"The safer thing would have been to stay at MSNBC,” said Alison Stewart. “To abandon your comfort zone is scary but it’s also very exciting.”

Ms. Stewart was speaking to NYTV, not long ago, about her decision to leave TV for radio after roughly 15 years of experience—from rocking the vote for MTV News in early 90's to anchoring shows for MSNBC to contributing pieces to the Nightly News with Brian Williams.

This past fall, Ms. Stewart began hosting the Bryant Park Project, a quirky, newfangled morning news show from NPR aimed at a young audience, which is now carried by 18 stations around the country. The show is produced out of the NPR’s New York bureau on 42nd Street, across from—you guessed it!—Bryant Park.

The location—far, far away from the NPR mothership in Washington D.C., and these days pulsing with bass from the fashion shows being held in the white plastic tents in the park—also provides Ms. Stewart and company the mental space to push the boundaries of what is allowable on an NPR morning show (read: banter).

Ms. Stewart said she was enjoying the new gig. “Even if this is not a huge blockbuster success—and I think it will be—I’ve had an amazing time building this show,” said Ms. Stewart.

She traced her infatuation with NPR to a period in her life, years ago, when she was working on ABC’s World News Now, an overnight news show. She would get off at 5 a.m., go home, sleep all day, wake up, and listen to All Things Considered. “It was my morning show,” said Ms. Stewart. “It really kept me company.”

Ms. Stewart said she was still adjusting to radio. Sarcasm, she noted, works differently when people can’t see your facial expression. You have to remember to continuously reintroduce your guests because there’s nothing identifying them at the bottom of the screen. Guffaws must be modulated. “I have a really loud laugh,” said Ms. Stewart. “I have to be careful not to blow out the speaker.”

Ms. Stewart, who is 41, said she was learning to enjoy the perks of the medium. On radio, for example, nobody can see your ears. “I have really big ears,” said Ms. Stewart. “I don’t like to wear my hair back. I used to get funny emails from people. One guy said, ‘your ears look like two flapjacks on a fork.’”

Joking aside, Ms. Stewart said she has never much enjoyed the feverish scrutiny that comes with being a female journalist on TV. “I was in the makeup room one day at work, and I was like, ‘Beauty is a depreciating asset,’” said Ms. Stewart. “When they talk about Katie Couric, she’s a great interviewer, but all they talk about is her clothes and her legs. It’s almost expected, sadly. So there was a certain element of like, wow, NPR is a place where I could grow old gracefully.”

Was it hard to trade in a TV paycheck for a radio one? “NBC offered to pay me a lot more money than I make now, just to have a full time job there,” said Ms. Stewart. “But, as I said to someone, I don’t need any more shoes. I have a lot of shoes.”

Ms. Stewart said that when she originally announced her plans to join the Bryant Park Project she got a few “are you serious?” questions from her colleagues at NBC. “I can understand why it would mess with some people,” said Ms. Stewart. “If you say the Today show people know that that is. If you say The Nightly News people know what it is.”

Throughout the transition, one of her colleagues at MSBNC was steadfastly supportive—namely Bill Wolff, the vice president of prime time programming. A k a, her husband.

Ms. Stewart and Mr. Wolff met at MSBNC, back in the channel’s Secaucus days, when Mr. Wolff was producing Tucker Carlson’s show and Ms. Stewart was anchoring a daytime show called The Most. In November, 2006, they wed at Cipriani on 23rd Street. They are due to give birth to their first child sometime this spring.

Mr. Wolff, whose own role at MSNBC has been much speculated about in recent months (ever since TV Newser reported that the channel had taped a pilot featuring Mr. Wolff and Air America host Rachel Maddow) said he supported his wife’s decision to leave for radio.

“I know sometimes she gets the question how can you go from television to radio when so many people want to go the other way,” he said. “I think anytime you make a move there is risk. I would also add that there’s a lot of upside potential. It has never hurt anyone’s reputation to work for National Public Radio. It’s not like going to work for the circus.”

He said his wife was a great match for public radio. “You can get deeper into things,” said Mr. Wolff. “Also there’s less commercial pressure to cover some of the stuff she’s not as interested in. She doesn’t have to do celebrity news if she doesn’t want to.”

These days, Ms. Stewart continues to contribute the occasional piece to The Nightly News with Brian Williams and to fill-in occasionally on MSNBC. In the meantime, Mr. Wolff has started occasionally popping up, in a professional capacity, at his wife’s new work place. Every so often, Mr. Wolff (who, for years, worked at ESPN) contributes sports stories to the Bryant Park Project.

Ms. Stewart said her husband’s contributions have helped the show round out its general interest approach towards the news. “One of the things we’re doing here, which is weird for NPR, I guess,” said Ms. Stewart, “is we’re trying to have a real conversation about sports. And not just, like, the scrabble tournament is happening today.”