Upcoming Voice of Oceanside

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 Receives A Welcome Addition

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. 

Today's News

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

Adobes & Ranchos of North County

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. 

BIKE SHORTS: GET BACK YOUR FUNNY

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.

Arts and Culture

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. 

Editing of Community Health Matters

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.