#0025 - Jeff Harrison - The Rotary Spark Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Brian Triger (00:30):
Welcome to the Rotary Spark podcast.
With me today is Jeff Harrison,over at the Midwest City Beacon
and member of the Midwest CityRotary Club.
How are you doing today, jeff?

Jeff Harrison (00:40):
Oh, I'm great.

Thanks, thanks for coming down.
So, jeff, tell me a little bitabout your Rotary journey.
How did you discover Rotary andhow long have you been in
Rotary?

kind of throughout my time since I've
been at the Midwest City Beacon,the Senator Howell was the one
who had kind of introduced me toit and he had kind of promoted
it a lot as a good way to meetother people in the community
and I would kind of go tomeetings every kind of now and
then I kind of resisted joiningbecause of the I have a pretty

(01:32):
bad scheduling conflict sincethe meetings are Monday
afternoons and that's our pressday, so Mondays are kind of the
busiest day at the newspaper.
But then about a year ago MacPatel and Ken Newey, they kind
of approached me again andencouraged me to join.
So I finally decided that Ishould join last January I think

(01:56):
.

That's great.
Yeah, mac is very persistent.
I know that from personalexperience, so tell us a little
bit more about what goes on onMondays over at the Beacon.

Well, monday is the press day, so that's when we
have to have everything, allthe pages, finished.
So it's kind of just a roughday of just finishing up any
loose ends, any stories thatdidn't quite finish up, and
making sure you have everythingand all the material together

(02:32):
and then finish up the layoutfor the pages.
So it's kind of a long day.

Okay, so take us maybe into the day-to-day as a
managing editor.
What does that look like overat the Beacon?

or really anywhere else?
Well, ours, it's a pretty smallnewspaper.
I'm really the only full-timeeditorial employee there, so I
kind of make up my schedule forthe most part.
So Monday is finishing thepaper and Tuesdays I have to

(03:08):
kind of help with the layout forone of our company's other
papers.
Then otherwise I kind of justspend most of the week just
digging for different storiescovering a lot of the regular
beats go to the city councilmeetings, go to the school board
meetings and we also have tocover the sports, so go to a lot

(03:31):
of the high school stuff.
So it's a lot of those kind ofregular events, and then in
between just kind of dig fordifferent stories and try to
hunt people down and get, getwhatever you need.

So okay, that's really cool.
It sounds like a lot of uh,detective work yeah, yeah, it
can be in.

It seems like it's always.
It's getting harder and harderto get people on the phone and
stuff.

So how are some of the ways that you and anyone
else over at the Beacon aredealing with those challenges as
the industry is changing?

Um, I guess I just try to stay persistent with
it.
I'll hear a tidbit here orthere.
There's something at a meetingthat sounded interesting.
You'll see a lot of stuff onsocial media.
People will have questions ortips.

(04:34):
I'll just try to be persistentand, you know, kind of keep
after it and, you know, try tofind as much stuff as you can
online and try to, you know, getpeople on the phone and or, you
know, get get them throughemails.

And and what ways can we help you as a community
and as Rotarians?
Is there, aside from maybesending stories, is there a way
that Midwest City andsurrounding cities and listeners
from maybe other parts of theworld that have events that
connect to our city, are therespecific things that we can do

(05:14):
to make your job a little biteasier, to make the Midwest City
beacon?
Just to make the Midwest CityBeacon just to support the
Midwest.
City Beacon.
What can we do?

Well, I mean ours , like one of the biggest
challenges is just financially.
The newspapers are kind oftraditionally built on, you know
, display ads from businessesand events and stuff and that's
kind of getting a lot harder andharder to get.
We always appreciate any kindof advertising from if you have

(05:51):
a business or you have an eventcoming up, we always appreciate
all of that.
Subscribing is another bigthing.
You know we have printed andonline subscriptions, so that's
another key, you know, revenuesource for us and then, kind of

(06:11):
like you said too, is also, youknow, keeping you informative of
what's going on.
Informative what's going on.
So you know I try to be realresponsive if somebody has
something happening.
You know if you have a event orsome kind of story idea, you
know we always appreciate, youknow, you letting us know about

(06:33):
it and so we can.
We can kind of, you know, lookat it and help promote it as
well we can kind of you know,look at it and help promote it
as well.

Yeah, so, as I get to know you and talk to other
members over at the beacon, it'sreally an opportunity to invest
money back into the community.
At the end of the day, if Isubscribe to the newspaper or I
subscribe to online and oradvertise within the paper, it
enhances the platform and thequality of content within the
paper.
That then circles back into thecommunity, which informs

(07:07):
everyone in midwest city and anysurrounding cities that may be
grabbing the paper, and itenriches the uh, the community
being solidified in a lot ofways, because the more informed
we are as the general public I'dargue to some extent that we're
you know our community getsstronger.

So it as long as we invest it, you know, turns
into a win-win.
Yeah, definitely, and it'ssomething that's kind kind of uh
, you know, local newspapers arekind of decreasing a lot, so I
mean to have, uh, you know, havethat in your community.
I think that's a big, uh bigresource.

And so I know that we can go online.
Where can we go to, whetherit's online calling, calling
advertising?
Who can we reach out to you?
Would we reach out to youdirectly?
Would we go on the Beacon'swebsite?
Where would someone that'slistening right now go ahead and
subscribe and or advertise onyour paper?

