Life is funny the way it zigs and zags and circles around.

I came of age in the counter-culture outgrowth of the 70’s, a surfer who discovered Oceanside because of my search for waves.  It was my love of photography, film making and surfing that eventually found me working for KOCT starting in 1987.  I loved videography and editing but soon found myself, with the passing of KOCT’s founder Bob Bowditch, promoted to the Executive Director of KOCT with its related administration, paperwork and community involvement. 

It was while still having that counter-culture self perception that then City Clerk, Barbara Regal Wayne asked me to join the San Luis Rey Rotary, an offer I turned down as I could not see myself as a Rotarian. However a few years later, (after more community participation and involvement), retired County Supervisor John MacDonald came to my office and asked me to join the Oceanside Rotary. KOCT had a long history with John and his son (stories for another day) and my feeling was I could not turn him down and was honored to join the Oceanside Rotary. It was not long after, due to schedules and circumstances I had to stop attending the Oceanside Rotary but a few months later I was asked by Jodi Coe to join the Wednesday morning San Luis Rey Rotary Club, and who  was there to greet and harass me for not joining their club years earlier?  Yep, retired City Clerk Barbara Wayne.  We now enjoy a weekly good natured verbal sparring match that reminds me of the good friends and colleagues I’ve come to know since becoming a Rotarian.

One such Rotarian was Larry O’Harra—the President of the Oceanside Rotary Club in 2013 who passed away last month. Before Larry died he was instrumental, along with his Club and current President Mike Curtain, in bringing the first MINGAFEST to Oceanside—it will debut on Saturday May 3^rd from 1 pm to 4 pm at the Oceanside Museum of Art in cooperation with MainStreet Oceanside.

What I like about this upcoming event is that it is a fun way to get together with other non-profit organizations ‘for the benefit of all’. There will be food from local restaurants and craft beer too.  Every dollar raised goes directly to supporting organizations like KOCT, the Oceanside Rotary, the OMA and others. (When you sign up on-line there will be a pull-down menu where you can select your favorite charity and $10 of every ticket sale will go to the charity you choose, my hope is you will consider selecting KOCT!!!)

My wife and I are going so we can remember a great man, support Rotary and connect with this community that I have become a part of.  Yea, yea I have become part of the establishment and I am ok with that because tomorrow I am going surfing and the circle will continue…

Click here to order tickets for this unique event: 

http://www.oma-online.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=413:save-the-date-minga-fest-2014&catid=18:current-events&Itemid=180

Next time you’re driving on Crouch Street or see the cute little church over by Heritage Park or wonder who Murray Bridge is named after I suggest you watch KOCT’s Living Legacies.   A good example is the Living Legacies featuring Edith Swaim, a local historian, who was once the Director for Heritage Park. In her interview with Host Tom Morrow she discussed an old black and white picture of three people in front of the first Oceanside Post Office and one of the citizens is the Mrs. Crouch from a family influential in the development of our town. Edith also recounts the English colony of settlers who first settled in the valley and who built that little church by Heritage Park, she mentions Reynolds Elementary School which is named after her mother and that her grandfather was the first person buried in the little cemetery at the church in 1896! Another of the Living Legacies you can watch via KOCT’s Video On Demand is with Major General Murray a man who fought in WWII, Korea and Vietnam and who is credited with halting the progress of the North Koreans at Chosin Reservoir.

Watching Living Legacies is more than being knowledgeable about bridges, local streets, and buildings. You can hear the story of local politicians like the late Treasurer of Oceanside Rosemary Jones, Supervisor John MacDonald or Congressman Lionel Van Deerlin. Famous musicians have also been featured on Tom’s show like the Trombonist for the Glen Miller Band, Paul Tanner as well as author Victor Villasenor and newscaster Jack White.

Because of lack of funding today the program is only produced when Host Tom Morrow is able to convince a local business or viewer to underwrite its production. (KOCT has also applied for numerous grants in order to produce the program.) This loss of Living Legacies productions means we are losing the voices and stories of many influential citizens who have contributed so much, whose story might be invaluable to future historians and no one to recount the past when future citizens wonder as they drive about our city Who? Why?  And When?

I’m grateful Host Tom Morrow has donated so many volunteer hours along with his former Producer Ted Smit; their contribution will also be long remembered. 

It is no April's Fool joke that this week begins KOCT’s 2014 Election Season.  For the June 3^rd primary there are two major county offices North County voters will be asked to cast their ballots for:  5^th District Board of Supervisor and the District Attorney seats.  Fortunately KOCT will have special Journalist Roundtable programs featuring candidates for these offices.

