Doc & Jacques: In Print and On Screen – How Journalism and Film Shape Our Communities

In this episode of the Doc & Jacques radio variety show, Dr. GiGi Reed and Lukus speak first with Dan Schmidt and “Doc” Belardi about Schmidt’s recent acquisition of the Del Norte Triplicate newspaper, his plans to revitalize local journalism, and the vital role newspapers play in fostering community connection and civic engagement. In the […]

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Welcome,
everyone.
You have now entered the cosmic radio receptors
of KCIW
one hundred point seven FM
in Brookings, Oregon.
Thank you for tuning into this week's super
fabulous program.
I'm doctor Gigi, and my cohost is usually
Jacques Kapner, but he's still away, albeit on

(00:31):
his way back.
So he won't be here in person, but
certainly in spirit again.
Here's a little shout out to our Missouri
gang. Love you guys.
Also, a shout out to our long term
listeners,
Jaden,
Crescent City, and Chuck in Harbor.
Anyway,
for the reason that Jackie's not here, our
format for the Doc and Jacques show is

(00:52):
going to be a little bit different
today
again.
But I also wanna mention that you are
hearing this live show on KCLW
in Brookings,
Oregon,
but
the same show will be rebroadcasted
in exactly one week from now each and
every Wednesday on KZZH

(01:12):
ninety six point seven FM in Eureka, Humboldt
at 8AM
in the morning for the, early morning riser,
and then a few hours later at 1PM
at KFUG
at one
o one point one FM in Crescent City,
California.
So as mentioned above, the format is going
to be a little bit different.

(01:34):
Last week, my twin was here, and she
told us about he rehydrating
the intervertebral
discs. I'm only saying
I hope you remember.
Today, I have my son, Lucas, here. He
substituted once before for Jackie.
Hello, Lucas. Hello, everyone. I have returned more

(01:56):
powerful than ever.
Okay.
Thank you. And
we're now turning our attention to our first
guest,
Dan Schmidt, who also
brought his trusted friend, Doc Bilardi.
He's in the peanut gallery, but he does
have voice privileges.
Dan Schmidt is a recent elected harbor commissioner

(02:19):
in Crescent City. But wait,
there's more.
Lucas?
Today, we wanna talk a little bit about
the decline in local newspapers,
especially in regards to recent developments with the
triplicate.
Since 02/2008, the largest 25 newspapers went from
employing a little over 15% of American journalists
to 40%.

(02:39):
Woah.
The result is these larger monolithic papers are
recycling more of their content and focusing less
on local issues.
Certainly, this is bad for everyone who loses
their local paper, but the consequences will reverberate
further than the city limits.
Local reporting informs larger stories,
statistically decreases local corruption, and increases civic involvement

(03:02):
in the community.
From 2019
to 2022,
an average of two local newspapers were being
closed a week.
And when a town loses its last paper,
it's considered part of a news desert.
Today, we're wondering if the desert is spreading
a little further west, claiming the triplicate and
capping a legacy that started in 1879.

(03:22):
To answer that question, we have Dan Schmidt
here in the KCIW
studio.
Jim. Hi. Thank you, Lucas.
Welcome, Dan. Thank you, doctor Gigi. Alright.
Well, so we're starting from the beginning.
Where were you born and raised, Dan? Born
in Corvallis, Oregon.
K. And when my dad graduated from Oregon

(03:45):
State College,
the, with an engineering degree, the entire aerospace
industry
moved down toward the San Fernando Valley in
Los Angeles,
and all the aspiring aerospace engineers ended up
down there. My father was one of them.
And after we outgrew our house because I
have six brothers Woah.

(04:06):
We moved to Simi Valley where I was
substantially raised.
And then from there, I was in the
army and
got out, and
here I am. Well. Well, what brought you
to this lovely area?
Well, I I had moved to, the
the desert,
the
Indio, California, not far from where they do

(04:27):
the Coachella Fest. Oh, yeah. Yeah. In fact,
our house was about one mile from the
Coachella Fest grounds.
You could hear all these famous rock bands
from our backyard.
And
I'm not really a rock and roll fan,
so
I was thinking, where else can I go?
And doctor Gigi, I'm sure you can relate

(04:49):
because of your medical background. Yeah. But some
people go through a period of stress in
their life Yeah. To the point where they
start to go postal.
And I decided it was better to go
coastal than to stay go postal.
I love that. Nice.
Okay. So I ended up here in Crescent
City,
as we all know, right on the the

(05:11):
Pacific Shores Of Northern California.
Alright. Now
before you went coastal,
what did you do for a career?
Well, I was in a newspaper business. Oh.
I I spent a year in Cal State
Northridge
and thinking that I knew everything I needed
to know after a year of college,

(05:34):
I started
a newspaper.
And a lot like Luke was saying,
the the newspaper consolidation
began way back there, and I couldn't get
a job. So if I was gonna work
in journalism, I had to start my own
newspaper, and that's what I did at the
age of 22.
And, from there, I Dang.
I sold it,

(05:55):
started another newspaper,
got it built up, sold it, and and
got enough money together
to buy a house, buy a car, and
go to law school.
So I finished my law legal training and
became a lawyer,
and I did that for about twenty five
years.
And after I got out of that gig,
I ended up, coming up to to Crescent

(06:18):
City Mhmm. Became a probation officer,
and then I became the editor of the
local paper.
And then I had an op I got
elected to the harbor commission,
and I had an opportunity to take over
the local paper, so I went for it.
And that brings us to today.
Alright. Well, speaking of today, what's your current

(06:38):
positions and titles?
Current position?
I would say that I am
a harbor commissioner elected to the harbor last
November. In fact, I believe Donald Trump rode
on my coattails
during the last election.
Yeah. But we we both got in.

