Welcome to the first edition of the "Enjoy Hoover" podcast. This is a guide to some of the fun events and delicious restaurants Hoover, Alabama presents. We will meet the co-publisher of "Enjoy Hoover" and find out more about this wonderful southern town. From the Enjoy Hoover Studios. This is the Enjoy Hoover Podcast, your monthly guide to news and exciting events, all with big city style. With a small town feel. Everyone is welcome here to our small, enticing piece of Alabama. So welcome you all to enjoy Hoover. Welcome to the first edition of the Enjoy Hoover Podcast. Now we want to introduce you to one of the co publishers of Enjoy Hoover, Matthew Allen, and find out more about him and life in Hoover, Alabama. Hey Matthew. Now first off can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Yeah. Uh, my name is Matthew Allen. I have lived in Hoover for 20 years. I grew up in Georgia, went to the University of Georgia and studied journalism, and moved here to get married to my my wife of now 18 years. And my first job was at a newspaper in Shelby County. And prior to leaving that job, I helped start Hoover's magazine, which has been around for quite a while now. And then I worked at Starnes Media, which is another local publishing company, and helped start the Hoover Sun there. So I've kind of got a background of being involved with Publications and Hoover. But in 2019, I went to work for myself, and I bought a small magazine called Birmingham Family. And this coming April, we will be launching our fourth and fifth magazines here in the Birmingham market. What was the inspiration for the Enjoy Hoover magazine and what do you want to get out of it? So enjoy Hoover. Really the credit has to go to David Cohen. David is the owner of the whole scoop ice cream shop here in Hoover. And David's background is hospitality and food and beverage. And being a small business owner, he wanted to do something to help promote restaurants and entertainment and retail here in Hoover. So he launched Enjoy Hoover Comm a few years ago, and about two years ago, he approached me because he wanted to start a magazine to complement the website. And with my background in publishing, um, he and I have become good friends over the years, and he wanted me to help with that. And our third partner is Mitzi Baker, who, uh, has a background and content development and digital advertising and media. So the three of us set out to start enjoy Hoover. And, uh, it's been out almost two years now. So magazine is published every other month, and I'm very proud of it. How does the magazine engage with the community? So the title really explains what we're trying to do. So, uh, we want people to enjoy Hoover. You know, Hoover is no longer a suburb. It is really, uh, one of the largest cities in Alabama. We're close to 100,000 residents. There's a lot going on in Hoover. There's a lot of retail growth. There's a lot of new restaurants. There's a lot of entertainment. And we want enjoy Hoover to be a magazine that appeals not only to residents, people who live and work and spend most of their time in Hoover, but people who visit Hoover as well. And there's a lot of people coming to Hoover for a lot of, a lot of different reasons. So, you know, if you are in Hoover all the time or just for a few days, enjoy. Hoover is there to help you figure out the best places to eat, the best places to shop, and the, uh, fun things that are going on around town. How do you see the podcast help getting the news out to the community? The podcast is obviously, I think, going to be a big deal because people love to listen or listen to podcasts or watch videos. It's me included. A lot of my day is spent listening to various podcasts, and so when I have the opportunity to to start a podcast for my company, I wanted to start with the Joey Hoover because it made perfect sense. There is a lot of good content that we're producing around, uh, local restaurants, local events. And Hoover is a very it's a busy city. A lot of the people that live here have kids that keep them busy going back and forth from place to place, and a lot of times they find themselves looking for something to listen to while they're sitting there waiting for their child to finish whatever they're doing, or on the drive back and forth or the commute back and forth to work. So I felt like a podcast would be a great addition to what we're trying to do with the magazine. What are some hidden gems about Hoover that people may not know about? You know, I think a lot of people, when they when they think about Hoover with their especially if they're not from Hoover, they think ...
