Can't get on the network? Get on the Net

"THE Young Turks" wasn't conceived as a new communications tool for the left. In 1995, Uygur, then a bored attorney in Washington, D.C., started a program on public access television called "The Young Turk" as a forum for his sharp opinions. The show, which aired for two years, was decidedly low-tech: It consisted of Uygur sitting in a chair next to an ugly plant. Nevertheless, he gained a cult following around the capital. Radio and television hosting gigs soon followed, and he quit practicing law.

Seven years later, he and Mankiewicz -- who had worked together on a show in Miami -- pitched the idea of a left-wing political radio program to the fledgling Sirius Satellite Radio network. "The Young Turks" premiered on Sirius in February 2002, and soon afterward, Uygur invited Pike, whom he met working on a television pilot, to join the show.

In the early days, they taped several programs back to back in Uygur's West Hollywood home, a "dank, dinky little apartment," 25-year-old Pike recalls. After about a year, they moved to a small studio on Wilshire Boulevard and the show began broadcasting live.

Last April, "The Young Turks" decided to take the program national. It was picked up by local stations in Wichita, Pittsburgh and Seattle and continued to run on Sirius. But fans of the show, who view it as one of the only outlets for liberal discussion on the dial, urged the hosts to try to get onto television as well.

"There's just a huge audience out there that's not being served," says Wendy Foster Dickson, a stay-athome mother of three in a St. Louis suburb, who started a letter-writing campaign to cable networks on behalf of "The Young Turks" on her website CommonSenseMom.com.

Her efforts generated a few phone calls from curious cable executives, but discussions never got off the ground.

Uygur then suggested the idea of an online show. "I'm not a real tech guy; I still don't have an iPod," he says. "But I can see where things are going."

Together, the Turks raised $500,000 -- enough to buy equipment, rent the studio space and pay the staff for a year. The idea: to create a broadcast-quality program available simultaneously on the radio and online.

"This was not one of those 'Hey, let me put up a webcam in my room,' " Uygur says.

Since December, viewers have been able to watch the show live on the website from 3 to 6 p.m. PST, a feed that is also available simultaneously on Sirius. For $10 a month, members have access to archives and extra segments on the website.