(06:59):
I think that that's important.
I am what I consider to be the
error in chief
as a triplicate.
An error in chief? Okay.
And, of course, I'm a husband.
Yes. Those are all very important jobs. Those
are. And hi, Phyllis. We thought she was
gonna be here, but No, Phyllis. No. No,
Phyllis. But hi, anyway.

(07:21):
So
the look well, Lucas gave the intro about
our new or a local newspaper for reasons
that we obviously have already alluded to because
you have revived the pronounced
dead
Del Norte triplicate
newspaper.
It's back.
It's the newspaper
buy one get one deal. Right?

(07:43):
Well Tell us what you're currently doing with
with the acquisition of it. Well, we've we're
publishing our
second weekly edition
today as we speak. It's at the printer
down in in Arcata,
and we're printing it right now.
And by the time we get done here,
I may very well have the bundles of

(08:03):
papers
delivered to me.
So,
the struggle has been to keep the paper
going without skipping a beat. And we are
able to get the
first one out,
and, we're able to now get the second
one out without skipping any issues. Oh, wow.
So you haven't skipped any. So it's the
second week already. So we're kinda late. Oh,

(08:25):
jeez. But still very cool. Yeah. I'm holding
it by hands. It's here.
Nice. Okay.
Well, so can you tell us more about
what you're doing with the acquisition of the
local newspaper?
Well, of course, the most important thing is
to continue its service to the community.
And, unfortunately, the triplicate had kind of lost

(08:46):
its way in recent years
where
I think it was
poorly guided and not adequately supported. And so
it just kinda degraded as a as a
publication
and as a product that's supposed to benefit
the community.
I sensed that I knew what it needed
what needed to be done to change it

(09:07):
into a productive
and beneficial
form of communication.
So why was it put out for sale
in the first place? I mean, the the
people who did the paper might not have
thought the same way. Right? That it's not
a fantastic paper anymore. So what brought them
to putting it out for sale?
Well, it wasn't put out for sale. They

(09:27):
just decided to shut it down.
Oh. And I I heard about it. Yeah.
I heard about that it was going down,
that they were gonna publish their last issue
the following week. And within a half hour
of hearing that, I was on the phone
talking to their owner saying, hey. I don't
wanna let this newspaper fail. I see. So
I need to make arrangements to acquire the

(09:49):
paper from you so I can pick it
up where you left off and keep it
going. As a matter of fact, Lucas read
about it before he came that the triplacus
was was gonna shut down. Yeah. I was,
way back in Salt Lake City, and I,
you know, get alerts from Crescent City, and
I saw it was closing. And I was
a little heartbroken. You know? The the news
desert thing is serious. And, I thought up

(10:12):
until I was, you know, getting ready for
the show, I had no idea he would
save it. Well, you know,
fortunately,
newspaper people care about each other.
And when you lose a newspaper,
for many people, it's like losing a family
member.
The triplicate
is a 146
years old,
one of the oldest newspapers in California. Yeah.

(10:34):
Older than the Los Angeles Times.
And when it died,
people thought that was newsworthy.
Yeah. That's true. So was it a so
you just told them that you wanted it?
You you didn't have to fight with anyone
else? You just showed up and say, hey.
I'm taking this. No. My wife fought me.

(10:56):
We went back and forth, back and forth.
But but my good friend, Doc Bilardi, and
I Yeah. Who's here in the studio? Hey,
Doc. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
Doc and I have been talking about putting
a newspaper together or a newsletter or something
for a couple years
to talk about all the great things that
are gonna happen at the harbor, about the

(11:16):
changes that are happening in Crescent City, and
more importantly, about the good people and public
servants that are bringing all of this together
to make it happen. So you were gonna
design or make up a whole new paper
till this came up? Well I I have
to tell you when you fall. Yeah. I
came here four years ago, and I knew
then
that I wanted to take over the paper
because I I sensed that it wasn't serving

(11:38):
the community. But you were the editor at
that time. I became the editor about a
year later. I see. Okay. And and Yeah.
Well did made some changes and whatnot. Okay.
But since I had to say that What
was your paper gonna be called? If you
had the new one that you're not gonna
make now, did it have a name?
Doc Talk. Doc Talk.

(12:01):
The quadliquet. Oh. Well Doug.
Yes, doc. I will just share something here.
Yes. You know, Dan came into my office
at the time, and he wanted to discuss
the paper.
So I kept grinding on him and saying,
hey, let's get a hold of the owner.
Let's let's chitchat.
So, we had the news about it almost
three weeks ago. Dan, we're sitting at lunch,

(12:22):
and we're having lunch at,
Boathouse, and all of a sudden, phone call
comes into him.
He lit he lights up like a balloon.
I'm going, what the heck? He said, hey,
I got a chance. I said, well, hey,
let's rock. So
from there on, it was full speed ahead.
I was happy for him because as he

(12:43):
stated, there's so many good things coming. We
need to let the public know what's going
on. So,
it was a blessing,
and, I think it's gonna be well serviced
for the community
and for the things that are coming to
the whole big picture of our growth and
expansion in communications.
Thank you, doc. So And I expect your

(13:05):
continued support and involvement.
Yes. Oh, you are in a relationship with
us. He's gonna be behind you. Right? Yep.
Oh, yeah. He is. Whoever he latches on.
He's a friend. Yes. Yes. Now I have
a, like, a little stinker question.
We're talking paper
newspaper.
What is the viability

(13:26):
in paper over digital?
Well,
I'm gonna use a word that that has
a medical connotation.
Okay?
So the a newspaper
represents something tangible
that one can perceive
with their naked eye.

