When he was an intern for Ryan Seacrest’s radio show in 2008, Tim Mihalsky kept busy answering phones, fetching coffee – and fighting his impulse to join the on-air banter.

Seacrest never asked Mihalsky to weigh in during those days at KIIS-FM (102.7). So the Thousand Oaks resident started doing his own one-hour weekly talk show on the web. He was soon asked to bring it to Burbank-based Internet station KYHY.com, where he expanded to a two-hour show five days a week. He then began pitching his program to broadcast radio stations.

“I made a lot of phone calls,” he said. “A lot of people would give excuses or simply tell me no, but I never got hung up on.”

Mihalsky managed to get the show carried by stations in Santa Cruz, the Inland Empire and two in Virginia. His talk show, aimed at young adults, reaches about 25,000 listeners a day.

But now the 24-year-old has landed a broadcast radio syndication deal with Skokie, Ill.-based FoxRock Communications, which is trying to take “Block With Tim Show” nationwide.

Matt Smith, president of FoxRock, said Mihalsky fills a void in the marketplace: There isn’t much talk radio that appeals to the 18-34 demographic.

“A lot of talk radio is targeted for people in their 30s and 40s,” Smith said.

Mihalsky does the show with sidekick Ashleigh Speidel live from Burbank on Mondays then prerecords shows the rest of the week from his home studio. Celebrity guests have included Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Wilmer Valderama and Wendy Williams.

Tom Taylor, who tracks online radio at Radio-Info.com, attributes Mihalsky’s success today to his days – frustrating at the time – as an apprentice to the master.

“He watched Ryan,” Taylor said. “There’s no better operator in the radio business than Seacrest.”