One of the important roles that KOCT plays in our North County community is to provide media exposure, real world experience and job opportunities for young people. There are many young people currently working in the commercial television and film world who got their start at KOCT.

El Camino High School Group with Sharon Stong

Oceanside High School Group with Frank Zimmerman

One of the services we provide for students, our community and the Oceanside Unified School District is our High School Spectrum series. KOCT staff work closely with the students at El Camino High and Oceanside High School to teach them how to use the cameras, switchers, audio and other tools to produce their own television programs. They provide the hosts and select their guests—such as the two new Principles for their high school’s. Frank Zimmerman, who teaches at Oceanside High and Sharon Strong, who teaches at El Camino High, enjoy the opportunity to have their students experience a professional television studio and learn the craft from KOCT’s professional staff. Many times these same students come back as college students or volunteers and help KOCT in our quest to produce programs for by and about our north county community.

Director Jade Yusi at the Controls

Floor Manager Jaycee Scheri and Summer Dominguez on Camera 1

Oceanside High School Student on Camera 2

Oceanside High School Spectrum Set

Oceanside High School Student on Wide Camera

If you know a college student seeking an internship with KOCT you can have them download this Internship Application.

Our High School Spectrum series is now being edited by the Oceanside and El Camino High School students and I’ll provide a link to the show, here in Community Connection when completed. I’m looking forward to finding out what’s happening at our two local high schools!

Host Robert Rasul and Guest Principal Pirayoff

Guest Jade Yusi with Hosts Devin Settles and Amalia Neil

On Set with Principal Bennett

Up…Up and Away!

KOCT’S camera crew took to the air last week to capture Hi-Definition video footage of Oceanside and North County sites.

Jacob Rush, KOCT Station Manager

Station Manager Jacob Rush was joined by videographer's Angela Wong and Addison Wolf on a beautiful but windy Friday evening flight. The crew is gathering aerial footage for a tourism video that is being funded by a Community Enhancement Grant from the County of San Diego. Additional funding has come from underwriters AT&T, Scripp's Health and the Oceanside/California Welcome Center.

Angela Wong, KOCT Videographer

The footage will also be made available to the Welcome Center to help promote tourism in Oceanside and North County. Look for this new video in June!

KOCT visits the Oceanside Boys & Girls Club

Peter Bonscher and Addison Wolf interview Jodi Diamond, CEO of the Oceanside Boys & Girls Club.

KOCT Producer Peter Bonscher and Videographer Addison Wolf recorded the first program in our new 3-part Arts & Culture series.

Addison Wolf, KOCT Videographer

This is funded by the City of Oceanside’s Arts Commission. The KOCT crew traveled to the Oceanside Boys & Girls Club to document their “Art of the Masters” program premiering in June.

 

North County Economic Summit now available as VOD!

In March, KOCT joined over 450 businessmen and women, elected officials and economic experts gathered for the 2nd Annual North County Economic Summit. The audience heard from a number of speakers and panelists about our National, State and San Diego Economies. This new series is now available as Video On Demand.

Watch it now by clicking here.

NAB Reflections by KOCT’s Chief Engineer Bill Peters. Video geeks look forward to April each year, not for the spring flowers but because that’s when the National Association of Broadcasters convention (NAB) comes to Las Vegas and all the latest and greatest video gear are on display.

In the old days, you could tell an NAB visitor because their knuckles would drag on the ground from carrying bags of swags around—now they just swipe your card and send you all their promotional material via e-mail. Our renaissance man-who-knows-everything, Chief Engineer Bill Peters and his wife Beverly made the annual journey to the desert and he jotted down these quick reflections:

The Las Vegas Convention Center is huge! I'm tired!

Lots of shoots being done in 4K.

Cameras getting smaller and better even as image quality gets better.

Finding the camera body not always easy.

Know your formats: SD, HD, Ultra HD, 2K, 4K, 8K,???

Think also about the actual pixel sizes of the image when resizing.

Increases in image resolution leads to increases in distribution channel bandwidth (obviously)•

Will the internet really prevail as the ultimate distribution channel?

Thanks Bill for your research, day to day professionalism and your willingness to risk encounters with Vegas Showgirl in order to help KOCT!

On Tuesday, March 10^th at the Sheraton Carlsbad Resort over 450 businessmen and women, elected officials and economic experts gathered for the 2^nd Annual North County Economic Summit. The audience heard from a number of speakers and panelists about our national, state and San Diego economies.

