Station: WGIR (Various NH locations) - 610AM Manchester

Station notes: I think this station simulcasts to other stations, but I'm pretty sure you can't hear it easily in southwestern NH. However you can the Manchester 610 signal in Boston; just a little scratchy.

Shows on this station:

• 3-6 PM (approx) M-F, 8-10 AM Sat (approx): Against the Grain with Gardner Goldsmith, 877-313-8255

  • Live streaming? Not that I can find
  • Accepts calls? Yes
  • Reads e-mails on the air? Unknown
  • Instant Message option? Unknown
  • Plays voice mails on the air? Unknown, but he does audio productions so I bet he would have a use for messages or poems that talk about his show
  • Screener? Yes, usually producer Jason Richardson
  • OK to call if you can't hear the show? I suspect it's ok.
  • OK to bring up brand new topics?
  • Show notes: This is a clearly libertarian show based in Manchester. It is extremely high quality, far better than Bortz. The host is very bright and funny and does creative audio production. I've only heard the show a couple times as of 10/04, but called in and thanked him for what he's doing, told him about nhliberty.org and their liberty rankings for NH politicians. I think he would make a bigger blow for freedom if he concentrated more on state and local politics though. Sometimes his lines jam up on Sat.

• ~7AM - ~9AM Weekdays unknown local show - appears that they don't take calls.
  (~9AM-3PM National programming).

Here are some more NH talk stations about which I have little information, but at least now you know they exist: Some of them may simulcast WGIR.

2. Letters to the Editor

Fun to write and rewarding to see in print...LTE's give you a chance to liberate a few square inches of your local "happy paper," or even a paper on the other side of the state.

Advantages: LTE's directly remind local print journalists that the traditional New Hampshire philosophy of limited government is alive and fighting hard. That probably weighs into their thinking a bit when they write future stories and op-eds. LTE's also reach out directly to voters if they get published. They can be written at leisure and fine tuned rather than presented on the fly. And there are a lot of papers to pick from here. Most papers can be read online, so you don't generally need a subscription to get involved. You can surf around, copy and paste a few articles to your laptop or PDA then write up a response there during layovers, lunchbreaks, etc. when you don't have net access.

Disadvantages: You can't write LTE's to your local paper that often. Most papers limit you to one published letter every month (see list below for details). It can also be a pain to keep track of how well your bullets are hitting the target. Some of New Hampshire's papers either don't publish LTE's online or, if they do, will require a subscription to view them. So if you're writing a paper you don't subscribe to and read every day, it's hard to figure out which letters got used. There is also some indication that some of the papers are not eager to publish conservative or libertarian LTE's. My best guess is that about 2/3rds of mine have been published, but that's almost speculation since it's so hard to track.

Tips: Each paper has different rules and parameters regarding how long a letter can be, how many of yours they will publish each month, etc. Try to know these before you submit a letter; I've summarized below the rules I'm aware of for each paper. Some of the length requirements are pretty stringent...200 words is only about 8 lines of typewritten text! If your letter is only going to one paper (as most of mine do), make clear to them in your preamble that you wrote it exclusively for them. Ideally you should be responding to something that they published rather than starting from scratch. Supporting something good is better than attacking something bad. Railing against authoritarian individuals or organizations is not necessarily a bad thing, but it gives them free publicity at your expense. Supporting a liberty-friendly cause or person does the same to your benefit.

If you're weighing in on a state issue you can write any paper in the state, but as a rule it's best not to weigh in on a local issue unless you're one of the locals. An exception would be if you're addressing the manner in which that local issue affects other parts of the state, or if you are expressing admiration of something in that town. I don't know if it's required but I usually tack on a sentence before or after the LTE that informs the paper they have my permission to print it without contacting me.

Claire Wolfe suggests writing a "poem to editor." I like this idea and will probably start doing it. One other tool you can use to make your letters more humorous is the liberty-oriented Verbal Arsenal.

Sometimes I give out short URL's of liberty-friendly organizations: nhliberty.org for instance. Or you can mention when and where our next monthly meeting is going to be...that info is here.

