the 00's sucked, I won't be toasting away this decade with a good riddance. Why? Well, when people ask me which decade was my favorite, I reply the 70's. And that usually gets an eye roll from anyone older than 55. I'll bet it sucked to be an adult in the 70's, coming off the cool 60's, but it was great to be a kid cruising around Apple Valley on my Schwinn Sting Ray. Watching Brady Bunch, 6 Million Dollar Man, Charlie's Angels, WKRP, listening to Machine Gun Kelly on 15-KSTP The Music Station. If you didn't have to deal with the energy crisis, the meat shortage, 21% mortgage rates, crappy discos, or Jimmy Carter, it was a hell of a decade. And that's what I hope the 00's will be for my girls. Knowing that they'll remember fondly the Polly Pockets, Webkinz, The Wii, and all the other things of their childhood from this decade makes the 00's worth the price of admission. Admission, but not one penny more. Here's to the 10's! Happy New Year!