This site is nearly six months in the making and it’s all your fault!

Before I get into the details of why, I want to send a special shout out to Jon DiPietro of Domesticating IT and our show producer Steve Messa.  Jon’s knowledge of and savvy with the Web has helped us transform our entire Web presence in a way we never thought possible.  Steve invested many hours working to both help Jon understand our show and do the work needed to reinvent how we communicate with you.  My enduring thanks to both!

As our show grew and grew, our former site was simply overwhelmed.  The amount of content we were uploading on a daily basis was too much for our former format to handle.  More importantly, we noticed that the site failed to encourage your participation.  Our show’s mission is “To Connect LOCAL People, Places and Things” and our mantra is “News From Our Own Backyard.”  Try though we may, our last site wan’t helping us meet that mission and that had to change.

Now more than ever, we will be able to receive that news and commentary from you, the people in our own backyard.  Where better to get that info?

We’ve worked hard to improve and more innovatively integrate our site with the social media outlets we have used and will now use to cultivate an interactive audience; an audience that can give as much as it receives so that it can truly become part of our effort to rebuild locally owned, operated and focused media in the modern age.  Of course, we still have our facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages.  Now we’ve added Google+ and Flickr to our social media offerings and created an RSS feed.

You will notice some subtle changes in how we use our preexisting social media pages.  However, there will be some big changes, too.  For example, we will no longer “live blog” various meetings and events on facebook.  Now, all that will be done right here!  Just join the “live blog” sessions found under “Oh My BLOG!” in the navigation section.  Our posts and your comments will no longer be randomly reshuffled.  The will stay in the order they were posted!  By the way, you no longer need to be a member of our site to comment.  Just chime right in!

Along with the new site, we’re launching both a daily and weekly news letter.  Those of you who signed up to be members of our old site are “on the list.”  Don’t worry, you can opt out if you choose.  Those of you who want to sign up, it’s easy enough.  Be on the look out for “premium content,” too.

A Girard at Large SWAG store is on the way, too!  Not only will you be able to get GAL GEAR (who wouldn’t want that?), you’ll also be able to get the many different items offered by our guests; could be a ticket to an event, a book, music and ooohhh sooo much more!  It’s all about connecting local to local.

For those of you who love the archives, and those of you who’d like them to be more easily accessible, we want you to know that we’re finalizing plans to “podcast” the show.

We’re also working on “an app.”  Yes, Girard at Large will soon have its own app!  How cool is that?

As we’ve said all along, what we’re doing isn’t about a radio show.  It’s about reaching out to and engaging a locally interested audience that wants to know about the LOCAL people, places and things that may matter in their lives.  With your help, we will continue to be known as THE place to go when someone wants to know what’s going on around Manchester and the surrounding towns.

Finally, we truly thank you and our sponsors for the enduring support.  Our listener, Web  and sponsor base is large, loyal and growing.  Without our audience and sponsors, we’d be “dead in the air.”  Our new Web presence will better serve both.  We only ask that our audience continue to spread the word and give our sponsors the right of first refusal on the products and services they offer.  We are all a team and if we support each other there’s no end to what we can do!

With respect, appreciation, I remain

Your Humble Host,

Rich Girard…Oh My HEAD!