This Thursday, April 3^rd from 6pm-7 pm our ‘Live’ Journalist Roundtable will have two of the three candidates running for the District Attorney seat and they are Robert Brewer and Terri Wyatt. Incumbent Bonnie Dumanis was also invited but her campaign manager regretfully declined due to a schedule conflict.

Next month on Thursday, May 1^st our Journalist Roundtable program will feature Mayor Jim Wood and incumbent Bill Horn for a lively program on the race for the 5^th District County Board of Supervisor office.

KOCT will also be airing a forum hosted by the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce & Mira Costa College featuring these two 5^th District Candidates.

KOCT has offered each candidate an opportunity to record a 5-minute Candidates Statement and these segments will also run on KOCT right up to the June 3^rd election. All of our 2014 election programs are available as VOD or Video On Demand via KOCT.ORG so you can review the candidates, their positions and answers prior to going to the polls or filling out your Absentee Ballot.

KOCT is proud of our long tradition of providing local election programming a service more valuable then ever with the loss of the North County Times and limited information about local issues, offices and candidates. We have been providing this service for 30 years and we can continue to do so with your help. Please consider becoming a Friend of KOCT by clicking here: Local Media Matters!

KOCT has been very busy with the production of four Voice of Oceanside programs. Watch for these programs in the coming months on KOCT:

Matthew Tucker, Executive Director

North County Transit District and Host John Bonosoro

Daryl Hebert, Fire Chief

City of Oceanside and Host John Bonosoro

Rosemarie Chora, Water Utility Division Manager,

City of Oceanside and Host John Bonosoro

Frank McCoy, Police Chief,

City of Oceanside

Sophie Crain, KOCT’s former Administrative Assistant, is the delightful young lady with the French accent who has greeted callers and visitors to KOCT for the past two years (in addition to being our accountant, business administrator, personnel expert as well as performing a thousand other roles and responsibilities!).

She and her husband Joseph, (who just retired from a long and illustrious career in the navy), were delighted when Sophie became pregnant with their first child. The baby Nathanael, was born premature earlier this year and has been under the care and oversight of the Naval Medical Center San Diego. Sophie has lived at the hospital since February to take care of the little one while Joseph has often commuted from the hospital to his new job with North County Health Services whenever he could.

We are so pleased that she will get to bring home little Nathanael this weekend for the very first time. We will miss Sophie but are so pleased that they have a new one in their home and wish them the best in their new lives.  The KOCT Board of Directors can’t wait to meet the little one and congratulate Sophie at an upcoming potluck and welcome home party. 

KOCT‘s Carmel Bowers, Volunteer Make-up Artist, passes away…

For the past eight plus years guests and hosts on the Oceanside Spectrum and Journalist Roundtable were prepared for their television appearance by professional make-up artist Carmel Bowers.  Last week we lost this valuable volunteer as did many other non-profits with whom she has shared her time and talent. KOCT’s Promise Yee first met Carmel at a Tri-City Medical Center television production where Carmel was a ‘pink lady’ (a volunteer helping patients). It was not too long later that Carmel offered her incredible make-up skill to KOCT guests and hosts. Recently Carmel confronted a life-threatening medical diagnosis and just last week she reflected on her life with KOCT Board of Director Michelle Bray-Davis who writes:

We had a wonderful, heart-to-heart-chat that afternoon, ride-ranging regarding end of life thoughts, mistakes we had both made along the way, etc.,  but planned for her to be at the Oceanside Public Library Tea in May, among other things she wanted to do.

Over the many years, in the make-up chair at KOCT, and at other social things too, I would like to think that Carmel and I came to be friends.

She was an unusual Lady, with great stories to share, some very sad, some hilarious!

MOST IMPORTANTLY, Carmel was a radiantly, gracious woman who encouraged me to be more than I thought I could be! “I will always be grateful for her confidence in me!”

KOCT is going to produce a brief photo montage of Carmel that will air at the conclusion of Oceanside Spectrum and Journalist Roundtable to remember her valuable contributions to KOCT.

Carmel Bowers 

The Adobes and Ranchos of North County

KOCT’s field camera crew, led by Station Manager Jake Rush, visited one of the oldest Ranchos in all of North County for an interview with Shelley Caron at the historic Marron Adobe. KOCT’s production team of Angela Wong and Addison Wolf were joined by scriptwriter for the series, Lola Sherman. Shelley’s family history is fascinating because it is so intertwined with the history of California.  Her ancestors were instrumental in the creation of Oceanside and her story includes Spanish roots, Mexican land grants and hardy pioneers making a living off the land.  Thanks to the Parker Foundation for funding that has allowed KOCT to produce this series of historical documentaries.