Lastly, if you're referring to a state politician in your LTE, you could check nhliberty.org/research.htm to see what her liberty ranking is...that way you can congratulate or construcively criticize her based on her rating. I believe anyone above 50% should be praised.

To see some of the letters I've written or helped others write, click here.

List of New Hampshire papers that accept LTE's:

Manchester Union Leader

• Nature of online edition: Appears the entire paper is published online as well as in print; except for the LTE's which appear only in print I believe. No subscription is required to view stories and editorials.
• Maximum allowed length of letter: 200 words
• Maximum frequency of publication: One letter every 2 weeks per writer
• How to submit: e-mail.
• Information they require: Include your name and address, both will be published. Submit telephone number for verification (that part will not be published).
• General comments: This paper tends to be conservative and friendly to most liberty-oriented causes including the Free State Project itself. So your audience will probably reflect this. Don't send attachments, be sure to address it to "Publisher" or "Editor."

Concord Monitor

• Maximum allowed length of letter: Not sure, but it looks like they are favoring the very short submissions of around 150 words...the longest I've seen in October '04 is 300 words...so try keeping it down to 200.
• Maximum frequency of publication: Not sure, but most papers will only publish one letter per month from the same person.
• How to submit: Use their e-mail form.
• Information they require: Not sure...but papers normally require your name, address and phone number.
• General comments: Government town, liberal paper. The idea of a government that limits itself to the defense of individuals from aggression and fraud....this idea is alien to the Monitor. Its readers seem to mirror this bias a bit. But so far I don't know of any reason not to send letters here.

Nashua Telegraph

• Maximum allowed length of letter: No hard and fast policy; I've seen letters over 300 words here, but shorter is generally better.
• Maximum frequency of publication: They prefer to limit to once a month per person but I don't think it's a hard and fast policy.
• How to submit letter: Use their e-mail form.
• Information they require: From their site: "Although the paper does not publish phone numbers or street addresses (unless specifically requested), that information must be included with letters for verification purposes."
• General comments: Their site also reads: "The Telegraph welcomes letters from its readers that are exclusive to this newspaper. To speed publication, writers should keep their letters brief. Nashua itself is fairly libertarian, if their state reps are any indication. So your audience will probably reflect that to some extent.

Portsmouth Herald

• Maximum allowed length of letter: Unknown
• Maximum frequency of publication: Unknown, but most papers seem to have a limit of once a month.
• How to submit: email
• Information they require: Not sure...but papers normally require your name, address and phone number.
• General comments and instructions: Liberal area, liberal paper. The Herald is somehow associated with Exeter and Dover papers, I think; I'm not sure whether they will allow you to have an LTE published in all three during the same month.

Laconia Citizen

• Maximum allowed length of letter: Unknown, but this week one letter was almost 400 words.
• Max frequency of publication: Unknown; best to assume one a month
• How to submit letter: e-mail ; I assume you need to leave your snail mail addie & your phone number
• Information they require: Not sure...but papers normally require your name, address and phone number.
• General comments and instructions: Northernmost of the major NH papers, I think.

Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, Rochester area)

• Maximum allowed length of letter: Unknown
• Max frequency of publication: Unknown
• How to submit letter:
• Information they require: Not sure...but papers normally require your name, address and phone number.
• General comments and instructions:

Keene Sentinel

• Maximum allowed length of letter: Unknown, but I've seen letters up to 500 words there.
• Max frequency of publication: Once a month
• How to submit letter: Use their online submission page
• Information they require: Name, address and phone number.
• General comments and instructions: Online edition does not let you read much without a subscription. Liberal paper, liberal city. Rural areas surrounding are conservative/libertarian. I've experienced delays of a week or two getting printed in Autumn 04, but usually they do print me. Independently owned paper.

Peterborough Transcript

• Maximum allowed length of letter: Unknown
• Max frequency of publication: Unknown
• How to submit letter:
• Information they require: Not sure...but papers normally require your name, address and phone number.
• General comments and instructions:

3. Participation in NH-centric Web Forums

Just as Talk Radio helped conservatives "become the media" in the 90s, web forums and related internet tools can help us do the same in this decade, in this state.