Prior to the meeting KOCT’s Station Manager and I gave a tour of the KOCT television station to Carl Morgan, the CEO, and Karen Pearson, the Director of Investor Relations for the San Diego North Economic Development Council (SDNEDC). We discussed the informative value of this annual summit and the need for our community to better understand the economic challenges and potential of north county.

Carl and Karen convinced two important supporters and investors with SDNEDC about the value of recording the summit and sharing with a larger audience via local television and the internet. KOCT sent three production professionals with the latest hi-definition cameras to set-up and record this one-of-a-kind event.

Thanks to the Underwriters of the television production: Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians and Federal Heath Sign Company this summit will air on KOCT in April as well as being made available on KOCT.ORG as Video On Demand.

KOCT Editors are currently ‘breaking down’ the show into four episodes and you will learn a lot about our North County region via this informative series.

Pictured are Station Manager Jacob Rush with KOCT’s Aaron Capehart utilizing 2 Panasonic AG-HPX370 Series P2 HD Camcorders to capture the 4 hour event. Also on site was KOCT’s Angela Wong using a Panasonic AG-AC90A AVCCAM Handheld Camcorder to catch audience reaction and other perspectives. The show will be edited in Final Cut on our Mac Editing platforms.

We were pleased to see that KPBS’s Alison St. John (and a regular on KOCT’s Journalist Roundtable) was one of the moderators for her panels discussion about the education and training needed for todays workforce.

KOCT provides a number of production services like the coverage of this event for north county governments, businesses and non-profits. KOCT has a state-of-the-art high definition Mobile Studio, a full equipped studio at our Industry Street location and more than six different high definition editing bays. If you would like to have your meeting, event or conference documented so you can share with a greater audience AND preserve the event for future review please call KOCT’ Station Manager, Jake Rush at KOCT: 760-722-4433.

And look here for air dates and times for the 2^nd Annual North County Economic Summit.

Does your business have a favorite non-profit that you support? Do you donate, volunteer & help a non-profit with the good work they do in our community? KOCT has a great way for you to help that charitable organization, church or fraternal organization. Sign them up for KOCT’s Oceanside Spectrum—a 30-minute television show hosted by the amazing Elaine Swann. It’s free and a great way to share with our north county community upcoming events or the need for volunteers, donations or awareness.

If you live, work or go to school in Oceanside, you are invited to call the station at (760) 722-4433 to reserve a free five-minute interview. This is a very popular show so you’ll need to reserve your space well in advance of the event you wish to promote (45-60 days in advance!).

KOCT is so lucky to have a skilled host like Elaine Swann to interview your non-profit representative. Elaine has also been seen on the “Today Show, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX News” as a Social Media Commentator. Elaine is a special correspondent on San Diego’s NBC 7, has a syndicated column and offers workshops and seminars. Besides being on camera, Elaine is an Author, Speaker and Etiquette Consultant. She will make your guest feel comfortable if they are on camera for the first time and remember: Oceanside Spectrum airs numerous times throughout the month on KOCT’s channel 18 as well as on our website: KOCT.ORG. You can add a link to the program in your civic organizations newsletter, blog or e-mails and make sure your supporters see your publicity efforts.

Oceanside Spectrum is taped at KOCT’s Oceanside studios at 3038 Industry Street, Suite 101. KOCT is a nonprofit, non-commercial television station and Oceanside Spectrum is prohibited from advertising commercial events or businesses. To schedule an appearance on Oceanside Spectrum contact  Angela Miranda at  (760) 722-4433 or e-mail her at: amiranda@koct.org.

Thanks to San Diego U-T Reporter Linda Mcintosh for a great story about our Tuesday, February 24^th event to celebrate the launch of our new documentary series: “The Adobes & Ranchos of North County”! Hope you can attend and make sure to watch these programs on KOCT. We all love north county because of the waves, weather and environment—this new series will give you reasons to love north county for its rich history too.

KOCT’s major project, to convert our mobile studio to a hi-definition production facility moved closer to completion today with the ordering of two additional hi-definition cameras. Thanks to Station Manager Jacob Rush and Chief Engineer Bill Peters for the extensive research and efforts on this important KOCT production tool.

KOCT is producing many more Newsbriefs on a variety of topics that you can look forward to seeing in the coming weeks with Editor Shawn Lennon, creating a new hi-definition opening. Editor and Producer Angela Wong has begun working on her most recent Newsbriefs: “El Corazon Recycling Center” and “Oceanside Museum of Art new Marketing Director and Artist”. Editor and Producer Peter Bonscher recently completed another Newsbrief on local sustainable grocer “Frazier Farms” and is currently working on a Newsbrief about an Adult Music program at the Museum of Making Music while also producing a Newsbrief on Oceanside’s LGBTQ Town Hall meeting on January 30^th, 2015. Thanks to this talented production team for helping to shoot, edit and share the many community events occurring in our North County community.

