Content summary: Welcome to the 5th anniversary episode; how FIR started; first test audio from Dec 2004; clip from FIR #1 on Jan 3, 2005; some listener comments; please vote for FIR at Podcast Alley; acknowledging our correspondents, past and present: Lee Hopkins, Michael Netzley, Dan York, Eric Schwartzman, David Phillips, Sallie Goetsch; the Media Monitoring Minute from CustomScoop; a five-year retrospective (details below); more listener comments; thanks to our sponsors Ragan Communications and CustomScoop; acknowledging our voice talents: Donna Papacosta, Heidi Miller and Krishna De; diary notes: FIR Live on Jan 23, FIR Interview with Andrea Weckerle later this week; music from NOFX; and more.

FIR 5-Year Retrospective

• Episode #1: January 3, 2005
  South-East Asian tsunami
• Episode #99: January 2, 2006
  Lincoln Group pay-for-play
• Episode #202: January 1, 2007
  Edelman/Microsoft laptop kerfuffle
• Episode #307: January 3, 2008
  GM Next
• Episode #410: January 1, 2009
  Israel and social media during Gaza

Get FIR:

• Download the MP3 file (25.6Mb, 63:51)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed
• Get the show at iTunes

Messages from our sponsors: FIR is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years, www.ragan.com; Save time with the CustomScoop online clipping service: sign up for your free two-week trial, at www.customscoop.com/fir.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, for January 4, 2010: A 64-minute podcast recorded live from Concord, California, USA, and Wokingham, Berkshire, England.

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute – see the show notes home page for info.

• FIR #514 show notes at The New PR Wiki

Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Join the FIR Discussion Forum and extend your conversations with the FIR community. You can also join the FIR Facebook Community and become an FIR friend.

To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

So, until Thursday January 7…

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