Advantages: This is the quickest yet least time-sensitive way to be the media. When you participate in forums around the Net you can post a piece of news months after it's happened or respond to a post that is years old. You have immediacy and are usually guaranteed to get "published." Unlike radio and print, the links you post do not require the reader to type anything, they just point and click and end up where you want them to be. Also unlike other media, it's easy to start a topic from scratch on web forums. You don't have to be responding to anything; you can set your own agenda. You can usually track with relative ease the number of times your threads have been viewed, and you can have continuing give-and-take communication with your readers. You can keep coming back to the discussion and play sales rep for your idea.

Disadvantages: Usually not that many people will see your post; dozens on average.

Tips: If you can, tack on a signature that links to your favorite NH freedom group. Mine usually says:

Is Your State Rep a Tax Nazi? Find out!

It's important not to preach, not to alienate and not to be too negative. Again, supporting a solution or a fellow freedom lover is better than attacking a problem or an authoritarian. There's a time for each but the former is more productive than the latter. It gives free publicity to good things rather than bad things.

Lastly, don't always be content to merely swap a few ideas. Use the opportunity to recruit members for your favorite liberty-friendly institution or activity in-state. Personally I like to try and get folks to come to our socials, by directing here.

List of NH-Oriented Web Forums:

I'm listing these in order of how active they are...the most active are listed first.

Free State Project Web Forum

• Political leaning: libertarian
• Registration required? Yes, if you want to post
• Number of registered users as of 10/04: ~3000
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: ~40
• General comments about this forum: Web forum for the group that aims to draw 20,000 liberty lovers to New Hampshire, reinforcing & enhancing the freedoms of the freest place on earth. Much of the traffic on this forum now originates from New Hampshire as some of the the most active participants have already moved.

Salem Forum (with area for general NH discussion)

• Political leaning: None officially, but the participants seem to be libertarian or conservative
• Registration required? Yes, if you want to post
• Number of registered users as of 10/04: 550
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: ~6
• General comments about this forum: This forum is the most active of the successful neforums.org series. Technically it's Salem-centric but it has an active section for discussing NH state and national politics. I mostly stay out of the Salem section since I don't live there.

Independent Media

• Political leaning: Left
• Registration required? Unknown
• Number of registered users as of 10/04: Unknown
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: Unknown
• General comments about this forum: This isn't precisely a a web forum, more of a place to post articles you have written. I don't know what happens after that. It's a worldwide institution with a New Hampshire branch of some kind...not sure how active that branch is.

DFNH (aka the Nanny State Project)

• Political leaning: authoritarian left
• Registration required? Yes, and I'm not sure new registrations are being accepted
• Number of registered users as of 10/04: Unknown
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: ~6
• General comments about this forum: These is a forum which I believe was originated for NH residents who were supporters of Howard Dean for pres. I try not to spend too much time here or get too active since it's not a place where you can easily win people over. Heck I can't even get anyone there to say a word in favor of drug freedoms or sexual freedoms. So apparently they're not real liberals, more like straight-line authoritarians.

WMUR (Channel 9) Forums

• Political leaning: None officially, but the people posting generally seem to be slightly more authoritarian or leftist than your average NH resident.
• Registration required? Yes, if you want to post.
• Number of registered users as of 10/04: Unknown
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: ~5
• General comments about this forum: I love this forum. There is a fair amount of traffic here and apparently a lot of lurkers, also there is good diversity of opinion. You can't start your own topic; you have to join one of the threads started by the station. Usually a third of these are somehow related to liberty in NH. Also your message has to be approved by a moderator before appearing. So far I think 14 of the 15 or so I have submitted were approved.

