Four years ago today – on January 3, 2005 – we published the first episode of a new podcast called “For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report.”

Describing ourselves as “Neville Hobson, ABC, and Shel Holtz, ABC, a pair of communication professionals who think they have something to say,” we set out to introduce something new into organizational communication by using a then-emerging tool such as podcasting to demonstrate how such a tool could work for communicators.

During these four years, we’ve grown FIR into a series of podcasts embracing interviews with interesting people, book reviews and more, and expanded the main Hobson and Holtz Report podcast into a twice-weekly show of about an hour per episode.

On January 1, we produced the 410th episode of the Hobson and Holtz Report.

Doing FIR also led us to get to know Yvonne De Vita and a deal with McGraw-Hill to write and produce How To Do Everything With Podcasting, a book that walks you, step by step, through the process of creating, broadcasting and promoting your own podcast, in the summer of 2007.

Most important, though, is the fact that doing FIR has given us a unique opportunity to create and help build a community of people around the world who take an interest in our brand of talk about that intersection of online communication, business and technology and what it might mean to communicators and their organizations.

So as we begin our fifth year of FIR, we’d like to say thank you to an awful lot of people – our listeners, fellow communicators, clients, journalists, other podcasters, other influencers… the list really is long – who have knowingly (and unknowingly) influenced and informed us and have been or have become members of this community.

We’d especially like to mention our correspondents, present and past, who form integral parts of FIR:

• Dan York – reporting from New Hampshire on Thursdays on communication from the technologist’s point of view.
• Michael Netzley – reporting from Singapore on Mondays on the communication scene across Asia.
• Lee Hopkins – ‘our man in the Adelaide Hills,’ Lee was our first correspondent, reporting from Australia from 2005 until early 2008.
• David Phillips – occasional reports from the shadows of Stonehenge in England.
• Eric Schwartzman – occasional reporting from Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world.
• Sallie Goetsch – doses of reality from The Podcast Asylum.

And our two sponsors:

• Ragan Communications – serving communicators worldwide for 35 years with content, conferences and communities.
• CustomScoop – save time with the CustomScoop online clipping service: sign up for your free two-week trial.

To each and every one of you: Thank you.

We plan to continue providing you with great content. And if you have ideas or suggestions for any of the FIR podcasts, just let us know.

If you’re new to FIR, why not give us a try? You can subscribe right here via the RSS feed or in iTunes, or choose which FIR podcast you’d like to get.

And finally, if you’re feeling nostalgic, here is episode #1 from four years ago. Enjoy!

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)