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.

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.

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!

Don’t forget that KOCT will air its numerous Election 2015 programs throughout the weekend on our Community Channel 18. Or you can grab your practice ballot and watch each Election program as Video On Demand and make your final decision about who you are going to vote for. And don’t forget you can watch these programs on your Smart Phone, Tablet or Computer.  

The only thing scarier than spending a weekend watching political candidates is the annual KOCT Halloween party! KOCT’s Jake Rush and Angela Miranda led our team of ghoulish zombies in decorating the studio for our Potluck Feast. Board member Liz Rhea and her husband George joined the fun (after Cowboy George helped Liz make a successful jail escape). There was a vote for the best costume and Angela Miranda and her Day of the Dead dress and make-up just beat out second place Zombie Jake Rush!

Looking forward to next weeks Election because there is a City Council meeting the next day. Will the incumbents win or the feisty candidate contenders? Watch KOCT channel 18 on election night for City Council and School Board results!! (Go to the City’s Website to see all the local race results) And turn to KOCT-Channel 19 Government channel on Wednesday, November 5^th from 4 pm on for LIVE City Council coverage! Or watch it by watching our Streaming Video service on your smart phone, pc or tablet.

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!

Hope you caught last weeks engaging Journalist Roundtable featuring the Candidates for the Oceanside City Council, if not you will not want to miss it. You can watch this special Journalist Roundtable and be an informed voter by viewing this episode on Channel 18 Monday thru Friday at 7:00AM and 6:00PM as well as Sundays at 7:00AM and 10:00AM.

One of our two Journalist, Logan Jenkins has written an insightful column about the show:

Thursday night on KOCT, Oceanside’s community TV station, Kent Davy (former editor of the North County Times) and I asked questions to the four principal candidates for two City Council seats. Incumbents Jerry Kern and Gary Felien are challenged by former Councilman Chuck Lowery and community activist Dana Corso. These were my take-aways from the spirited back-and-forth:

Click here to read the rest of the column.

JRT Guests Included:

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. 

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.

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 was invited but did not attend.

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. 

Our next few Community Connections will be Throw Back Editions because KOCT is celebrating 30 years of service to our north county community!

The entire community came out to the Oceanside band shell in 2001 to celebrate our local Little League teams Western Division Championship! They lost in the World Series even though it was later discovered the other team’s pitcher was older than allowed for a little league participant!!

Below the team answers questions from the audience and then KOCT Sports Announcer Tom Sheridan just prior to the ceremony by the Mayor and elected officials to honor our young sports heroes!

Brian Cook was our 2^nd Oceanside Spectrum host and was instrumental in promoting the show to the many non-profits and city departments to help promote their events. KOCT’s Executive Director, Tom Reeser, below presents Brian with the Beacon Award for ‘shining light on our community’ with his many years of dedicated volunteer service to our community. 

Brian was also the originator of the annual ‘Sock Drive’ for Brother Bennos. Below, (with the KOCT production team) are the founders of Brother Bennos, Harold and Kay Kutler along with Voice Host Bill Fritsche and the late Dick Goodman who was the Director of Housing for the City of Oceanside for many years. This was in 1992.

What could be more joyous than to live in Oceanside during the summer months?  The waves have been great and the water warm. A great way to share the joy of Oceanside and summer is by watching, sharing and enjoying Video On Demand available on KOCT.ORG.

Last summer the Parks and Recreation Department put on a great summer concert: The Surfaris Concert—If you have to work but want to also enjoy great classic surf music here what you do, click below and listen while working on that Spreadsheet and thinking about this upcoming weekend.

http://koct.org/video/detail/the_surfaris_concert

Oceanside is blessed with a number of great surf spots, white sandy beaches and residents who love water sports and the beach lifestyle. This year we seem to have mostly missed the MayGray & JuneGloom but as you’ll see from this 1999 Long Board Contest we are not always so lucky. However there was a strong swell for this 15^th Annual contest and this program features Kahuna Bob as host, Chris Ahrens as announcer and some great nose rides by Dale Dobson:

http://koct.org/video/detail/15th_annual_longboard_contest_1999

In 2000 the Long Board Contest had Waves & Sunshine :

http://koct.org/video/detail/16th_annual_longboard_contest_2000

The City of Oceanside is also blessed with many residents from the South Pacific. KOCT’s talented crew and Mobile Studio captured many of the large Sister City and Samoan Celebrations at the band shell going all the way back to when Mayor Larry Bagley would greet and participate in the Kava Ceremony with the elders of the Samoan Community. Click here to enjoy the 1992 Samoan Day Celebration:

http://koct.org/video/detail/samoan_day_celebration

Journalist Roundtable program featuring Bill Horn VS Jim Wood now available as VOD Plus more June Primary Programs

On Thursday night, May 1^st, the two experienced candidates for the San Diego County 5^th District Supervisor seat faced off in a tense and sometimes testy one-hour program.

Logan Jenkins wrote about the two diverse candidates in his column

As did Kent Davy

You can see for yourself what all the talk is about because the show has now been posted on KOCT.ORG as Video On Demand.  The two candidates appeared together in a forum put on by the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee and hosted by MiraCosta College. That program has just been posted and you can watch it by clicking here. (Thank you to the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce and MiraCosta College for providing this program.)

All candidates have been invited to participate in all of KOCT’s election programs but not all have decided to participate.  As an example our District Attorney focused Journalist Roundtable program featured Bob Brewer and Terri Wyatt but, unfortunately, incumbent Bonnie Dumanis did not participate.

We have also added to our June Primary Video On Demand series our popular Candidates Statement program featuring Mayor Jim Wood and incumbent Supervisor Bill Horn for the 5^th District Supervisor race and candidate Bob Brewer for the District Attorney seat.

If you prefer to watch TV the old fashion way remember ALL of these June 3^rd primary election programs will be shown extensively on KOCT throughout the month of May.  Check out our Program Schedule it has a cool search function that makes it easy to type in the name of the program and it will provide you a custom listing of that shows airing dates and times.

Stay informed about the upcoming Election by staying tuned to KOCT-Your Community Channel.

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

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