Shelley Caron with Lola Sherman Scriptwriter, Station Manager Jake Rush

and KOCT’s production team of Angela Wong and Addison Wolf

Shelley Caron with Lola Sherman Scriptwriter

The historic Marron Adobe

KOCT has begun field shooting of our new 6 segment series on the Adobes & Ranchos of North County. The production of these 30-minute programs was made possible by a generous grant from the Parker Foundation. Our first shoot a few weeks ago was for an interview with the Captain of the San Luis Rey Band of Luiseno Indians, Mel Vernon at the historic El Salto falls in Oceanside. His segment was for the mini-documentary about the nearby Marron Adobe. This is the only Mexican land-grant in California that is still occupied by one of the direct descendants.

Our most recent shoot was at the Marron Adobe where we filmed one of the many school tours that Shelley (Hayes) Caron conducts as her contribution to California history and for our community.

We look forward to our interview with Shelley and to learn more about her family and their journey to the tranquil Buena Creek valley adobe.

Other programs in this series will include the Los Flores Adobe on Camp Pendleton, the Rancho Buena Vista Adobe in Vista and the Rancho Guajome on the border of Oceanside and Vista.  Our script writer, Lola Sherman is well known in North County and will also help KOCT to tell the story of the Kelly Family in nearby Carlsbad as well as the Leo Carrillo rancho which was once part of the Kelly Rancho.

We love this partnership with the Parker Foundation because their grant for this project is in harmony with the KOCT Mission to produce programming for, by and about our North County Community and to preserve the past for future generations.  We hope to begin airing this new series in the late spring. You won’t want to miss it. 

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.

Wow, I just reviewed the first program in the new KOCT series, Arts and Culture and I’m so impressed. Not with just the production (more on that later!) but with the many non-profits and caring professionals who contributed to this first Arts and Culture project.

The first subject in this four-part series is about a unique collaboration between the Museum of Making Music and the Women’s Resource Center. “Hear Me & Heal Me” is introduced by Danielle Deery, with the Oceanside Museum of Art. This first program highlights a 12 week interactive, therapeutic music program for the residents of the WRC’s transitional housing. Rather than describe this wonderful 10-minute mini-documentary why not watch it by clicking here?

The Producer-Editor-Writer for this program was KOCT’s Peter Bonscher, a talented professional who continues to amaze me with his many skills. Peter is KOCT’s Program Scheduler/Senior Production Technician but he does much more than that. He’s a producer, editor, writer who comes to KOCT by way of the music world.  A life-long musician and composer, Peter is an award winning producer who brings a wealth of experience in management, finance and real estate, and is currently pursuing a degree in Communication.  Peter was the producer of KOCT’s news magazine program, Inside Oceanside. Peter has produced many documentaries including programs on the Oceanside Museum of Art and the Annual Candlelight walk by North County Amnesty International.  You’ll hear Peter’s voice on many KOCT programs and he was the perfect choice to launch this new series.

Art’s and Culture was funded by the Oceanside Charitable Foundation in 2013 and KOCT has matched their $6500 grant in order to produce the four programs in this series. KOCT will document all of the Arts and Culture programs that the OCF funded in their arts and culture 2013 focus upcoming programs will include Healing Through the Arts by North County Lifeline, Oceanside: A Celebration of our Rich Cultural Heritage by the Kid’s College and the 17^th Annual San Luis Rey Inter-Tribal Pow Wow by the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians Foundation.

We are pleased to be working with the Oceanside Museum of Art and KOCT continues to seek additional funding to continue this new series. If your business, corporation or foundation would like to help please contact me at KOCT for more information. 

As we mentioned in an earlier blog KOCT has completed the field recording of Community Health Matters, a new series about health issues and north county health resources. But that’s only half of the production work needed to bring this 16-part series to north county residents.

KOCT uses the Final Cut Editing system on Apple’s Macintosh computers.  Editing is the time-intensive part of production that few viewers are aware of but where the production value is added and polished. First the footage must be digitized or ingested and stored in virtual bins on Final Cut. When shooting this 30-minute program in the field there are many ‘takes’ to each segment sometimes there are technical problem or the guest needs to start over---these shots are eliminated and only the best takes are stored and then pieced together on a virtual time-line. After the story-line is constructed the editor will add PSA’s, graphics, titles and ‘b’ roll (footage to illustrate the interviews). So, for example, in the program on Robotic Assisted Surgery you’ll get to see these sophisticated new surgical tools in action while the surgeon is being interviewed. The final program is then sent to KOCT’s servers for airing, to our website for VOD and to the Oceanside duplicator, PMI, http://koct.org/ for DVD duplications.

