Thursday, April 23, 2015

Important Roles KOCT Plays

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


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Community Connection

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!


Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Community Connection for Tuesday March 31st

Earlier this year the City Council approved the awarding of art project funds to KOCT and five (5) other non-profit organizations. The Oceanside Arts Commission, consisting of 11 volunteers, had reviewed many grant applications before passing on their recommendations to the Council.

The mission of the Arts Commission is to foster the development of the performing, visual and cultural arts. The goal of KOCT’s successful grant application was to produce three programs about other successful grantees and share with our north county community our rich art culture and heritage. KOCT is thankful for the support of the Arts Commission and the City Council. KOCT will provide matching funds for this project to our City Council.
In the coming months you’ll see the KOCT camera crew at the following events:
·         The Boys & Girls Club of Oceanside’s Art of the Masters program
·         The First Friday Art Walk (May 1st)
·         Oceanside Theatre Company’s Radio Program Series
KOCT’s objective is to share with a greater audience these short television and web programs that capture the creativity, excitement and content of our vibrant Oceanside arts community. We live in a busy, fast-paced environment and not everyone can get away from family, business and other obligations to participate and enjoy the arts. KOCT hopes to share and preserve these ‘art moments’ with a larger community and for a period of time longer than the event itself!  Donald Stump with North County Lifeline wrote in a supportive letter on behalf of KOCT: “…these programs highlight the many positive projects that take place in Oceanside and KOCT’s coverage helps to insure a larger audience for our non-profits, artists and musicians.”


KOCT camera crew at North County Lifeline mural creation for a previous "Arts & Culture" production.
Jennifer Lacy, the Board Chair of the Oceanside Charitable Foundation wrote: "We are fortunate to have such a responsive television station in Oceanside....their commitment to promoting Arts and Culture has been evident by their innovation and willingness to work with the community".

KOCT has covered the Arts in Oceanside since its inception. Here the late poet, writer and ‘artist’ Robert Nanninga & KOCT Executive Director Tom Reeser create a promo for a KOCT program about the very first ‘Days of Art’ in the late 1980’s.





Thursday, March 19, 2015

Voice of Oceanside

The Voice of Oceanside probably holds the record for the longest-running talk show in North County. It was started by our first volunteer host, Tim Aldrich and the founder of KOCT, Bob Bowditch, in 1988.


We have had hundreds of shows since then featuring State Senators, US Congressmen (Including Randy “Duke” Cunningham!), Mayors and Councilmembers. The show has tackled controversial community topics like rent control, city charters and major land use developments.


Last Thursday we had a full-television production crew in for an entire day to film the start of a new season of the Voice of Oceanside. Our long-time host, John Bonosoro had a series of informative conversations with an impressive line-up of guests.

Duane Coleman, Superintendent of Oceanside Unified School District

This was Dr. Coleman’s first time on the KOCT Voice set and it was very informative. The new school Superintendent of Oceanside Unified School District, is a graduate of Oceanside High School and we learned a little about his journey and educational background. He brought a short video about Oceanside Promise and how it will help our graduating students no matter what path they choose, be it the vocational arts or a college degree.

Councilmember Jack Feller

Councilmember Feller has been a frequent guest on the Voice of Oceanside –he has been an elected official since 2000. We asked Councilmember Feller about the many changes brought on by the last election. Councilmember Feller gave viewers his thoughts about the resignation of City Manager Steve Jepson and what Mr. Feller will be looking for in the national search for a new city manager.

Fire Chief Darryl Hebert

Fire Chief Darryl Hebert  spoke with John about his staffing issues, concerns, the many fires the department has faced over the past few months and also brought a short video about a new program called Military in Transition.

Police Lt. Leonard Cosby

This was Police Lt. Cosby’s first time on KOCT even though he has been a police officer in Oceanside since 1986. Lt Cosby is the manager of OPD’s Neighborhood Policing Team, School Resource Officer and Senior Volunteers. He discussed community oriented policing which has been a successful problem solving approach to the lowering of crime rates in Oceanside.