(13:48):
Okay? You don't need a TV screen. You
don't need a computer monitor. You don't need
speakers and electronics.
It's something you can hold, read,
and absorb
with the
unaided naked eye.
And consequently,
what is printed in the newspaper
has some permanence

(14:08):
that,
broadcast or
televised
information
can change in a moment.
You know, a a YouTube video can be
edited any and from one hour to the
next can be completely different. Right. A newspaper
is a permanent record Right. Of what was
published. And a lot of people wanna hold

(14:29):
that in their hand. They wanna send a
pic they wanna clip out the picture of
their grandkids and send it to their their
other children. It's something that I think marks
a milestone in the life of a young
person
when whether it's due to some
success on a athletic team or
in school,
they get their name in the papers, their

(14:50):
picture in the paper. Yep. And that that
does so much more for a child
than some random
notion on on
on a website or something. Facebook posts. Those
are billions of those. Nobody cares about those
anymore. You wanna see a picture, you wanna
clip it, get excited about it. Yeah. You
can't put a Facebook post in your scrapbook
or send it to grandma.

(15:11):
Well, an interesting aside too,
I don't have the exact numbers here, but
if you look at the profitability
of digital and print, you know, digital is
doing better, it actually makes much less money
than even newspapers. So it's kind of this
weird situation where
everyone has more access to digital, but it's
actually quite hard to make money off of
it. You know, like a local newspaper, people

(15:32):
buy ads, it's local to them.
Digital media has a problem where
nobody wants to pay for it. Right? It
pays for little advertisements, but no one's saying,
hey, I'm gonna give money to CNN to
read an article.
Well, I believe in the commercial viability of
a printed weekly newspaper.
I think that's what the advertisers

(15:52):
in Del Norte County need. Something where they
can put their a coupon for their restaurant
or for an oil change or anything, a
house for sale,
anything
that can be
used and enjoyed and taken advantage of by
the community.
You get you get people supporting local business,

(16:13):
and you get business reaching out to the
community.
You can't it could be that's a unique
process of a local community newspaper. Local newspaper
for the local people. Absolutely. But what Lucas
said in his prologue
area, what I thought I I didn't realize
before is that
even the national news pull from the local

(16:34):
newspapers. You know, if we have a little
earthquake or whatever here, it's gonna be we
are the ones that, you know,
probably report more accurate about than somebody else
who's flying in, doesn't know where it is
or or whatever they're doing. So they are
getting information from the local newspapers even to
the national level. Yeah. Like, what I say
with the larger stories is that, you know,
a lot of these bigger organizations, they have

(16:55):
more money, but what they're actually just doing
is repackaging these local stories and creating something
bigger out of it. Without the local newspapers,
they're gonna have to just rebuild all that
from scratch. Well, there's a phrase that's kicked
around, all politics is local. Well, I think
all news is local. Yeah. And it becomes
regional when regional newspapers pick up on it.

(17:17):
Yep. And then there's the sensationalism
that is then the national more anything.
So you are the
what is your title with it now? The
owner or the editor? Or what is what
are you now with the triplicate? Error in
chief. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You said the error
in chief. Yeah.
It's not very okay. Fine. I may suggest

(17:37):
the lord of the triplicate.
Well,
that's not my style. I'm I'm
way more down to earth than that. One
thing I've learned a long time ago is
when you're running a newspaper,
you're really no better off than anybody else.
You're just there putting the paper together and
getting it out.
You know, I invite

(17:58):
everybody in the community to have a piece
of the action in the newspaper.
Write a column, write a letter to the
editor,
send in pictures of your your dog, your
kid,
your your garden, whatever it may be. This
is your newspaper.
So I just happen to be the guy
that tries to put it all together once
a week. Yeah. So that is the editor

(18:19):
or error in chief type thing. You did
write your in your school paper, you said.
Right? You did journalism. You did,
reporting. Or what did you actually do back
then? My first newspaper job was in 1964,
and that's when I was a a young
kid.
And at the time,

(18:40):
Lyndon Baines Johnson
was our president.
And,
it was a nineteen sixty four election, and
I made a little neighborhood newspaper,
put some carbon paper between several sheets of
paper, drew drew out a little little newspaper
cute. And and posted those on the telephone
poles, and it's in the neighborhood.

(19:01):
And I got a I I got a
few
responses from that. And from there, it went
to being the editor of the elementary school
paper, then the junior high school paper, and
then working on high school paper,
the college newspaper, the army newspaper,
and then finally my own newspaper. So those
were the editors, or did you also report?
Did you also go out and interview people

(19:22):
or write stories? Is it mostly editing,
erroring?
Erroring. Yes. Lots of that and lot more
to come.
Okay. But, I did it all. I I
was able to survive as a weekly newspaper
because I could do pretty much everything that
needed to be done. Very cool. It's good
to have more people on board. They can
do it better. Yeah. But I can do

(19:43):
pretty much anything that needs to be done.
Well, you did that on hard mode. You
know, back in the day, there's no printers.
There's no computers. I
don't even think photo photocopier machines are everywhere.
Right? Well, I had a computer that was
so old, it had a rotary dial.
And, you know, it was tough to put
out a paper back then.
But we got it out. And they had
black and white, and we had a dark

(20:04):
room.
No such thing as email, no such thing
as the Internet, no such thing as digital
cameras. It all had to be done by
hand. Okay. You were so you were an
early adopter of computing. That's very interesting.
I was I I like to brag. It's
not exactly true completely.
But my little weekly newspaper in Moorpark
Park back in

(20:25):
nineteen eighty ish,
eighty one, eighty two,
was one of the very first newspapers
to take the Macintosh
computer from Apple
and move it into a newspaper environment,
both in news,
in
setting up classified ads, page layout,
booking, and bill billkeeping.

(20:45):
And that one little tiny news newspaper computer
rather with a little seven inch screen or
whatever it was Yeah.
Made it possible for me to do the
work of three other people.
And it Size it. It made sense.
What is your coverage area? Now? Yeah. The
county of Del Norte. It's okay. Do you

(21:05):
have do you keep the subscribers? Do you
have new subscribers? How many do you have?
It's amazing
how many people have contacted me in the
past week Oh, nice. To say they wanna
subscribe.
Yeah. Many of them saying, hey. We quit
the paper years ago. Yeah. We want back
in.
So,
we're gonna build up those numbers. Good. Alright.

