21^st Annual Oceanside Independence Parade 

The 21st Annual Oceanside Independence Parade was colorful and festive with funky floats, beauty queens, military bands, extravagant cars and fire trucks. Thanks to Main Street Oceanside, its hosts, volunteers and Tri-City Medical Center, for participating in this year’s 21^st annual parade.

KOCT has covered the Oceanside parades for the last 30 years and our talented crew was set up by the Oceanside Civic Center to capture the colorful tradition.

Staff included Miguel Blanco, Tamara Ilich, Toby Maysey, Damian Mickey, Tyler Jardine, Bill Peters, Jake Rush, Phoenix VonHendy, Micheyl Steinway, Addison Wolf, and Angela Miranda.

The hosts of parade were Oceanside’s Jim Schroder and Kristi Hawthorne.

The show will air on KOCT’s Community Channel 18 and can be seen in Oceanside on Cox Cable and county-wide on AT&T’s U-Verse (channel 99).   Also, if you have family or friends who don’t live in Oceanside they can still watch  your little baton-twirler perform in the  parade by going to KOCT.ORG and clicking on the “Video on Demand” banner at the top of the home page.

KOCT provides extensive replays on KOCT’s channel 18 and 19 as well as Video on Demand (Specials: Parade) via KOCT.ORG by the following Monday (June 29^th).

KOCT Replay Schedule for the 21^st Annual Oceanside Independence Parade:

·         Multiple replays the week of June 29- July 3^rd

      Sat. July 4^th

o   6 am & 4 pm             - Channel 18

o   12 pm & 9:00 pm      - Channel 19

See KOCT Program Schedule for additional July 2015 air times or watch on your smart phone, tablet or computer by going to KOCT’s Video on Demand and click on SPECIALS: Parade.

(click Community Connection to view our news letter)

The KOCT family would like to give a big THANK YOU to all those that attended the 2015 Open House Event. It was a great opportunity for the KOCT Board and staff to meet our viewers. We appreciate the assistance from Board members Debbie Allen, Michelle Bray-Davis, Frank Gould, Gerald Hampton, Margret Merlock, and Board Chairman Liz Rhea.  We also want to thank our host of Oceanside Spectrum, Elaine Swann and a big "GET WELL SOON" to her husband Chris.

Here are some scenes from our Great Event!

Deputy Mayor Chuck Lowery and Gwen Sanders

KOCT's Aaron Capehart and Gwen Sanders

KOCT's Crew Wolf, Angela Miranda, and Micheyl Steinway

Live taping of the Oceanside Spectrum

Visitors enjoyed the behind the scene perspective 

(L-R) KOCT's Board Member Michelle Bray-Davis, Felicity Gould, KOCT's Board Members Frank Gould and Debbie Allen

KOCT's I.T. Specialist Phoenix Von Handy explaining Cablecast to visitors 

(L-R) Casa De Amparos Director Tamara Fleck-Myers with Host Elaine Swann

KOCT's Executive Director Tom Reeser and KOCT Board Member Janet Bledsoe-Lacey

Green Screen Magic

KOCT's Station Manger Jacob Rush with Deputy Mayor Chuck Lowery

THANKS again for ALL the participation with the Open House!

Preparing for Monday’s KOCT's Open House(click to open the link)

On Monday KOCT will host its annual Open House at our 3038 Industry Street Studio. (Near Garrison and Oceanside Blvd).

Besides meeting KOCT’s staff and volunteer Board of Directors visitors will get to see how Oceanside Spectrum is produced.  Elaine Swann is the host of this long-running, monthly, Community Television Program. You’ll be able to meet her and find out how your non-profit organizations can appear on Spectrum to help publicize your fund-raisers, events or needs.

One of the fun ‘exhibits’ you’ll see is our Green Screen technology.  They use to call it Chroma-Key and its how your local TV weatherman is able to stand up in front of a giant map and tell you that San Diego will again be 70 degrees. (Except for May-Gray & June-Gloom).

Aaron Capehart (left) Jon Beltz (right).

You’ll get to sit in a custom little car designed by KOCT’s Chief Engineer, William Peters, and take a virtual road trip all around Oceanside.  Earlier this week, KOCT’s Production team of Angela Miranda, Aaron Capehart and Damian Mickey drove around Oceanside with our High-Definition (HD) cameras to gather the footage needed for your Trip.

Green Screen Set up.

Yesterday’s crew consisted of Angela Miranda, Aaron Capehart, Tamara Ilich and Jaylen Abrego. They set up an elaborate green screen background to shoot footage that will really make your experience a (as they said in the 60’s) Trippy.

As you can see from the photos it was truly a flying 3D-Circus.  The next step in our preparation for Monday is to take the road trip footage and combine it with yesterdays Green Screen footage so you can experience a drive around Oceanside like no other….

Take a ride with KOCT on Monday, June 15^th from 2 pm to 5 pm for our annual Open House (click to open the link).

 For more information or to RSVP call 760-722-4433.

Random Pixels

Congratulations to this year’s winner of the 25^th Annual Bob Bowditch Scholarship Award, Jade Yusi!  Jade is a graduate of El Camino High School. The KOCT staff met Jade during her Directors Training for this years El Camino high school Spectrum production. (KOCT also produced a Spectrum program with Oceanside High School Students) 

Former Spectrum host Brian Graham, with the first scholarship recipient Jeff Robinson in 1990, 
and Ida Bowditch

The Bob Bowditch Scholarship was created in 1989 to honor the founder of KOCT. His widow, Ida Bowditch wanted to create this endowment to remember Bob and to help young people going to college and majoring in Communications and Media. 

