2014 has been a great year for community television. KOCT produced 132 programs for, by and about our north county community. We had two elections this year and KOCT produced 12 in-depth programs to help voters make informed choices.

Thanks to generous grant donors KOCT was able to produce Community Health Matters—in both English & Spanish, an Arts & Culture series and a new series on Bike Safety called Bike Shorts. Our thanks to Tri-City Medical Center’s board of directors and the Community Healthcare Alliance Committee, the Oceanside Charitable Foundation and SANDAG for their support of quality community television.

We are also in the final editing stage of a new series called the Adobes & Ranchos of North County—funded by the Parker Foundation. Look for a community event to celebrate this new historical series in February 2015!

KOCT worked with youth and produced two High School Spectrums (El Camino & Oceanside High Schools) and covered the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship event at Janet Bledsoe-Lacy’s home (and Janet was also featured in a Journalist Roundtable program when she announced her decision to step down from the OUSD Board of Trustees) We also sent a News Brief crew to cover the opening of the new Veterans Information Center on MiraCosta College & to Carlsbad High School to cover their amazing morning news show television program.

KOCT celebrated 30 years of service to the Oceanside community in 2014, since our inception KOCT has produced over 6,134 programs! It’s a challenging and exciting time for community television. Challenging because our standard definition channel placement means viewers no longer see our programs if they only ‘surf’ the high-definition tier of programs. Exciting because our many high-definition programs can be viewed via KOCT.org’s video-on-demand service—anywhere in the world!

As 2014 draws to a close I want to thank the KOCT staff, Board of Directors and volunteers who support the station and helped us to produce our unique mix of north county programs. And thanks to our viewers too!  If you value KOCT please consider becoming a Friend of KOCT in 2015. With your support we can continue to provide quality community programming for another 30 years.

Oceanside is again at the forefront of the move to get people back on their bicycles and KOCT is right there in the middle. The first of five "Bike Shorts" is now airing with information about the freeclasses available, funded by SANDAG as part of an Education/Encouragement/ Awareness Grant project and administered by the City of Oceanside. KOCT recently had film crews out on the San Luis Rey Bike Trail and down by the beach filming the new bicycle traffic markings and bicyclists of all ages talking about their passion for biking.

The second short about the joy of biking will be airing from March onwards to hopefully inspire people to join in on "BIKE TO WORK DAY" in May. JOURNALIST ROUNDTABLE has also just featured Kathy Keehan on the February show, available Video on Demand, discussing all the newest road markings including sharrows, bike lanes, and regulations involved for both bicyclists and drivers.

Photos include Pete Penseyres teaching the February Bicycle Traffic Skills Course in the Community Rooms downtown. The classes are free, open to all residents of San Diego County 16 years and older. Sign-up at www.sdcbc.org  or www.oceansiderec.com. Pete has twice won the Race Across America and along with Howard LaGrange, both are certified instructors from the League of American Bicyclists.

The Taylor family of Oceanside is included in the upcoming "BIKE SHORTS: GET BACK YOUR FUNNY" and there are additional photos of KOCT crew members shooting the program along with producer Janene Possell.