(21:26):
Well, speaking of, what's what's the what are
the challenges that are that you're facing right
now? Well, the the the biggest challenge is
you gotta get it ready for the printer.
Printers have
many dozens of clients.
And to find
to get a a window of opportunity to
print
is not easy. So you gotta be ready
to go when the press is ready to

(21:48):
go. Oh, you don't have your own press?
Oh, no. No. I I rely on
a many multimillion dollar
printing plant in
Samoa, which is just outside Arcadia, California.
A very
a very fine newspaper printer.
They have a incredible printing operation there. They
also have a great restaurant with a slow

(22:08):
kitchen. Yeah. This is Hot place is good.
So do you drive down there to get
it? Yes. My brother,
Dennis,
he's down there at this very moment watching
the paper come off the press Oh, cool.
Ready to bring it back up to our
post office
so we can get it mailed tomorrow morning.
You mail it out? So I know we
have all the little triplicate boxes where is

(22:30):
that where does it come through the mail,
or does it come through mail you know,
the triplicate carriers?
Well,
I learned a long time ago
that
the big media that you were talking about,
Luke, you know, a Fortune 500
company Mhmm.
Depends

(22:50):
on a 10 year old boy with a
Schwinn bicycle
to get the papers out.
Yep. So we we have a different model.
We're gonna mail it to our subscribers, but
we're gonna make it available,
for news racks
and at at liquor stores.
Oh, I see. Pick up. Yeah. And I
think that's how it has been done. Right?
Over the counter sales. Yes.

(23:13):
Okay. Well, so how are you what's your
plans to have the newspaper support itself?
Well, a newspaper
supports itself off of advertising.
Mhmm. And that's what advertisers they they wanna
get their message out to the public. And
we can do it cheaper because we're sending
it out to a wide audience,
and we're paying the postage

(23:34):
to to mail our paper out. But once
you got the postage paid,
you can insert these inserts
into the paper
and and, get that out to the community.
So an advertiser,
like we have Cascade
Home Center over here. Yeah. Yeah. They're they're
running an insert this week.
And that's gonna go in our paper, shipped

(23:55):
to our advertisers
or to our customers, I mean. So who
puts that in? I remember when I was
a child in Germany, we had something that
went out, once a week. And we when
we got advertising, we all rolled our eyes.
All the kids did it because we had
to open each paper and put it in.
So we had to do it by hand.
Is that what you guys have to do
as well?
Except that they have this this printing plan

(24:16):
I have I have up north or down
south actually
is so advanced, so modern. They have machines
that automatically install Oh, nice. Okay. Nice. Well
And they also have another machine
that puts the addresses on the paper on
the front page. Oh. So they can take
it right to the post office and now
it out it goes. Yeah. No more busy

(24:36):
work. And and, you know, I think another
thing to worth mentioning is, like, the local
newspaper is such a precise way to market,
you know? Like, they pay so much money
for millions of people to see an ad,
and then maybe a few percent of them
see it. You wanna sell something in the
local area, I don't think you could do
better than a local newspaper. Right? Well, that's
the thing. It's it's readership. It's it's exposure.

(24:57):
And,
a larger area marketing area
dilutes that message to a larger area.
And, you know, people are not gonna drive
10 miles
to go to a donut shop per se,
but they would drive around the corner.
So, well, advertising is same. An advertiser wants
to reach
their customers,

(25:18):
their neighborhood customers. When I have if I
wanna put a picture of my chickens in
there saying, look,
Polly wants a cookie or whatever, they laid
eggs or this is really cool in my
garden,
and you were to print it, do I
have to pay for it? Or or how
does that work? Well, I,
in
I am going to print free egg

(25:41):
photos,
one of my policies.
In fact, I mentioned right here. I mentioned,
the Alexander farms Yeah. And there
many thousands of laying hens Yeah. That any
visitor can come to town and see all
these laying hens just
scooting all around,
free range,

(26:01):
organic
fed
laying hens producing eggs.
So
they're not gonna have to pay for any
of that coverage.
So you actually brought a couple of copies
of the Del Norte triplicate, and the front
page says Daniel Schmidt declares I'm not giving
up on the Del Norte triplicate. And there
is this

(26:22):
double page long
thing to read through,
which
says it all, like, the leg the the
laying egg chicken egg pictures are in there.
You don't want it?
I felt I I know look. I don't
I'm a little I'm kinda shy. Okay? Mhmm.
I am kinda shy. Right, doc? And Yes.
And and I'm kinda humble for good reason.

(26:44):
Okay. But,
I don't like talking about myself that much.
But I felt it was important for the
community to get to know who I was,
what I'm trying to do, and why am
I trying to do that. K. So that's
why that article came out last week. I'm
committed to saving this newspaper
just as I am to saving the harbor.

(27:05):
And,
and so here we are. Very good. Oh,
got got several
got several adventures planned. Alright. Well, in a
perfect world, where will the newspaper be in,
let's say, a year? What plans do you
have to be on that?
Within a year, I hope to have the
the newspaper
in every home in Del Norte County.