KOCT is blessed to have many creative editors on this series and one of them is Angela Wong, Angela is very familiar with Community Health Matters as she was also the Camera and Teleprompter operator for the series.  She is originally from South Florida and attended Ithaca College (in upstate New York) where she studied Cinema Production. She graduated in 2012 and now works at KOCT and freelances on the side. Angela, despite not having studied Spanish in any particular level, enjoys editing the English and Spanish CHM series anyways. She told us this about the new health series: “With editing, I’m excited to see the show truly come together and finally stand on its own.”

Community Health Matters was funded by a Tri-City Healthcare District Community Grant and Tri-City Medical Center. It is collaboration with Vista Community Clinic, North County Health Services and KOCT. The series will start airing in late February and free DVD’s of the programs will be available at the hospital and clinics too. Stay tuned for more information.

For the third year in a row our colleagues at the County Television Network (CTN) have contracted KOCT’s Mobile Studio to help them document the Board of Supervisor’s State of the County Address. This year it was given by Chairwoman Diane Jacobs at the County Operations Center in Kearny Mesa on Jan. 29th.

KOCT”s mobile studio was custom made for KOCT in nearby San Marcos and allows KOCT to provide ‘live to tape’ multiple-camera coverage of a variety of events from meetings, to parades to football games. We value our partnership with CTN which provides county government television and internet coverage on a variety of county government topics, check them out. http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dmpr/ctn/programs.html

This weekend you can go to KOCT.ORG and click on Video on Demand to watch and learn about the state of our county.The event was streamed live and will air both on KOCT and on CTN with CTN providing the camera operator and director for this event.

Leading the KOCT team is KOCT’s Station Manager Jacob Rush who often directs KOCT‘s productions both in our studio and in the field.  Jake is a graduate of Cal State San Marcos, and has over a decade of video production experience. One of his current productions is the award-winning “Downtown Oceanside” a video production focusing on Oceanside as a vacation destination. Jake has also won numerous awards for the directing of sports programs.

Jacob Rush

Bill Peters

Working with Jake on the State of the County gig is KOCT’s Chief Engineer, Bill Peters. Bill attended the University of California at Los Angeles and received his degree in engineering in 1959. Bill has over thirty five years of experience in managing the design and construction of electronic information systems for Consolidated Systems Corporation, Scientific Data Systems and the Xerox Corporation. He has an amazing grasp and knowledge of the innumerable pieces of equipment required to run, operate and maintain an active community TV station like KOCT!

Whew! After two long production days KOCT has concluded the first part of our upcoming new television series: Community Health Matters. 

This past week we shot 8 programs in both Spanish and English on Heart & Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes. KOCT’s Station Manager, Jake Rush directed these two heavy production days and he was assisted by a talented production team including Assistant Director Angela Miranda, and Addison Wolf who ran the audio board. (And we wouldn’t have rolled our mobile studio to record these programs if not for Chief Engineer Bill Peters who quickly diagnosed a battery problem!).

On the special television set for these shoots were Shawn Lennon, Maya Maravilla &Tamara Ilich on camera, also Angela Wong on Teleprompter. Tom Reeser was the floor director and Isabel Escalle from Tri-City Medical Center was our script advisor. Our host for the series is Univision’s Ricardo Berron.

Angela Wong on Teleprompter

Host Ricardo Berron with guests Jorge Gaspar Vista Community Clinic and Dr. Samuel Poniachik North County Health Services

In this coming month, right here on our Community Connection blog, we’ll show you the next part of the process:  The Art of editing this new series and the talented young people at KOCT who perform this time-consuming task.

Our goal is to start airing the first of 8 new programs in late February.  The programs will be shown in English and Spanish and, besides airing on KOCT, we will distribute them to our local library for check out and DVD’s will be available at North County Health Services, Vista Community Clinic, Tri-City Medical Center and at KOCT.

These programs were funded by a grant from The Community Healthcare Alliance Committee of the Tri-City Healthcare District and with funding from Tri-City Medical Center and from KOCT.  They are special tailored to emphasis the many health care resources right here in North County.

