It's been a while since the last time I initiated conversation intended for an audience (you might remember the show I co-hosted with my pal Tim Brown) and my first time as a solo host. For the first episode of the Hey Riverside podcast I made it a little easier on myself and talked to two friends, Ina Schweitzer and Michael Zeta.

I met Ina when she became one of the first advertisers on the companion website I built for the Ralph & Tim show. Since then we've worked together on a number of projects including The Riverside Traveler - a website for Riversiders who love to travel. She and her mom run European Travel International in Magnolia Center and her parents also founded the German deli that was next to the old 31 Flavors at Brockton and Magnolia Avenues. We talk about her annual Travel Faire (which was a smashing success) and the benefits of having a good travel agent in a day and age where we're prompted by national advertisers to do the job for ourselves. I want to have Ina back soon for a Riverside Profile episode as she has a really terrific Riverside story.

I met Michael a few days after he arrived in the world. His dad (Robert Gonzalez) and I have been playing music together since the early 1980s and Michael got the special gene that gives one the musical and creative obsessions. He is a bright, talented and enthusiastic young man and I really enjoyed sitting down with him to learn more about his band Magnolia [great name for a Riverside band!] and to get his take on growing up in Riverside. He also plays one of his songs (and I recorded an extra one for a future episode).

- Ralph from Riverside