(27:27):
Woah. K? Yeah. I I want the newspaper
to belong to the entire county.
I want to it to be the one
thing the people of Del Norte County have
in common
is the triplicate.
Very nice. How about you, doc? I think
that's welcome, and I think also that'll echo
into the businesses
so we can work together
to get this thing going forward and upward

(27:50):
and solid. And sideways
and very good. Yeah. Do you need reporters?
Actually, the report for my school newspaper. We
need more help than I can prop
possibly get into here.
The main thing I need, I need graphic
artists
who can handle some of the later

(28:11):
configurations
of
of processing,
paid pagination.
There's some, Adobe products that we're involved in.
I need editors. I need columnists.
I need photographers.
I need people to have
advertising sales experience. I need everybody. You need
everybody? Okay. You need everybody. Well, and,

(28:33):
to answer the question I was gonna ask
of how people contact you, you very handily
put your phone number
at the end of the newspaper. I don't
think anyone's gonna have a hard time finding
you. I've gotten many, many phone calls, and
I'm waiting for doctor Gigi's call right now
because I'm expecting her to say, Dan, I
wanna write a column
on

(28:54):
healthy living.
Okay.
We might just do that. Yeah. Hey. So
how tell us the website and subscriptions.
Well,
my cell phone, my personal cell phone
is (760)
953-5321.
And that's my I carry that phone with

(29:15):
me wherever I go,
and,
I will answer every call,
read every text message, and get back to
everybody who attempts to contact me.
Very cool. Before we let you go, Dan,
and we won't, we have to actually break
for the mid break break. Okay.
Let me
do this because time flies when you have

(29:37):
fun.
So you are hearing the Doc and Chuck
live radio show. We're proudly broadcasting from the
KCOW
one hundred point seven FM studios in lovely
coastal Brookings, Oregon.
The list of major sponsors
for your community radio stations are
Advanced Airlines,
flying in and out nearby Crescent City to

(30:00):
Oakland and LA
seven days a week, Michelle Buford with our
own vibrant local Curry County Chamber of Commerce,
Nick and Lisa Rail and the PPA or
Partnership
for the Performing Arts,
And the medical team, that would be partially
me, at the Chetco Medical and Aesthetics in
Harbor,

(30:20):
Dan and Phyllis Schmidt from Crescent City, whereby
Dan is in the studio right now. Doc
Bollardy from Crescent City, who just barely left
the premises because we have shift change.
And lastly, my dear cohost,
Jacques Kepner.
On behalf
of KCOW,
thank you

(30:41):
all.
But we have before we let Dan go,
we just wanna thank you, Dan, for your
work. We'll bring out your phone number again.
You wanna say it again? Or Yes.
Okay. It's a cell phone, so I accept
text on the same number. (760)
953-5321.

(31:03):
Actually and and actually, we almost forgot. Dan,
I believe you had a message for the
young folks. I do indeed.
And,
the young folks, I have something to say
to you right now.
Get off your butts.
There's no
worse
way to spend your time

(31:24):
than to be on drugs
or watching television.
There's a big world out there to enjoy,
to to seize upon.
Right now, we have these businesses all throughout
our community
where the owners, founders, managers
are aging out. They're getting old like me.
And they don't have anybody to fill the

(31:46):
slots.
Nobody
to come up from from the second generation.
If you're a young person with any ambition
at all, any talent, any drive, you need
to find a local business.
Work for it. Prove your skill and and
and ability. And you may be able to
take over a business that's been around for

(32:07):
decades or generations,
just like I did with this newspaper.
I walked in and picked up a 146
year old newspaper
for a song, for a song.
Now how much would it take to buy
that off the market?
Hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So I'm saying, if you're a young person,

(32:28):
you could do the same thing, whether it's
a automotive repair shop, a restaurant,
a a retail store.
You can
carve out a future here locally
by working for a store that needs your
support.
Well said. Thank you, Dan. Thank you. Doc
left, but, Dan, please stay because you can

(32:49):
join our two
new guests.
Now let me prologue that for a tiny
second.
During the third week in August, we celebrated
the third Wild Rivers Film Festival
here in our own little Brookings locale. The
sidewalks were bustling,

(33:09):
There were receptions,
and, of course, there were films to be
watched. Short stories, funny, sad series, horror, and
documentaries
of different lengths.
Today,
we have in the studio two men
who volunteer
here in this very KCIW
studio
and incidentally

(33:30):
also for the Wild Rivers Film Festival.
Got a theme today.
Yeah. Both of them are involved in both
organizations
one way or another, and they're here to
elaborate.
Welcome, Michael Gorse and Rick
McNamer.
Correct. And thank you. Thank you, DG.

(33:51):
And before we go too far, may I
just
backtrack
or whatever the word is on, Dan Rick,
by the way. Yeah. Newspaper.
You you're you were speaking to me. I'm
going I was a subscriber
for both papers. Many about a year and
a half ago, I quit.
I'm gonna subscribe again. I'm excited. I think
local newspapers

(34:12):
are huge.
Always been a local newspaper guy no matter
what little community I've lived in. So I'm
excited that the triplicate's back and,
that you took over. Well, thank you, sir.
We're excited that you wanna be part of
it. I do. Are you gonna meet are
you gonna read a Medline at all if
I write one?
Well, of course.

(34:33):
That's what the paper.
Alright. So it's Rick and Michael.
Rick and Michael Rick
Rick and Michael, they're both very much into
KCOW.
You bet. And
Michael, a little more than Rick, into the
film festival. Right? So we're gonna ask questions,

(34:55):
and whoever is more into the film festival
will elaborate a little bit more. But both
for you, where were you born and raised?
Rick, go first because we just heard your
voice. Okay.
Rick, again, I was born and raised in
the Sacramento
area,
spent my high school years in a little
community east of there called Loomis, California.