Director Jade Yusi at the controls

Jade is a good example of the young people Ida wanted to assist—Jade wrote in her scholarship application; 

“I dream of making movies. To do so for a living would give me an opportunity to change people’s lives. My passion for storytelling cannot be silenced and I know I want to do this for the rest of my life. This fall, I will be going to the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film-making”.

Congratulations Jade and best of luck in your pursuit of your dreams!

We recorded an interesting new Journalist Roundtable on June 4^th and it will be replayed throughout the month of June AND  you can watch anytime as Video on Demand too. 

KOCT Production Crew preparing for the show.

Our first guest was Chris Jennewein the Publisher and Editor of the Times of San Diego. Chris created the nation's first online and Internet newspaper at the San Jose Mercury News in 1992-94. And we discussed his journey and that of online newspapers. 

Our second guest was Ken Weinberg, Director of Water Resources of the San Diego Water Authority, and our subject was the Drought and everything to do with water or the lack of it in North County.

Our final guest was Eric Larson with the Farm Bureau of San Diego County. We asked him how our north county farmers are doing in this drought and about a new industry: Agritourism.

And remember... you can watch this program on your tablet or smart phone too!

Finally don’t forget to RSVP if you can attend the KOCT OpenHouse on Monday June 15^th from 2 pm- 5 pm. 

You can watch Oceanside Spectrum being filmed, take a tour and meet the KOCT staff and Board. Find out how local television is produced by coming to KOCT-Your Community Channel!

CAP Act will help preserve Community Television

KOCT-Your Community Channel- has been providing programming for the Oceanside & North County community for over 31 years. There are PEG (Public Education & Government) channels in towns large and small all across this nation. Since 2005, PEG access channels have suffered severe setbacks as a result of statewide franchising laws.  The historic recession took an additional toll and as a result thousands of PEG channels have shut down over the past decade.

The good news is that U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin & Edward Markey have reintroduced the Community Access Preservation (CAP) Act legislation to ensure public access to local television programming.

The CAP Act amends the Cable Act to ensure that PEG fees can be used for any purpose not just for capital expenditures.  (Many  PEG channels  have funding for equipment but no funding for a  staff to operate them!)

Other important elements of the CAP Act are:

• Makes sure that cable operators transmit PEG channels without charge to the local government

• Makes sure that PEG channels are available on the Basic tier for service and available to all subscribers without the need for additional equipment.

• Allows communities to have the capabilities to transmit their programs in High Definition

• Allows communities to have the ability to submit programming guides just like all the other channels

We’ll keep you in the loop on this important legislation and seek your help in contacting your local Congressional and Senate representative in support of the CAP Act when it moves a little further down the legislative road….

John Rocco, President of the American Community Television said it best: “Now, more than ever, the CAP Act is desperately needed. Our local community media is critical to the communities as media continues to consolidate…the need for local Government transparency is at an all-time high. We must protect and preserve this precious community resource and make sure the local community is represented in the media landscape.”

 Random Pixels

• Have you ever wanted to see the ‘behind the scene’ action of our monthly KOCT program Oceanside Spectrum?

• If you come to the KOCT Open House on June 15^th from 2-5 pm you can watch a  ‘live-to-tape‘ talk show being recorded and take a self-guided tour of KOCT. This is great opportunity to meet KOCT’s staff, interns, volunteers and the KOCT Board of Directors too!

 Mark your calendars.

•    KOCT Station Manager has been out of the office and into the field to capture more scenic footage for an upcoming Oceanside & North County Tourism video. 

• Another production that has kept our crews hopping is our upcoming program Hopps Highway. Angela Wong and the KOCT crew have had the arduous task of filming interviews at Legacy brewery, Bagby Beer and Stone Brewing Company.

• 
  
  
  
  Watch this growing North County program in July.

•    Watch for the KOCT crew at this years Independence Day Parade on June 27^th—attend this patriotic event in person, cheer the parade participants and then watch the fun again on KOCT’s televised coverage.

Come and enjoy the Independence Parade of 2015 with KOCT!

• Congratulations to KOCT’s Miguel Blanco for winning the popular radio station’s 91X Poster contest!

•     Miguel is a talented KOCT Editor whose most recent KOCT project was the Adobes and Ranchos of North County. This award is just another example of KOCT’s award-winning staff!

KOCT and the Oceanside community are truly blessed.

Journalist Roundtable on KOCT

Tune into our next ‘live’ Journalist Roundtable  tonight, Thursday May 7th at 6 pm.  If you miss this ‘live’ show you can always watch Journalist Roundtable throughout the month of May on KOCT’s Channel 18 or as video on demand via KOCT.ORG

Our Guests will Include:

Matt Sanford with the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation to discuss Innovate 78.

Our second guest will be former Oceanside Council member Shari Mackin to discuss a Community Commentary she wrote in the local newspaper regarding the proposed Caltrans proposed Interstate 7/ state Route 78 project.

Our next guest is Louise Esola, former columnists for the North County Times and author of “The True Story of the Lost 74 of the Vietnam War”. 

Our final guest will be Mark Dice—local provocateur who has received millions of YouTube hits for his videos about Petitions that he get visitors to the Oceanside pier to sign no matter how outrageous the issues are.

Journalist Roundtable is hosted by veteran journalist Kent Davy. He is joined on set by KPBS's Alison St. John and columnist from the San Diego Union-Tribune, Logan Jenkins. 

The program can be viewed on Channel 18 Cox Cable in Oceanside, and AT&T U-Verse, county-wide channel 99.  You can also stream us live on www.koct.org on your smart phone or tablet.

Stay in tune with your community by tuning into KOCT – Your Community Channel!