Public radio's Ira Glass is taking his show, "This American Life," to Showtime starting March 22, which seems curious to me, since he's taking something currently available on more than 500 stations nationally -- and as a podcast on iTunes -- and fashioning a version for a premium-cable channel that's likely not so widely available. And definitely not for free.

When a reporter asked him whether he could have done the show for PBS, Glass said there was "a polite answer" and "an impolite answer."

Naturally, we urged him toward the latter.

"I feel like public television is terrible," Glass said. "Just in terms of innovation, it's not very interesting."

He does like "Frontline," but offered no other examples.

"Showtime approached me, public TV did not approach me," he said, noting that if PBS had been interested, it would have had to go out and raise money, while Showtime was able to ante up immediately.

Even so, he's been talking with Showtime since 2002, as he and producers wrestled with the challenges of translating "Life's" s idiosyncratic stories to the small screen.

Showtime may offer another advantage: Since the FCC's recent crackdowns on language, Glass said there are stories the radio show did six or seven years ago that it can no longer rerun.

Presumably Showtime, whose other shows include such graphic fare as the lesbian drama "The L-Word" and "Dexter," a sympathetic look at a serial killer, will allow Glass to be as impolite as he wishes.

"We're not doing it so we can get rich...it's Showtime, you don't get rich," he said.