(35:15):
Great little community.
And,
moving up here seven years ago, I kind
of equate this area. It's it's my favorite
place,
pretty much like Loomis was. So,
this area just captivated me. That's why I'm
here now and don't plan on leaving. Right.
Yeah. Well said. Michael.
Well, I grew up in San Diego. My

(35:35):
parents were
refugees
from Chicago
right before the second World War started,
and then, settled.
Dad came out to take a job at
Convair,
brought my mom out. They got married in
San Gabriel Mission and then settled in San
Diego.
And when World War two started, dad entered

(35:57):
the navy and went off and then came
back and decided being a postman in San
Diego was
gonna be more fun than being a machinist,
so that's where that started out. And back
in those days, in the early sixties, I'm
71,
and,
back in those days, San Diego was a
sleepy
little navy town still, a sleepy little port

(36:19):
town, and Brookings just kind of feels like
San Diego felt back then in my childhood,
and I absolutely love it.
I, ended up,
going,
getting into show business by
circumstances
we aren't gonna go into today.
Too complicated.
But, ended up doing Grand Opera in San

(36:41):
Diego for the San Diego Opera Company and
the, roadshows that would come into town. So
I got hired to,
go off on the road and ended up
settling in Los Angeles
later on after falling in love with a
dancer on the roadshow.
And that was kinda cool.
And,
so I that she ended up, helping me

(37:03):
get into television in Southern California in
Los Angeles, and I ended up doing a
lot of network television,
and specializing in doing live stuff. So I
have been doing
live TV for about thirty five years down
there. And when I retired,
it was because,
when I retired, I realized we no longer

(37:24):
have our stories, and this
is
where
I'm at
one,
one in the same heart with you, Dan
on
where we've lost is when
our stories disappeared, when the hedge funds were
allowed to buy up all of our local
newspapers
and take them apart for pieces and put

(37:46):
the cash in their pocket and put people
out of work
and,
turn our stories over to the people that
were homogenizing
rather than actually telling
our stories.
So my joy up here with Wild Rivers
folks and and KCIW
is
this is where we get to tell our
own story our way, and you're doing the

(38:08):
same thing, sir. I can't tell you how
much I I love it and appreciate it.
I love it too. Yeah. It's a wonderful
opportunity.
There's nothing more special because
literally
in media, there's a whole lot of media
out there. You know that. There's media everywhere.
How much of it's real?
How much of it's not bots?

(38:29):
How much of it's completely from the heart
and
creates the economy for the area?
And that's the goal of Wild Rivers
Film,
festival
is to create the new film economy for
the Local. Northwest, for us, for the Pacific
movies. We have the everything. The the radio,
the film, the newspaper has the local interest.

(38:53):
So I try to be smart. So I
asked Google
what film and
paper I have in common, and they actually
see it, Google or whatever series said, curating
content,
building an audience,
and leveraging
publicity.
So that's what we're all into, I guess.
And in the nature of the Wild Rivers

(39:15):
Film Festival, the whole idea is to have
the festival here in August
and not only entertain our locals, which is
hugely important, obviously. It's that's we're here to
have fun with the films.
But more importantly, it's to bring the filmmakers
who have made these films into town
and introduce them to our community and our

(39:36):
people. We do the,
film workshop also at the beginning of summer.
We're trying to train our kids so they
will be
knowledgeable and available to work in the future
film economy here, and we're just trying to
kick start that from the get go.
Yeah. I had a chance to attend the
Palm Springs Film Festival

(39:57):
a number of years back And to listen
to the producers and the directors
and some of the actors
and their energy and passion
for their craft is just very inspiring.
And the kids catch that too. Yeah. This
is all part of what we're trying to
do. It's it's all about the future.
And so

(40:17):
Can you alright. Can you give us a
recap of the Wild Rivers Film Festival from
your perspective?
Recap. Well, we had a good year. We
could have had more people,
and next year, we will. We are, it's
the third year. The first year,
was a post COVID,

(40:38):
routine that kinda went a little weird, a
little south.
But in order to,
save
them in order to create something of value
out of it, they did a thing with
Sky Marie and the dance company local dance
company
called,
Small Town Nutcracker,
which we were able to show at the

(41:00):
festival this year, which was our local kids,
our dancers and whatnot,
and the, the kids from the workshop filming.
And
it was
an act of love done in desperation
during COVID times.
They made a couple mistakes,
and one of which
yeah. Exactly. And and they picked music that

(41:22):
was,
under copyright.
It's Nutcracker Music, but they could have found
Nutcracker versions that were not covered by copyright.
But they did it with copyright.
They are now
reimagining
the music in the film
and an otherwise great film
and are about to get it out into

(41:43):
open distribution.
So it's gonna get a get a contract.
So you were involved all three years then?
No. Year two and year three. Okay. Yeah.
So,
before we get really big time into the
festival,
I wanna highlight that you both are at
KCOW.
And I know Rick has a show.

(42:04):
Do you wanna talk about your show for
a second? Well, sure. And that,
me getting to Wild Rivers Film Festival was
a bit Michael was a big part, so
was Sue Wright. But, yeah, I volunteered here
about god, I think I'm working on two
years. So Ray Gary,
my teacher, he got me involved in doing
a live show, Curry Cafe, every Sunday,

(42:25):
from three to four.
And
it's really
all my life as a kid, I wanted
to be in radio. I even try I
write I wrote to our local,
rock station in Sacramento many years ago trying
to get on. Never got on.
But at 71, I finally made my interlude
thanks to somebody
told me and I've been told before, oh,

(42:47):
man. You got a voice good on radio.
I was in the checkout line at Safeway
about two years ago, and a kid was
behind. He goes, man. You wanna do some
voiceovers for, like, video games.
Yeah. And I thought, you know, I and
I knew KCIW
was here. I got here, called the number.
Kelly Hansen was the volunteer coordinator at the
time, said, come on in. Volunteer.
And I've been doing it ever since, and

(43:08):
I really have a good time here. Met
some great people along
with the people I met at Wild Rivers
Film Festival. This is a wonderful volunteer community.
Now your card says,
Rick
McNamer McNamer McNamer
volunteer. That's your title. Yeah. What where do
you volunteer all? What do you do? Here

(43:30):
well, along with here at KCW. Yeah. Along
well, along with our live show with Ray
Gary,
come in every Wednesday, do the voices for
the PSAs.
I actually
my my late wife would be so surprised
because I do a lot of computer work
for this
outfit, and I've never been good on a
computer. But I was tutored by some really

(43:51):
good people, And it took a while for
me to get it, so and I spend
some time doing that.
And,
yeah.
Just,
I just enjoyed volunteering. Like I said, met
some Right. Great people here
and Wild Rivers too. So Rick Rick, can
I ask you a question, sir? Well, sure.
Do you are you a letter to the
editor writer?

