It was January of 2012.  The weather was very cold.  I had just retired after 28 years as a federal worker.  I was looking for a project and I found it  in my home town.

I moved here after marrying my lovely wife Jane in 1991.  This place has changed a lot in the last 25 years.  I saw more change coming.  Yet local media was no longer around Fishers as it once was.

I kept track of Fishers local news on a daily basis through the Noblesville Daily Ledger newspaper.  When that it ceased daily publication, I subscribed to the daily Noblesville Times.  But the Times couldn’t weather the economic downturn in the latter part of the previous decade and it too ceased daily publication.

I no longer had a daily news source.  We do have a weekly newspaper, CurrentInFishers, but it is just that, a weekly, which has a Thursday deadline and gets to homes most weeks the following Tuesday.  How would I get current information about what’s happening in Fishers?

I guessed that there were others in Fishers with a desire to know what’s happening now. Therefore, I decided to do it myself.  On that cold evening on January 17th, 2012, I attended my first Fishers Town Council session.  A few days later, I covered my first school board meeting.

When I started this news blog I didn’t even install a counter.  I didn’t want to know how many (or how few) people were reading the news blog aimed at local news in Fishers.  No need to get discouraged early.

It was several months later, when I was approached by a couple of the Fishers Town Council members, that I discovered at least some people were reading my material. Things continued to grow from there.

The more I cover local events, the more I have had the pleasure of getting to know more and more people around Fishers.  What was once a small town of about 11,000 when I first moved here has blossomed into a city of about 90,000 residents.  But what makes Fishers is not the size or growth of the community, it’s the people.  We have plenty of quality people here.

When I approached my 4-year anniversary of writing this blog, it was time to think about what may be ahead.  I met with a good friend who is very tech savvy.  Since I had worked in radio broadcasting years ago, should I start a Podcast?  My friend was direct – a Podcast is a requirement.  He urged me to do it and gave me some invaluable advice on how to get started.

It took a great deal of research and study, but on February 1, 2016, my first Podcasts were posted on the Internet.  Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness was kind enough to appear on the first LarryInFishers local interview Podcast.  I’ve posted over 50 Podcasts since the first of February, including 26 LarryInFishers interview sessions.

However, not all my Podcasting has been successful.  I am a retired Tax Law Specialist and started a daily tax Podcast.  Let’s just say it was not a big success, so I pulled the plug on that series after a few weeks.  I replaced it with a new Podcast called Arts&Fishers which features reviews of local arts events, as well as some reviews of TV programs & films.

After less than 4 and a half months of Podcasting, I surpassed 3,000 plays of my various Podcasts.  For a locally aimed series of Podcasts, that’s a lot of plays.

My thanks to all the Podcast listeners.  You can subscribe to my Podcasts on Soundcloud, iTunes and several other platforms that have picked up my Podcasts.  Or, you can just check this blog regularly.  I feature links in the news feed, plus you can access all my Podcasts by using the “Podcasts” link near the top of this page.

Most of all, I thank all of you for reading this news blog.  As you can see, the blog and Podcasting are volunteer activities for me.  Up to this point, I have not accepted advertising so this has not been a commercial endeavor.

Some people have asked why I don’t seek out ads to make money with this blog.  Frankly, most blogs aimed at a local community don’t get enough traffic to attract advertisers.  So even as the audience for my blog and podcasts grows, I plan to keep this a noncommercial, independent operation for now.  What the future may hold is always up in the air.

So, thanks for your support.  I’ll do my best to keep the content coming.