By By MICHAEL C. GUILMETTE JR. / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Listeners who miss hearing Gloria Cooper's interviews since she left WNIL in December 2006 will soon have a chance to hear her again.
Cooper is joining with the Niles Daily Star and the Niles District Library to move her interview programs to a new medium – the Internet.
On Feb. 5, Cooper will begin interviewing again, and shortly afterwards her interviews will be available online for her listeners to access at their leisure.
"I'm personally very excited about it," Cooper said. "This format is very new, very different."
Cooper plans on conducting her interviews much like she did for years on the radio, but three times a week instead of five. Since she is no longer limited by a live radio format, Cooper said she could potentially interview three people in a single day, thereby completing a week's worth of programming at once.
In order to put the plan in operation, Cooper's show will be supported financially by the Niles Daily Star and produced by the library.
"I'm excited about the partnership," Cooper said. "I have always felt partnerships are the basis of any successful endeavor."
Cooper said both Jan Griffey, publisher of the Niles Daily Star, and Nancy Studebaker, director of the library, approached her independently in December 2006 and both proposed similar projects. The idea for a partnership developed soon afterwards once Cooper brought all three of them together.
"My first thought [after hearing Cooper was no longer going to have her radio show] was how to get this really unique and valuable resource to come and work for the newspaper," Griffey said. "It is so exciting how it has come together."
Griffey said the venture furthers her belief that the Niles Daily Star, in this age of Internet, can fill every information niche in the Niles community. The project is a fantastic step toward meeting that goal, she said.
She also said would be a benefit to Niles.
"Anything that is good for the community is good for the Niles Daily Star," Griffey said.
Studebaker is also excited about the prospect of the new project.
"I feel like it's one of the best things I have ever done as a library director," Studebaker said. She also admitted she is somewhat nervous since the concept is relatively new. However, she felt it was important to make Gloria's Place available again.
"We thought it was important not to have a big gap," she said.
Gloria's Place will be available through the Niles Daily Star Web site beginning Feb. 12. Listeners will have the option to either listen to a show on the site or download a show as a podcast for listening on a portable device.