(44:12):
I have written some letters to the editor,
in the triplicate,
and then what I maybe we chatted a
little bit about, but the reason I got
out of that here about a year and
a half ago, I, like I said, subscribed
to both papers.
I had written a couple more letters. Now
maybe this is just being petulant,
but they never
they never printed them. And I noticed that

(44:34):
the there were no letters in the to
the editor. So I got a little peaked,
and at the same time, they raised the
prices, so I thought, I'm gonna get out.
But that, like I said, that was kind
of petulant, but I'll be writing it again
when I subscribe. Well, when I was editor,
I remember receiving some of your letters. Oh,
okay. And I remember you disagreeing with my

(44:54):
profound position on a local issue, and but
I called you up and talked to you.
Oh, god. Boy, talk about a memory. Thank
you. Oh, yeah. I remember. Thank you. I
remember. So And and how cool was that?
Were you from are you from the Smith
River area? I live in Smith River. Yes.
I'm from the Smith River. I knew it.
I knew it. I knew it. Wow.
What a revelation. But we're here for the

(45:15):
film festival. Okay. You guys took some other
time. I wanna hear the end of this
one.
Speaking of, we got a question for Michael
here. What roles do you play at the
film festival?
Okay.
I I am a volunteer
mostly.
And Another one of those. Yeah. Another one

(45:36):
of those. Although they did help me out,
they did, cover expenses for me,
for during the, workshop this summer because I
was one of the teachers.
But by and large,
I I just help them out with their
media. I,
shoot
a variety of shows for them. I,
capture the Wild Rivers

(45:56):
film radio show that they do is a
weekly show here on KCIW,
and that's how they got me in the
door and involved here.
And it's all from Sue Wright who was
the founder of the film festival.
And,
one of the
Sue is
Sue the film festival is filled with women

(46:19):
like Dan,
not I that Dan Sprague. Construction. Well, no.
No. Dan Sprague. Spring. Humble heroes of the
city, of the area that Good.
Know what needs to be done for the
next
generation
and wants to put it on is willing
to put it on their back and
walk it forward. So that's

(46:40):
what they started doing.
After they decided they were gonna do it,
all of a sudden, COVID came up. So
the initial start was a little funky,
But they did this movie that they made
under COVID circumstances,
and it's now
through
not letting it go and keeping at it
and figuring out solutions to the problems one

(47:03):
by one. It's about to get its contract
and and its worldwide recognition.
So that's very cool.
And then the next year, we made in
'24, we made a film called Hey Nos,
which is
the Tallawa for canoe, and it's about the
construction of the first
dugout canoe

(47:24):
that they were able to create
from a fallen log
in, I think, it was a hundred and
thirty years because they had not had they've
been kept from having access to the Redwoods.
They so that was, an that's an incredible
film. Not yet in market, and we're hoping
to get that done soon. And then this

(47:45):
year,
they did a kind of
a Saturday Night Live, Dan Springen likes to
say. Now Dan Springen's our executive director out
of Orlando and a sweetheart of him, and
you guys know him well. We love him.
Great times on our show. Yes. And he
gets better every time, to be quite honest.
I think he wasn't wasn't necessarily used to

(48:06):
radio at first, but he's getting better.
And he's back in Orlando getting ready for
his You'll be right. Festival back there now.
And, The the the reason why you are
here both, why we invited you and thank
you for coming, is that five and a
half minute video. Is that what the the
one that you were talk gonna be talking
about? That's the promotional

(48:26):
that we just made in the last couple
of weeks that,
we are
the what they realized is that
long term, we are less,
cohesive than we are short term. We do
the
the the workshop well. We do the festival
well.
But during the times of the year that

(48:48):
we're not doing those things, we kinda tend
to get forgotten. People forget about you. So
what they have done is they've started the
founders circle,
where we are getting people to sign up
and agree to be,
annual sponsors for a a level, and we
made this promo
a week and a half ago for that

(49:09):
and debuted it on Saturday.
And that's that's what that is about. Funny.
Yeah. And it's funny. Very funny. The kids
did a Saturday night live
are are prepping.
It's still being edited, but a twenty two
minute pilot for a television program for a
short comedy
sketch program with the kids. The five and

(49:29):
a half minute
promotional video
has a funny in there too. Right? Yes.
It does. Tell us about the regressive
insurance.
Well, it's,
it's pretty cute. Now we're here in, at
KCIW,
and right across the hallway is Misty Mountain
Brewery
Brewing. And,
Jade, who is the daughter of

(49:52):
Matt and
his wife's name, I'm I'm losing it.
She, they, stars as a young Flo,
and the kids are walking through a field
back in the late eighties,
and, everybody's talking about what they wanna be
when they grow up. And she wants to
be the,

(50:12):
spokesperson for the best
insurance company in America that sells
car and home. You're not giving away the
climax story. Right? The Puente?
No. You're gonna tell the whole video? You
have to stop it saying so people wanna
watch it. Right? Well, she's adorable.
It's a that part's a visual. So yeah.

(50:35):
And, of course, everybody knows the progressive
commercial. Slow and progressive. Yeah. That has been
probably one of the better advertising
campaigns. I don't know. Now how can people
view it, actually? Wild Rivers Film,
radio wildriversfilmfestival.com
is where you can go to
view and

(50:57):
donate and figure out what you wanna do
with us, and we're trying to put that
together right now. What was your position? What
was Michael your what you did you do
for that movie? And, Rick, what did you
do for that little promotional movie? What I
did and thanks to Michael who asked me
to do the voice over throughout that promotion.
Yeah.
I had a wonderful time. I was very

(51:18):
honored to do it, and I thought it
would be a breeze for me. What I
didn't know was I needed Michael's coaching. I
was in the studio doing it for how
long? A long time, Michael. And,
he told me to get through he he
took me through it all, and I was
amazed at how many times I had to
reread
because I thought I was a big professional

(51:38):
here at KCIW.
But
it was different, and I had a good
time, and I think it turned out well.
It turned out really well because he's got
a really great voice and a really great
heart and mind, so it just it comes
across as
sincerely as it can as it is.
And,
the

(51:58):
we open up with a commercial that they
made in,
2023,
and then we close with the progressive
commercial.
And
in between, we get the board members
pitching exactly what they're trying to do, which
is to create the new film economy for
the Pacific Northwest Coast
and train the kids that will be able

(52:20):
to be
do those jobs in the future So that
when and bring the filmmakers here to get
them
accustomed
to being here to show them the beauty
of the ocean and the Redwoods and all
of it in a really close place,
inexpensive
by most counts to shoot in.
It's just a beautiful place to come to.