Councilmember Jerry Kern

Councilmember Kern has served the community since first elected to city council in 2006. As a Voice veteran, Councilmember Kern has been quoted as saying ‘elections have consequences ‘and our host asked Jerry about the consequences of having a new council majority. He also gave his perspective on the proposed new swimming pool complex and the search for a new City Manager.
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KOCT will record additional Voice of Oceanside programs in April with Mayor Wood, Councilmember Sanchez and new Councilmember Chuck Lowery. Once these shows are edited we will play the entire City Council series beginning in May.


These programs are a great way to ‘stay connected’ with your elected officials—watch for our new season of the Voice of Oceanside.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

2nd Annual North County Economic Summit

On Tuesday, March 10th at the Sheraton Carlsbad Resort 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.




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 2nd Annual North County Economic Summit.


Monday, March 9, 2015

Watch this months Journalist Roundtable

Watch this months Journalist Roundtable on KOCT’s Community Channel 18!  We had a great line-up of influential and informative guests including:

New President of MiraCosta College Sunita Cooke

Encinitas Mayor Kristen Gaspar

Author of new book “The Real World of Mission San Luis Rey”,
Jim Downs

Oceanside Post Founder & Publisher Cliff Ireland

This month’s Journalist Roundtable can be seen on KOCT Channel 18 at 6 pm Monday thru Friday or as Video On Demand via KOCT.ORG.

Journalist Roundtable-L-R: Encinitas Mayor Gaspar, Host Kent Davy, 
San Diego U-T Columnist Logan Jenkins and KPBS’s Alison St. John 

Thursday, February 26, 2015

KOCT Presents The Adobes & Ranchos of North County

The Kick Off Celebration for the new KOCT series The Adobes & Ranchos of North County was a big success. Over 50 people attended-- some from as far away as Orange County and Temecula. Also in attendance were many of the 'stars' who were interviewed in these historical documentaries.

KOCT wants to thank the Oceanside Library and staff (Sheri Noel and Brad Penner) for the great accommodations, Christine Loyola of Petite Madeline Bakery for some AMAZING cookies and Kristi Hawthorne who shared her love of history with the audience.

Kristi Hawthorne, President of the Oceanside Historical Society

Audience at The Adobes & Ranchos of North County Premiere

Attendees saw a highlight reel of the new 6-part historical series

Left to Right -Tom Reeser, Executive Producer "Adobes",  Lola Sherman,Scriptwriter and 
Co-Producer, Janene Possell Sheperd-Friend of KOCT


Miguel Blanco received a special award for his editing skills in the making of "Adobes"

"A Really Big Rancho - The Story of the Kelly Family" featured interviews with Susan Kelly and Marvin Sippel

KOCT has received a number of phone calls asking how to see this new series:

It will air every week at 7:00PM on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays on KOCT channel 19,  Cox Cable in Oceanside, county wide on AT&T's U-Verse (ch 99 and then surf to KOCT-ch 19). You can also watch it as video on demand via KOCT.ORG each week we'll release the latest episode—this week we are featuring:  “The Story of the Marron Family".
                
Here is the schedule for release of the 6 program series: 

Week of
2/24 - The Story of the Marron Family
3/03 - A Really Big Rancho - The Story of the Kelly Family
3/10 - The Story of Rancho Buena Vista Adobe
3/17 - The Story of Rancho Guajome Adobe
3/24 - The Story of Las Flores Adobe and the Santa Margarita Rancho
3/31 - The Story of Laura Marron Steiger & the John Steiger Family
       
You can also purchase a DVD. Each DVD has three (3) 30-minute programs: $25.00 for one or $45.00 for two (6 programs total). We will also be sending free copies to the Oceanside, Vista, Carlsbad libraries and we will let you know when they are available for check out.

One final note: Even though this new series is available in high-definition there is even a higher resolution version you should check out: Go visit these historical sites with your family and friends. There's nothing like exploring the past in person and you could visit at least five of our local Adobes in one day! And if you watch one of KOCT's programs first you'll be able to impress your visitors with your vast knowledge of North County history.