Video On Demand is so cool you can watch KOCT’s unique local programming when YOU want to, not just when it is scheduled on KOCT’s two television channels.  With our phone app, you can listen to our most recent Journalist Roundtable program while you drive to work.  And this month's show you won’t want to miss (Public Safety Reminder LISTEN don’t watch while driving duh).

Our special guest for the first half-hour of the show was the CEO of the San Diego U-T John Lynch and what an interview it was.  We had breaking news that included a short video about a new direction for the only daily Newspaper in San Diego County:  The San Diego U-T is about to launch News Now “sort of a new age CNN” a 24-hour Network that will launch here in San Diego but one that will provide a national news network featuring the latest in technology over the air and via the internet. Mr. Lynch also discussed newspaper employees and the cost cutting attitude that successful newspapers have to have to survive in this changing media landscape.

Our two other guests also provided topical and interesting information. For example Irma Cota, the CEO of North County Health Services explained that the new Affordable Care Act mirrored their goal to expand access to medical care. In fact NCHS has 12 employees at present whose job it is to educate the uninsured about the new affordable insurance options now available under the Affordable Care Act.

Our last guest was the Supervisor for the 5^th District of San Diego County, Bill Horn.  He said he thought they were on track (sorry for the pun) to put a new train station on Camp Pendleton possibly near the new Hospital that will serve the Sprinter, Coaster and AMTRAK.

So check out this month's show by clicking here. This program is a great opening for our new season and our upcoming shows.  As a reminder JRT airs the First Thursday of every month on channel 18 from 6 pm to 7 pm. KOCT also ‘streams’ the live show via our website.

Let's not forget our awesome staff

Maya our newest volunteer

This week we recorded the premier show of a new North County Talks series.   The program titled Faith and the Common Good is hosted by the Rev. T. S. Harris.  

North Coast United Methodist Church in Oceanside is producing the new talk show series  that seeks to provide an opportunity for the faith community in our area to dialog with the larger community about issues and concerns that effect us all. Issues will be discussed from a faith perspective. Over the next twelve months the program will consider how the faith community makes a difference in improving the quality of life in Oceanside and surrounding communities.

Here are some pictures of yesterday's guests:

Our first guest Felix Berry, local Restaurant Owner (Felix's BBQ with Soul) and Our Host  Rev. T. S. Harris.  (right)

Rev T.S Harris(right) with Carolyn Theiss-Aird (2012-2013 Past Church Moderator Pilgrim United Church of Christ) and Rev Dr Jonathan Mitchell, Pastor of the SwedenBorgian Church of San Diego

And let's not forget some "behind the scenes" pictures:

Addison, former intern, now staff at KOCT is our floor director

Angela works in the control room to make sure everything is ready for the shoot

Jake, studio manager, directs this episode of North County Talks

Maya is our most recent Volunteer

The view from the Control room

The program will start airing on KOCT’s channel 18 on January 21st and each Tuesday at 7 pm. It will also be available each Saturday at 10 am and 10 pm and Sunday at 12 pm as well as VOD or Video on Demand on January 21st, 2014. 

KOCT is excited about this new partnership and programming and a new program will premiere each month.

Oceanside Talks/ North County Talks is an innovative community television series that allows local non-profits, individuals and other community members to produce their own talk show at an affordable price. (Businesses can also take advantage of this offer but the programs cannot be shown on KOCT because we are a non-commercial television station.) These programs will be shown on KOCT during weekends on the month following the production. Each program would also be available on demand via www.koct.org. 

Oceanside/North County Talks  was created to encourage community programming and will help KOCT to generate income to augment our part-time staffing and produce more grass-roots programming. Click here to find pricing and other information. 

As we start the Year 2014, we would like to share with you some blast from the past:

Congressman Ron Packard was our guest on the Voice of Oceanside. The Voice used to be a one-hour call-in  program (viewers had longer attention spans in those days).  Tim Aldrich was the co-founder and the host of the Voice of Oceanside and this was one of the early sets.  Please write to current Congressman Darrell  Issa and encourage him to appear on KOCT’s  Voice of Oceanside in 2014!

And here are two pictures of the old council chambers from about 1987. Mayor Bagley and Council members Ben Ramsey, Sam Williamson, Lucy Chavez, Melba Bishop and Walt Gilbert were Oceanside’s elected officials—oh and of course Barbara Regal Wayne as City Clerk.

KOCT's cameramen are here recording the installation of the tile around the foundation for the KOCT documentary on the building of the Civic Center (1989)