Back on January 3, 2005, Neville and Shel released the first episode of “For Immediate Release.” That was several months before Apple introduced podcasts to iTunes, an event that is widely associated with the rise of podcasting’s popularity. Our best guess is that there were about 400 podcasts available at the time. FIR was the first to focus on PR and communication. Since then, we have produced over 1,200 episodes of the show, along with FIR Interviews and a couple of other spinoff shows.

While the newest episode is officially episode #377, we reset the episode numbering back in 2015 when we retired the show name, “The Hobson and Holtz Report,” at episode #824. Add them together, and this is actually our 1,201st episode. It also marks the beginning of our 20th year of podcasting.

In this anniversary episode, we briefly recount FIR’s beginnings but spend more time on podcasting’s status today and where it’s heading.

Links from this episode

• For Immediate Release episode #1, January 3, 2005
• After a Year of Pullback, Podcast Industry Hopes to Regroup In 2024 — With an AI Boost
• 9 Podcast Trends to Follow (2024-2026)
• Perplexity’s Response to Neville’s Podcasting Prompt
• “How to Do Everything with Podcasting,” Shel and Neville’s 2007 book on Amazon U.S.

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The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, January 29.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

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