At KOCT’s recent Open House we met parents and teenagers interested in KOCT and our Internship program.  Many of our local schools, such as Rancho Buena Vista, have excellent student internship programs and KOCT has trained many of their students and utilized their skills to produce community programming.

KOCT continues to produce a wide variety of programs—documentaries and topical talk shows such as North County Talks: Faith & the Common Good. The program is hosted by the Pastor of North Coast United Methodist Church, Pastor TS Harris. They have tackled many challenging and topical subjects such as the Minimum Wage, Human Slavery and Affordable Housing. Check out their most recent show.

I would also like to announce a new KOCT partnership with another local media resource, The Coast News.  Now, in every addition of this weekly newspaper  you can find a weekly listing of KOCT latest programs and the date and time they will be airing. Thank you to Chris Kidd, the Advertising Manager and Associate Publisher for the Coast News Group for his support of KOCT.  The Coast News is also expanding and starting this month they will be publishing an inland addition of their popular newspaper. KOCT wishes them well in their new endeavor. We also appreciate that The Coast News Managing Editor, Tony Cabala, has been offering his expertise as one of the journalists on our popular Journalist Roundtable program.

Watch tonights’ Journalist Roundtable on KOCT’s Community Channel 18 “LIVE” at 6pm—Guests include Francine Busby the Chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party,  Gary Felien of The Republican Party of San Diego County, Chris Van Gorde, President & CEO- Scripps Health and  Councilmember Jerry Kern, of the San Onofre Community Engagement Panel .  Watch on Cox Cable in Oceanside, AT&T U-Verse Ch 99-county wide or watch on your Smart Phone, Tablet or Computer by clicking here.

KOCT Open House-Celebrating 30 years! One week from now KOCT will host its annual Open House & Forum. This free event will be on Thursday, June 12 from 4 pm to 6:30 pm.

Attendees can take a studio tour and see how television programs are recorded, edited and televised. You can experience green screen magic and drivers of any age can take a drive around Oceanside without leaving the KOCT studio. Find out how your non-profit can appear on Oceanside Spectrum and KOCT Board members will be on hand to answer any questions. We will also have a KOCT swag raffle and tell you how you can become a Friend of KOCT to support your community channel in producing more programs for, by and about the community we live our lives in.  RSVP by calling 760-722-4433 or koct@koct.org.

The Bob Bowditch Scholarship fund was established by Ida Bowditch upon the passing of KOCT’s founder, Bob Bowditch in 1989. Every year annually KOCT awards a small scholarship to Oceanside or El Camino High School graduates whose intent is to have a college major in communications or media studies. Our 2014 Scholarship Recipient is Joshua Montiel from El Camino High School. In his application he wrote “A good film takes you into the story and lets you become a character; you begin to feel the emotions as if you are part of the film itself. It distracts you from everyday stress and worries. For the length of the film nothing else exists but the story you are taking part in”. Watch for Joshua’s appearance on a future Oceanside Spectrum when he will be interviewed by Spectrum Host: Elaine Swann!

Congratulations Joshua!

KOCT’s founder, Bob Bowditch

Speaking of Elaine Swann her latest book “LET CRAZY BE CRAZY” (you can order her book on her website) has just been published and it contains practical examples, tips and advice on the perils of what she calls “Crazy Folk.” Whether in our professional environments or family and personal relationships, they exist. Swann gives sensible guidance on:

How to identify Crazy Folk, How to get rid of toxic Crazy Folk and How to deal with the Crazy Folk in situations where we have no choice, such as work, in volunteer organizations and with family members. Elaine is currently on a coast to coast tour including appearances on television stations all across the county. As you can tell we are Crazy about Elaine who, by the way, will be our host at our June 12^th Open House and Forum.

Host, Elaine Swann

•  Next week, Tuesday June 3rd is Primary Election Day. What will the results mean? Will incumbents lose and be forced to fight for their office in the November election or did they slide to victory over their aspiring challengers? For insightful analysis you’ll want to tune to next Thursday Nights (June 5^th- 6 pm / Channel 18) Journalist Roundtable where our first two guests will help in our Election Dissection. Our first guest will be Francine Busby-the Chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party and our second guest will be  the Treasurer of The Republican Party of San Diego County. Both will discuss the outcome of the June primary at both the local and regional level.

Our other two guests will discuss two important subjects in the news: Health Care and the decommissioning of San Onofre Power Plant.

Chris Van Gorder is the President & CEO of Scripps Health—his path to CEO is an unusual journey and Scripps has many health facilities in North County. He’ll discuss changes in health care since the passage of the Affordable Care Act and Scripps plans for health care in North County.

Our last guest will be Councilmember Jerry Kern who is a member of the newly formed Community Engagement Panel which is looking into issues related to the decommissioning of the San Onofre Power Plant.

Our Journalist for next week JRT will be Host Kent Davy, KPBS’s Alison St. John and the Managing Editor for The Coast News, Tony Cagala. Don’t miss JRT- “It’s Good TV”!

• Finally don’t forget to mark your calendar for Thursday, June 12^th from 4pm to 6:30 pm. KOCT is inviting everyone interested in touring your community channel to our annual Open House and Forum! (more in next week’s Community Connection)

          Save the Date-June 12^th Open House