West Hills NOW! – An introduction

Frank Garland

September 25, 2026

Better late than never.

That’s one way to look at our approach to podcasting here at the West Hills Gazette.

Thanks to plenty of help from our friends – Katie Greissinger, a graduate student at Point Park University; Antonio Rossetti, a talented freelance sports journalist and veteran podcaster; and frequent Gazette contributor Carrie Moniot, the Gazette is launching a weekly podcast, “West Hills NOW!”

News is consumed in more ways than ever – certainly in ways some of us OG types at the Gazette could never have imagined half a century ago. Since launching more than two years ago, the Gazette has tried to bring you a wide range of stories, columns and photos to educate and entertain you through our website, www.westhillsgazette.com.

Analytics show that our readership is steadily growing, but we want to reach even more people in the dozen or so communities we attempt to cover on a regular basis.

Hence, the podcast.

Each week, we will bring you a succinct recap of the top stories that have appeared – or will soon appear – on the Gazette website, along with a sports recap by the aforementioned Mr. Rossetti. In addition, we plan to bring you a newsmaker from one of our “home communities.”

This week’s maiden podcast will feature Joe Riley, owner of Riley’s Pour House, the popular Carnegie gathering spot destroyed by fire nearly two years ago. Groundbreaking was held a week ago for a new Pour House, and Riley joined us to talk about efforts underway to rebuild the beloved place.

We hope you’ll take time out of your busy week to give West Hills Now! a listen. If you do, you’ll join an ever-growing audience who has made podcasts a regular part of their news and entertainment consumption.

Indeed, podcasting no longer is a niche medium in terms of audience size and popularity.

According to The Infinite Dial, a long-running survey of digital consumer behavior in the U.S., podcast listening has taken off in the last decade and continues to climb.

The national survey of 2,050 people age 12 and up was done by Edison Research in January.

The survey found that 86% of the U.S. population over the age of 12 – about 248 million people – were aware of podcasting and 80% percent of those people had consumed at least one podcast.

That’s up from 36% just a decade earlier, meaning the percentage of listeners has more than doubled.

58% of the population 12 and up listened to a podcast within a month of the time the survey was taken. That’s up from 21% who had listened when the survey was done for 2016.

Roughly 64% of men and women in the age 12-34 category consumed a podcast in the month prior to the 2026 survey and 68% in the age 35-54 bracket did likewise. 44% in the 55-and-over category listened to at least one podcast in the month prior to the survey.

While we hope you find the podcasts entertaining and enlightening, we are open to suggestions from you, our audience, on ways we can improve. Additionally, if you know of anyone in your community you think would add to our show, please submit your suggestions to us at mail@westhillsgazette.com

And if you’re interested in sponsoring or advertising on the podcast or on the Gazette website, please drop us a line at the same email address. Lastly, donations are always appreciated. Quality journalism is not free to produce.

And now to our show!

Video by Katie Greissinger