NH Liberty Alliance

• Political leaning: libertarian
• Registration required? Yes, you have to be an Alliance member and register on the site to post or even read most of the categories.
• Number of registered users as of 10/04: 90
• Average number of posts per day as of 8/04: ~3
• General comments about this forum: It's not that active because most of the people who would otherwise post there are using the FSP site instead. However the Alliance itself is shaping up well, local freedom activists say they've never seen anything like it!

Politics Cafe NH thread

• Political leaning: None officially, but the participants seem to be more libertarian or conservative as of 10/04. 4+ Free Staters already active on this thread
• Registration required? Yes, if you want to post
• Number of registered users as of 10/04: N/A - it's just a thread
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: ~2
• General comments about this forum thread: It's been going for a long time and was I think started long before the Porcupines chose NH. It's FSP-friendly though not universally so. They've talked about the FSP a lot there and I would say somewhere around 5 Free Staters have posted there.

nh.politics - Usenet newsgroup

• Political leaning: None officially
• Registration required? Sort of.. if you don't have any kind of newsgroup account you'll have to set up one and you can do so by heading to the link above...just try to post something and if you don't have a Usenet account it will tell you how to start one through Google (it's really easy).
• Estimated number of registered users: Unknown
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: ~4, but most of these are Bush or Kerry spammers - for now.
• General comments about this newsgroup: Try prefacing each NH-related post there with the letters "NH." That will make your message stand out against the off-topic spam. Bear in mind you can't erase or edit messages you post to any newsgroup.

nh.general - Usenet newsgroup

• Political leaning: None
• Registration required? Sort of.. if you don't have any kind of newsgroup account you'll have to set up one, and you can do so by heading here.
• Estimated number of registered users: Unknown
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: ~4, but most of these are Bush or Kerry spammers as of 10/04. On the other hand, Usenet groups like this are sort of guaranteed never to die out; if people start posting more NH stuff there the group will spring back to life.
• General comments about this newsgroup: Try prefacing each NH-related post there with the letters "NH". That will make your message stand out against the off-topic spam. Bear in mind you can't erase or edit messages you post to any newsgroup.

Bedford Blog

• Political leaning: Unknown
• Registration required? Unknown
• Estimated number of registered users: Unknown
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: Unknown

Derry Forum

• Political leaning: None officially
• Registration required? Yes, to post
• Estimated number of registered users: 130
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: Less than 1
• General comments about this forum: Second most active NH forum of the successful neforum.org series.

Hooksett Town Web Forum (Hooksett is a small town just north of Manchester)

• Political leaning: Unknown
• Registration required? Yes
• Estimated number of registered users: Unknown
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: Less than 1
• General comments about this forum: Looks like this was started a year or two ago...peaked out for a while then faded some but still in action.

Auburn Town Web Forum

• Political leaning: Unknown
• Registration required? Yes
• Estimated number of registered users: Unknown
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: Less than 1
• General comments about this forum: Looks like this was started a year or two ago...peaked out for a while then faded some but still in action. The neforum.org folks are already promoting it some.

• Political leaning: Unknown
• Registration required? Yes
• Estimated number of registered users as of 10/04: Less than 50
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: 0
• General comments about this forum: This forum is part of the successful neforums.org series, but hasn't really become active yet. It's a blank slate for you to write on and promote if you're near Hampstead. The neforum.org folks are already promoting it some

• Political leaning: None
• Registration required? Yes, to post
• Estimated number of registered users:
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04: 0
• General comments about this forum: This forum is part of the successful neforums.org series, but hasn't become active yet. It's a blank slate for you to write on and promote if you're in Manchester. The neforum.org folks are already promoting it some

Peterborough NH Public Forum

• Political leaning:
• Registration required?
• Estimated number of registered users:
• Average number of posts per day as of 10/04:
• General comments about this forum: This forum is part of the successful neforums.org series, but hasn't become active yet. It's a blank slate for you to write on and promote if you're in or near Peterborough. The neforum.org folks are already promoting it some

Well it's time to go liberate some media! Whichever path you pick to make this happen, I wish you great success and hope you have as much fun at it as I'm having. To fill in some of the gaps I've left in this article, or suggest new options for becoming the media...visit this FSP forum thread.

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