(52:40):
Alright. Well, how can people get involved with
the local film festival?
Wildriversfilmfestival.com.
Come talk to us. The only pathway. Well,
that's that's the easiest pathway to get information
from us right now. And as we
progress through the year, they can come to
several events that we do every month, frankly.

(53:00):
We got the first Saturday of the month,
we show a movie at the,
library
at 2PM.
That's a feature that we usually show there.
And then,
the second Saturday of every month in Brookings
here is
Art Walk,
and we do we show shorts during Art

(53:20):
Walk.
We used to show the shorts in our
office during Art Walk, but this year, we
are going to show the shorts for Art
Walk
at Compass Rose.
And,
that you'd be you'll be able to get
a mocha and some pastry and some coffee
and see the movie and talk with us
and

(53:41):
find out how you can get involved with
us. And I know it's a year away,
but next August,
this was my first foray
into the Wild Rivers Film Festival. I
I was amazed at how wonderful the movies
that we Yeah. We like documentaries.
Mhmm. I had so many favorites, but I
have to say one of them was the
Grand Salmon with the three intrepid young ladies

(54:02):
going down Mhmm. How I remember, a thousand
miles. Anyway,
all good. But if you if if you're
out there, you attend next year, I think
you'll be hooked. I'm ready for my VIP
pass Right. Twenty fifteen. It was pretty cool.
I like it too. Yeah.
Now how may you, Rick and Michael
and Dan work together?
Possibly, we're in the media, we're in the

(54:23):
local
Yokel locals
media
supporting us. How can you work together? What
do you think? Well, I as you know,
I'm a member of the,
Crescent City Harbor Commission. Right.
And we're going through
a major
upgrading and repair of the harbor, the entire
harbor.

(54:43):
Well, we have a fabulous
building
that would make an excellent sound stage
for for in fact, I serve on the
the five county
visitor and convention bureau.
And we're always talking about, oh, this is
where they film Star Wars, and this is
where so and so showed up. Tom Cruise

(55:03):
was gonna do something at the airport and
all this kind of stuff. Well, we have
a big ass building
that used to be
a a place where they refurbished
large ocean going vessels.
It's a big and I mean, this is
a big 40 foot ceilings,
200 feet long, 150 feet wide.

(55:25):
I've seen it. Yes.
That's available.
Wow.
Yeah. Oh, for film shooting? Is that what
you're saying? Some the, the Lynette Lynette going?
Brailler, she's, like, the head of the visitor
team,
thought that it would be a perfect place
for something like a Netflix,

(55:45):
production crew so they can
have a whole series film there, and I
have to tear apart the stages
every every episode.
So it's got that it's a great resource.
Very cool. I wish you yeah. We can
all work together. I mean, and the radio.
Right? The field of radio and And how
cool to open up Wild Rivers Film Festival

(56:07):
to Crested City area also. I know. Right?
Which we are looking forward to. We've been
talking with Nick Rail. We would really like
to We have. Go down and take it
to the PPA and,
the Hainas,
which is
whoop. Yep. We're kinda running out of time
here. Sorry. Thank you, Michael Michael Gorse. Thank

(56:27):
you, Rick McNema, and thank you, Dan Schmidt,
for coming in and
boosting up our little,
economy
news
music. What is it? Community. Community something or
other because now, guess what, it is
fun time corner. Oh, okay. I'll have to
sing it by myself. Dang it.

(56:49):
So today, the fun time corner is kinda
very short. But did you know
Missouri borders eight
other states
tied with Tennessee with the most borders to
other states?
Did you know it takes more energy to
send something to the sun than it does
to escape the solar system?
Did you know that Oregon is home to

(57:09):
the world's deepest lake,
Crater Lake? Did you know it was the
world's deepest lake?
Baikal?
Baikal?
Copy boar. Not anymore. This is supposed to
be the deepest lake. Oh oh, Crater Lake.
Yeah. Oh, well then Right?
Did you know
mouth. Did you know that the Del Norte
Triplicate
in the current form was founded in 1912,

(57:32):
the year the Titanic sank? The Oreo cookie
was introduced and the first transatlantic
flight took place.
Did you know lastly
that the precursor of the triplicate was founded
in 1879,
the year Albert Einstein was born.
Right? Did you know? Did you know? We
do now.

(57:53):
Thanks again for coming. I think it was
very interesting, and I'm really hoping we're all
can collaborate and gain the youth will
love us to work together for their good.
Right? I'd like to be a door has
been opened. Yes.
And everybody else, you have been listening to
the Doc and Chuck show on KCIW,

(58:13):
one hundred point seven FM in Brookings, Oregon.
We hope you have enjoyed the show as
much as we have with our guests, Dan
Schmidt, Michael Gorse, and Rick McNamer.
Special thanks also to our assigned engineers, Tom
Bozak, Ray Simon, as well as Linda Bozak,
and others.
And as Jackie would say, peace and prosperity

(58:36):
to our guests and talented sound engineers. So
that was him saying,
email us if you know if you know
anybody who wants to be on the show,
[e-mail].
Thank you very much, and
see you later. Bye.