Five hundred columns.

That's how many articles about radio have appeared in this space during the past 10 years, all by yours truly. In honor of this milestone -- and in recognition of the fact that hardly anything newsworthy happens in radio around this time of year -- here's a look back at some of the most memorable quotes that have appeared in this space:

1998: "I always thought I just said, 'Fresh Air.' When I'd go places, people would say, 'Say "Fresh Air" for me.' I thought they were crazy." -- National Public Radio interview show host Terry Gross, on being clueless about her famously breathy pronunciation of her show's name.

(I was the first journalist to ask Gross about her trademark way of saying "fresssh air." She told me she felt nervous about saying it after another public-radio personality made fun of it on the air. That was "This American Life" host Ira Glass, who was surprised to hear this story from me. "I gave Terry Gross a complex!")

1999: "I give them a can of tuna so they have some good, solid protein and something to eat." -- KPBS-FM host Gloria Penner, on her habit of carrying tiny flip-top cans of tuna in her purse for the homeless. (Yes, but did she bring along mayo? And how about some relish?)

2000: "It's like baby-sitting your baby brother and making sure the house doesn't burn down." -- KGB's Shelly Dunn, on monitoring her co-hosts on the "Dave, Shelly & Chainsaw" morning show.

2001: "We became friends, as much as any teen and a 40something transsexual can." -- former KOGO talk show host Lynn Harper, reminiscing about her acting work in 1970's "The Christine Jorgensen Story" -- known as a camp classic -- and her friendship with the subject of the film.

2002: "Bunch of Internet BS and hyperbole" -- talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, on rumors that he'd gotten out of service in the Vietnam War because he had a "boil on his butt." (According to the respected Web site snopes.com, he avoided enlistment because he had a "pilonidal cyst" in a sensitive area of his lower posterior.)

2003: "Didn't you used to be Jerry G. Bishop?" -- a Seaport Village restaurant customer's question to its owner, Jerry G. Bishop, the former "SunUp" host and KPOP disc jockey.

"(M)any people have accused Ted of being an arrogant, intimidating, egotistical, obnoxious, liberal, condescending, manipulative, demanding, ignorant moron" -- the KFMB-AM Web site, praising talk-show host and sportscaster Ted Leitner, shortly before he left the station.

2004: "Is he a milquetoast, namby-pamby, skillet-licking mama's boy?" -- A typical remark to a caller by local radio pioneer Bill Ballance, who offered women advice about sex and romance in the 1970s and 1980s. (He died in 2004, a few years after he embarrassed radio scold Dr. Laura Schlessinger by releasing nude photos he'd taken of her when they had a fling. ("Are you a porker, my dear? Have you let yourself go? Are you sitting on your rhino haunches?" -- another Ballance-ism.)

2005: "Moron," "frustrated," "a man of little talent" and "a bitter and probably broke individual." - Nationally syndicated talk-show host Tom Leykis, talking about me on the air after I wrote a column accusing him of being a woman-hater.

2006: "A woman calls one day and says, 'You're not going to believe it, my husband's been abducted by aliens, he's been gone so long. He finally came in real late in the morning, and he was sweaty and nervous.' "And then she says, 'These aliens, they took his wedding ring!' " -- George Noory, host of the syndicated UFOs-and-the-paranormal late-night show "Coast to Coast AM" (heard on KOGO), on one of his memorable calls.

2007: " In my opinion, it is educational. All kids need to learn is that when the pressures of life mount, the best way to deal with them is to drink heavily at a bar and then blow off steam with a good ol' bar fight." -- New Country 95.7 morning host Kris Rochester, on a study that said country songs expose kids to lots of lyrics about booze. (He was kidding. I think.)

"You don't want to give anyone any ideas, but you want to think, 'Just $100,000? Come on!' " -- National Public Radio correspondent Jamie Tarabay, on hearing her possible value as a kidnap victim in Iraq.

2008: "A year later, I booked him at a club in Chicago. Sent him the contract and itinerary and said I couldn't wait to see him. For the first time in his life, he arrived on time. Did I mention that I never had a club in Chicago?" -- KOGO talk-show host Chip Franklin (quoted in the San Diego Reader) on his revenge against jerky comedian/actor Marc "Family Ties" Price.

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Next week: What I've learned after 10 years on the broadcast beat.

By Randy Dotinga's calculations, he began writing this column when he was only 12. Enable his denial about his age by e-mailing him at NCTimesRadio@aol.com.