Shawn Lennon

Angela Wong

Peter Bonscher

You might have noticed on our most recent Journalist Roundtable a new graphic addition “Why This Matters”—KOCT will add this brief explanation to many of our programs in order to help you understand why we pick certain subjects, invite specific guests and ‘Why This Matters’.

KOCT could not produce the volume and quality of programs without  the efforts of a our many part-time employees AND our student interns and volunteers:

• Thanks to volunteer Maya Maravilla who edits our North County Talks program “Faith and the Common Good”. She has done a great job and spends many hours to not only edit this program but provide quality camera work in our studio.
• Palomar Community College Intern Damian Mickey has been working on our ongoing Archive project. KOCT has produced well over 6,000 programs and many of them are on older, obsolete video formats—S-VHS and U-Matic ¾. We are reviewing our older programs and transferring to digital DV cam and/or DVD.
• Finally KOCT welcomes our newest volunteer Board of Director Frank Gould who will help our other board members to raise funds, encourage viewers to join our Friends of KOCT and other behind the scenes efforts that have helped make KOCT Your Community Channel. 

     

Maya Maravilla

    

Damian Mickey

This week in pictures:

Journalist Roundtable

       

        

       

Ribbon Cutting Encinitas Community Park

        

        

Oceanside Spectrum

       

       

Friend of KOCT Recording

                            

One of my first creative editing projects at KOCT occurred about 27 years ago and is reflective of today’s topic ‘Attention Spans & Community Events’. Matt Beck and I spent an early spring day videotaping the ‘beach opening’ event at the pier band shell, musical groups, jet ski’s, dancing and speeches. I edited a 12 minute highlight program and showed it to my boss, the late founder of KOCT, Bob Bowditch. He said he enjoyed the program but that KOCT normally didn’t spend that much time in the field, editing and not produce a 60 minute program.

Fast forward to the new monthly series of Newsbriefs that KOCT is now producing that average 2 minutes in length. There is a multitude of reasons (and media choices) that explain shorter programs and shorter attention spans including:

•     People with smartphones/tablets now spend an average of almost 3 hours each day on them
•     Viewers are watching less live television but spending more time in front of other media screens
•     On-line video viewing is increasing for all Americans

A article in the Brookings Institution, ‘The Bad News about the News’ stated it well “ Today’s young people skitter around the Internet like ice skaters, exercising their short attention spans by looking for fun and, occasionally, seeking out serious information. Audience taste seems to be changing, with the result that among young people particularly there is a declining appetite for the sort of information packages that great newspaper provided….”

Another article on the increasingly blurred line between advertising and ‘straight news’ puts this dilemma well:  “…audiences only have a fixed amount of attention, and that on the Web they’re only one cluck away from every piece of information on the planet, the challenge was not on  how to compete against other brands, it was how to compete with media-all of it”.*Columbia Journalism Review / Nov-Dec 2014 “The Wolf at the Door”

KOCT has done a good job meeting some of these challenges all of our programs are available as Video On Demand which means viewers can watch any program not just when it is scheduled on KOCT’s television channel 18 & 19 but wherever they are via their smart phone, tablet or computer.

However one dilemma both we the program producer and you the viewer face is the challenge of connecting with local information. Tonight’s Journalist Roundtable is a perfect example we have 4 great guests each of whom will be interviewed for about 12 minutes each, a reasonable amount of time to explore issues such as gang violence, our community hospital or hear what our Mayor believes are the important issues he will address in 2015.  But 12 minutes is about 10 times as long as the ‘average’ cable news interview and far longer than the average funny cat video.

The difference is that community issues do more than amuse, they inform. The topics involve your family, neighbors, co-workers and children. The topics may concern your neighborhood and for example, could affect your commute in the morning. Community issues often require an attention span and a little bit of time to learn about the various sides and issues.

KOCT’s disadvantage is we are in a world-wide-web competition for your attention. Our advantage is we are the only one of those media choices whose sole focus is the issues and events of North San Diego County. KOCT doesn’t expect we are your only choice, but we should be one of them. Because you can stay connected to your community by tuning to KOCT-Your Community Channel.

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.

