Hi,

This is not your usual blog post. In this one, I'm reaching out to you, our listeners to help us win one of the upcoming Podcast Awards. From July 1st - 31st, you can go to the website, The Podcast Awards and nominate "5-Alarm Task Force" for one of the awards. You'll find us in the "Government & Organizations" category. If you want to either follow the Awards progress on Twitter or send a tweet out about it or to help us, please be sure to include #PCA18 in your message.

Also, be sure to read the Rules & Regulations to be sure that your vote(s) will count.

Let's be honest, I don't produce the "5-Alarm Task Force" to win awards. I do it for you, the members of the fire service, wherever you may be. Though I only served eight years before an injury knocked me out of service permanently, the fire service has never left me. I continued to stay abreast of fire service news even after I was hurt in 1985.

When I first arrived on Twitter to to talk about my company's efforts to produce a new fire service-themed scripted drama, I would up spending most of my time listening to the people I met talk about today's fire service; its challenges, tactics, equipment and much more. So, I joined into these discussions. Thankfully, I found some terrific mentors and friends and I learned a great deal through them. And they were the ones, who after about a year or so, started encouraging me to start a podcast.

Now, we've just finished our second season with an interview that will air this Monday, July 2nd. We already have guests booked for Season 3 that will begin in late August.

It's funny, whenever I tell people that, 1. I always stop on the site of an emergency, if local fire/EMS is not on-scene, to render aid, and 2. I produce this podcast - they all ask the same question: "Why do you bother to work so hard, like that? You're retired and have bad back."

My answer - "I'm a firefighter/EMT, it's who we are and it's what we do!

Thanks for your vote. It is sincerely appreciated.