Last Thursday, Lewis and his wife were dealing with the last-minute chores of moving from their home of the past 5½ years in Waco, Texas. The dog which they had rescued — and is named Rush Limdog — had taken the opportunity to dig a hole in the carpet the night before while the couple was out at a going-away party for his wife.

So, in addition to some packing, Lewis was waiting for a carpet repairman.

What can Tucsonans expect when Lewis takes to the air from 6-9 a.m. today?

“I hope you’ll laugh a little bit,” Lewis said. “I’m not an angry guy or a shock jock. I like to talk about topics, local topics, that are compelling and gripping to the listeners and, along the way get a few laughs.”

He says his goal is not to change the whole world or even convince listeners to come over to his point of view.

Lewis said what he hopes will happen is that his show will be a little like the old “Seinfeld” TV show in that people will talk about it around the water cooler.

“That’s what I’d like. To have people saying ‘Did you hear what Garrett Lewis did on the radio today?”

His says he doesn’t usually have a lot of in-studio guests. “I think that shows a lack of preparation on the host’s part. It’s like let’s get a politician in the studio and open up the phone lines. It might be different close to the election if there’s something controversial going on.”

Although Lewis is the “new guy” among local morning radio talkshow hosts, he’s coming into the market’s overall top-rated talk station, sharing the same airwaves on KNST with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.

In Waco, he was on a similar station and even though it was a smaller market it had to deal with competition from a powerhouse talk station coming in from Dallas.

“Competition brings out the best in all of us,” he said.

Lewis, 34, grew up in Long Island and came out to go to Arizona State University. He started working in radio at the Clear Channel stations in Phoenix, as a producer on talk station KFYI and sports-talk station KGME, which bills itself as XTRA sports.

That’s when he got the bug to try his hand at hosting his own show so when the company was looking for a morning show host at its talk station in Waco, he applied.

He said he later found out he was competing with 27 others for the job but landed it, despite the fact that one of the other finalists sent the program director a box of Omaha steaks.

“And I still got the job,” he said.

Lewis says he is happy to be coming back to Arizona. For one, his parents live in the Phoenix area.

“There’s also more to do. That’s not a knock on Waco, it’s just that Tucson is bigger and has more going on.”

On a professional level, Lewis says he’s seen that KNST has been growing even stronger and is looking forward to being a part of more growth.