KOCT turned 30 in 2014 and one of the great perks you’ll note this time of year is a bountiful mix of Christmas programs.

Peter Bonscher, KOCT’s Program Scheduler, has pulled some great classic KOCT programs from yesteryear that will get you in an Oceanside Christmas frame of mind—including music from the San Luis Rey Chorale, Oceanside Harbor Parade of Lights, North Coastal Symphony, La Hacienda Holiday, Carlsbad Library Hour Harmony Ringers and Radio Christmas Carol to name just a few. We’ll also replay a past Children’s Christmas Parade too:

Brian Graham, Jim Schroeder and Donald Sinatra

KOCT used to cover TWO major parades every year, the Fourth of July Parade (Freedom Days),  and the annual Children’s Christmas Parade. Due to budget cuts the last Children’s Christmas Parade was 12 years ago in 2002. I’m not a big parade fan but I’ve probably watched many more parades (and City Council meetings) than the average bear because of my great job at KOCT. One of the things I DID like about the Christmas Parade was the marching high school bands that the parade attracted. Few bands play for the Freedom Day Parade because of the summer vacation. However the Annual Children’s Christmas Parade always included high school marching bands and many spectators-parents and grandparents watching their teens marching in the parade.

Brian Graham & Jim Schroeder

We usually left the KOCT station in the dark to begin setting up for the parade and my crew wore festive Christmas Hats not only to celebrate the season—but to keep warm too. I miss this annual tradition but at least I still have the Freedom Day Parade (and City Council meetings) to enjoy.

November 1992 Voice with Mayor Larry Bagley

One final Christmas Reminder: You can warm yourself by the glow of your big screen television and our burning Yule Log both on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. And you can watch Classic Movies (my daughters called those black and white movies ‘the gray movies’) on Christmas day on KOCT’ Channel 18. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from KOCT!

KOCT mission, goal and purpose is to inform our north county community about people, places and events in north county. It was easier to do when television and traditional daily newspapers were the main source of news and information. But oh how times have changed! Todays residents now receive their entertainment and information from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, smart phones, I pads and the Internet, on a minute by minute information tsunami!

Fortunately KOCT is not alone in our quest to inform north county residents. KOCT is teaming up with other media professionals in north county so it is easier to watch KOCT’s many programs.

Today, for example, Osidenews.com added KOCT to its front page mast head to make it easy to see the latest KOCT News Brief. Steve Marcotte is the managing editor for this on-line newspaper and he is already registering 30,000 views per month!  Osidenews.com, in addition to up to the minute news coverage, provides human interest stories, business, sports, health and more.

I first heard about this new media resource when he added former KOCT Board member, Tom Morrow, as a regular columnist. Tom is well known throughout north county and his column was greatly missed by many readers after the demise of the North County Times. It is great to be in partnership again with old friend Tom Morrow and with new friend, Steve Marcotte and the Osidenews.com!

(Steve will be one of our guests in our new season of Journalist Roundtable on  January 8^th  2015-stay tuned)

Election Programming

KOCT has completed the recording & editing of all of its Election Programming!! All of this programming (13+ programs) will now be shown on KOCT’s Channel 18 community channel throughout the month of October. You can also view KOCT’s election programs as Video On Demand and watch on your smart phone while waiting in the DMV line.

KOCT has done its job and now it’s the task of each citizen to watch these programs and go to the polls as an informed and educated voter.

KOCT Fundraiser Reminder

Tickets are still available for KOCT’s FUNdraiser for both the 11:30 am and 1 pm seating’s on Thursday October 23^rd. Tickets are only $20 per adult and all proceeds benefit KOCT and our goal of producing more community television programs.

If you can’t attend but want to help KOCT AND our military families you can buy a ticket & we’ll provide a free lunch for local military families. Call 722-4433 for more information or stop by KOCT and buy your ticket TODAY.

PROPOSED COMCAST/TIMES WARNER CABLE MERGER OPPORTUNITY FOR PEG CHANNELS

The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing Comcast’s acquisition of Times Warner Cable. This is an opportunity to address concerns and problems that have resulted in the closing of hundreds of PEG channels like KOCT all across our nation. Access Humboldt and American Community Television have filed comments that ask, as a condition to any consent to the transfer, that the FCC should prohibit discrimination against PEG channels, ensure that PEG channels have the same features and functionality and same signal quality as that of local broadcasters channels. They should also require that PEG channels be easily accessed on menus and that PEG channels be available on the HD tiers. Many of these requirements are in the current PEG laws but are not being enforced. 

