Are you ready?

In Greenfield, he commands the 7 p.m. time slot, right after ''Polka with Joe." In Holden, he follows two hours of ''Christmas with The Duttons." Needham residents can catch him at 10 p.m., immediately following ''Getting to Know Your Finance Committee."

The voice is unmistakable. So is the profile. But the setting is strange. No podium on the Senate floor. Just a cutout of Boston's skyline and a woebegone basket of flowers on a little caf table.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, one of the best-known figures in American politics, is now hosting his own community-access cable show, and he fits in perfectly amidst the weird, wacky, and unfailingly earnest...

I'm sure he's thankful for the media coverage. Otherwise his ratings would sink.