It is my opinion that cable companies make a self-fulfilling argument that is not in the public interest—On the one hand they claim not very many people watch community channels and on the other they do everything they can to discourage viewership! They refuse to put program information on their Program Guide, make it difficult or impossible to record with their DVR’s and ban PEG channels from the High Definition tiers-all actions that confuse consumers and ‘hide’ PEG channels. What they cannot do is argue that every one of their thousand channels is of more value to the consumer than programming for by and about their own customers communities. Shopping Channels Vs Election Programming?? No I’m not buying that argument.

Tom Reeser-Executive Director- KOCT Your Community Channels 

Did you know that September 24^th was proclaimed KOCT DAY by Mayor Jim Wood? KOCT was proud to have received this acknowledgment and proclamation in honor of KOCT’s 30^th Anniversary. Most of KOCT’s volunteer Board of Directors were able to attend the ceremony and KOCT Board Chairman, Liz Rhea, encouraged viewers and those in attendance to attend KOCT’s fundraiser on October 23^rd at the Outback Steakhouse in order for KOCT to be able to document and replay more community events.

KOCT is proud of the long-term relationship between KOCT and the Oceanside City Council and their staff.

In fact, as Executive Director Tom Reeser explained at the proclamation “KOCT began because of the encouragement by then Mayor Larry Bagley to form a non-profit corporation”. This was because at that time volunteers were working with city staff members and the founder of KOCT, Bob Bowditch, who began covering election forums some of which were being conducted by the employee unions. Mayor Bagley and Bob both recognized it would be best for the community for KOCT to be an independent corporation and history has proven that to be a wise decision. As the Mayor’s proclamation stated “WHEREAS, KOCT has produced and continues to produce more election programs then most television stations in all of San Diego County with the goal of providing important information about ballot initiatives and candidates, a critical service for voters considering the loss of local newspapers….”

SPEAKING of election programming….you’ll want to watch this Thursday’s Journalist Roundtable program the large field of candidates running for the Tri-City Medical Center Board of Directors will be featured in a special 90 minute program. The show airs ‘live’ at 6 pm.

Next week we’ll record our final election edition Voice of Oceanside with one-on-one interviews with candidates for the Oceanside City Council as well as the hospital board candidates.

ALL of these programs will run extensively throughout October and all of these programs can be seen as Video On Demand on KOCT.org.  You can even watch them on your Smart Phone or iPad.

Thank you to the Oceanside city council, Mayor Wood and city staff for their support, encouragement over the past 30 Years—and thank you to our many generations of viewers too!

In the beginning KOCT began covering candidate forums and ballot proposition with volunteers because KOCT Founder Bob Bowditch felt it was a service to our community. You might say KOCT’s independent status was born out of election programming because that was the impetus for KOCT to become a 501 3 c non-profit over 30 years ago. 

When the City of Oceanside provided general fund support for KOCT they included in our contract of needed services election programs, but then in 2011 cut all of KOCT’s general fund dollars and the requirement to produce election programs.

However KOCT’s staff and volunteer Board of Directors felt, like Founder Bob Bowditch, that this was an important service to our community and that is why in 2014 KOCT continues to produce more local election programming than any television station in San Diego County !

How can we continue to produce programs about City Council, MiraCosta College, Oceanside School District and Hospital candidates?  Because of community support for KOCT and events like our upcoming 13^th Annual Outback FUNdraiser!

Without this FUNdraiser, grants and production income KOCT would not have the staff or resources to produce informative Election programs. So help us out and attend this years FUNdraiser.

The event will be at the Outback Steakhouse in Oceanside on Thursday, October 23^rd with seating’s at 11:30 am and 1:00 pm. There will also be an opportunity drawing and silent auction.

If you can’t attend you can still support KOCT by sponsoring an active duty military family in our “meals for military” program on Saturday, October 25^th.

Tickets are only $20 for adults and $10 for children 10 and under.

For more information or to purchase tickets contact any member of the KOCT Board of Directors or call KOCT at 722-4433!

Support KOCT election programming, an informed electorate and our local military families by attending this years 13^th annual Outback Steakhouse because KOCT is Your Community Channel!

Tune to KOCT - Channel 18, Thursday September 4th at 6 pm for a one-hour “live” Journalist Roundtable program. KOCT’s election season programming begins featuring a special Journalist Roundtable questioning Oceanside City Council Candidates. You’ll want to watch this special Journalist Roundtable and be an informed voter.

Our Guests will include:

Candidate Dana Corso, president of Alliance of Citizens To Improve Oceanside Neighborhoods (ACTION), says that she was a leading voice in speaking against Proposition E, which threatened to end rent control in mobile home parks.  She commented that as a councilwoman she will have a greater opportunity to serve the people and neighborhoods of Oceanside as a voice for the people that is currently absent in the City Council majority decision-making. 

          

                                           Dana Corso                                                 Gary Felien

Gary Felien, a current council member, is seeking re-election and he says he will continue to keep improving Oceanside. He says that as a result of his election in Nov 2010, a new council majority based on fiscal responsibility was formed and they immediately set to work to turn the city around from the dire straights the past majority had placed the city in. 

Candidate Chuck Lowery, an active Board Member of the Oceanside Charitable Foundation, says he wants to create jobs, and that he has the experience and expertise necessary to cultivate a thriving economic environment. According to comments he has made he will cut spending as he will fight tirelessly for balanced budgets. He said he cares deeply for the City of Oceanside and its residents.

          

                                       Chuck Lowery                                             Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern, an incumbent, is seeking re-election after a 6 year term. He indicates he has worked hard to bring positive change to Oceanside by championing issues that can make our city a better place to live, do business and enjoy our unique recreational opportunities.

Robert Tran is a first time candidate and an Oceanside native. He was born, raised and currently resides in Oceanside and said he is running for City Council to ensure that Oceanside continues to grow in all economic ownership sectors and that all taxpayers of Oceanside deserve a city that is fiscally responsible and is not in the hand of special interest groups or of personal interest. (Photo not available)

The host for Journalist Roundtable is veteran journalist Kent Davy and he will be joined on Columnist Logan Jenkins from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Currently the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable. Public, Education and Government (PEG) advocates have submitted a number of comments they hope the FCC will consider before they allow for further consolidation of big media entities. For example, American Community Television believes this potential merger will put PEG TV stations at risk saying “We request that the FCC protect PEG access television by rejecting the proposed transaction or conditioning the proposed merger on curing the various problems we have outlined”—Example cited included loss of channels, PEG closures in many states, lack of programming guide description and charging governments to provide PEG programming.

Access Humboldt has also filed FCC comments and they suggest that if the transfer were to occur the FCC should prohibit discrimination against PEG channels and ensure that PEG channels have the same features and functionality and signal quality as they do for local broadcasters as well as requiring PEG channels to be distributed on the HD tiers.

KOCT is and has faced many of the issues cited above: Cox Cable & AT&T will not post our program schedule which makes recording KOCT programs via their DVR’s time consuming and complicated. And AT&T’s DVR won’t even record the PEG channels manually!

Over the past 20 years there have been more & more media  mergers and less requirements for public interest programming—this despite the fact that these communications giants use the public right of ways to conduct private business for a profit. It is not to much to ask that out of the thousands of channels they provide that they not only allow a few channels to be dedicated to the communities they do business in but to actually support those entities by treating them with the same level of support they do for the commercial channels. And in fact, according to grandfathered local franchises and the new state franchise they should already be doing so!

I am hopeful the FCC will not agree to the merger of these two communications giants without an agreement of better support for the many small community PEG channels across the country like KOCT-YOUR community channel. 

Continuing the Community Connections Throw Back Edition to celebrate KOCT's 30 years of service to our north county community!

We have another election in November of this year so it’s appropriate & fun to look back to past elections. Here, in 2002, are the candidates for Mayor of Oceanside on the Voice of Oceanside. Left is incumbent Jim Wood, Host Tim Aldrich, an unknown candidate and Rocky Chavez—then a City Councilmember and now a state Assemblyman, 76^th District.

Talk about a lot of candidates for City Council! Too many to name but standing is the former host of the Senior Scene, Dick Johnson,  and it looks like the Flag Man, Alex Kapitanski, provided the set decoration.

Late 90’s?

One of our most popular shows in the late 90’s and early 2000’s was Lawyers on the Line by the North County Bar Association. Viewers could call in with general legal questions and the show featured some of the many talented Lawyers and Judges in North County tackling a variety of legal issues & topics.

HealthCare Matters (Top) was a health program KOCT produced that was hosted by radio personality, Meg Banta who now teaches Radio at Palomar College. KOCT’s Inside Oceanside, below, was a video magazine about Oceanside that was initially hosted by their Public Information Officer, Don Williamson and Camp Pendleton’s Amy Forsythe. Amy later served numerous tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and continues to enjoy a varied communications career in the US Navy.