To subscribe.
You can go to our website it'sprobably the easiest way to do
it and it's MidwestCityBeaconcomand there's just a subscribe
tab on there and you can get anonline subscription or a print
subscription or both right onthe website.
That's probably the easiest way.

(08:34):
Or you could call our office.
It's 405-455-1110, and we canget you set up there and for
advertising it's the same numberand Angie Gray is an ad sales

(08:55):
representative that works at theoffice, so she can help with a
lot of that.
End of it.

Okay, perfect, yeah, so everyone that's
listening right now.
Representative that works atthe office so she can help with
a lot of that.
End of it.
Okay, perfect, yeah, soeveryone that's listening right
now.
We'll go ahead and we'll makesure to have that in the
transcript and push out at leastan email or two tied to all of
the contact data.
It's great to invest in thecommunity.
Midwest City Beacon has helpedout this podcast and covered a

(09:20):
lot of events that I've beenexposed to within Rotary.
So I think that Rotarydefinitely supports the Beacon,
and vice versa.
So we do appreciate you.
Well thank you.
So tell us a little bit aboutthe origin of your career.
How did you get into into media?

um, well, and I'm originally from wisconsin and
when I was in college I wasoriginally wanted to study
graphic design and then, um, Iworked at a print shop and a
co-worker of mine he wouldalways listen to the talk radio
and there were some kind ofissues around just around.

(10:03):
This was at University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee and there
were some local issues that justkind of got me interested more
in news and politics and so Ichanged my major to journalism
and kind of got reallyinterested in it.
And after college I worked atsome papers around Milwaukee and

(10:27):
then I just thought it would bekind of interesting to move
somewhere else and see adifferent part of the country.
And I got a job offer inGuthrie and moved down here and
been been here ever since, soworked, uh, worked in Guthrie
and worked in Edmond and Mustangwhere the, the current company

(10:48):
there they're headquartered.
So I just uh moved down hereand kind of expected to only be
here for a little while.
But just uh really liked it andstayed.
So Kind of expected to only behere for a little while but just
really liked it and stayed.

Do you see a lot of similarities between?

Midwest City or.

Oklahoma in general and where you came from
in Wisconsin.

A little bit.
I mean Oklahoma City andMilwaukee are kind of similar
size metros.
Yeah, it seems like OklahomaCity is a newer city so it's
kind of growing quite a bit.

Okay.

Do you go back home or do you go back to?

Milwaukee.

Yeah, I get back probably about once or twice a
year.
We'll go see family forChristmas every year and then
usually at least one other timein the summer or spring.
So yeah try to get back as muchas you can.

I haven't been to Wisconsin yet, so if you have
any recommendations, on oroffline, of some sites to visit,
just let me know.

Yeah, I love it.
It especially the summer is agood time to go.
It's a little bit cooler thanhere in the summer, so Okay, uh,
let's see.

So you're new to rotary.
I know that there are someevents going on within your club
, so the shrimp oil is March15th.
I believe anyone in the MidwestCity Rotary Club can be
contacted for any tables or anyauction item opportunities, so

(12:33):
we'll go ahead and do our bestto include that information as
well.
Are there any other events thatyou'd like to promote?
Or that you're excited aboutwithin the Midwest City Rotary
Club.

The Chimp Oil is a big one.
It's a great event, it's a lotof fun and it does raise a lot
of money for the club, forscholarships and different stuff
that we do.
We do and, um, I know the theuh wings of rotary that's coming

(13:09):
up, where the students fromJapan will come over here, and I
don't remember the exact dateof that, but that's that's very
soon as well.

Yeah, I know, so I'm actually going to look that
up on the air.
Let's, let's check out ourrotary5750.org, and pretty sure
that Wings of Rotary is on there.
Here we go.

Is the Midwest City Rotary host a kind of
hoedown event?

Yeah, so the hoedown, I'm looking at the
Wings of Rotary page right nowand I have the 2024-2025 flyer,
so I'm downloading it as wespeak and it looks like all
right.
Trip of a lifetime two weeks inJune.

(14:09):
Let's see there's a QR code,hmm, so it looks like it's in
June.
Thanks for your patience,everyone.

(14:30):
We just want to make sure thateveryone has the information
available at their fingertips.
So, we're going to go to ourcalendar, our club calendar.
Well, it looks like that needsto be updated.

(14:50):
We need to reach out to Keithand she can be contacted at K,
as in Kilo B, as in Bravo O, asin Echo H-L-E-R-T at gmailcom.
She's in charge of Wings ofRotary and we'll make sure to
throw that information up onFacebook and via email as well.

(15:13):
And I know that the hoedown isdefinitely on our website, so
I'm going to take a look at thatto make sure everyone knows
when that's available.
So the Wings of Rotary Hoedownis 3-15-2025, and it's at the

(15:40):
Atkinson Heritage, 1001 NorthMidwest Boulevard, midwest City,
oklahoma, and it is between 2and 4 pm.
You can find out thatinformation at rotary5750.org
and it looks like you can RSVPby calling Sally Newey at
405-833-1465.
I know that she works on theWings Project as well, so you

(16:01):
can definitely contact her formore information about that.
And yeah, no, they're greatprojects.
I'm excited to see some of thepictures and maybe meet some of
the kids when they come out from.
Japan.
I think it's a really coolthing that our community does.

Yeah, I've been to that HODON before.
That's a lot of fun.
They're all excited to meeteverybody and they've been to
that hold on before.
That's a lot of fun and it'sthey're all excited to meet
everybody in there.

They always have great kids involved in that.
For anyone who's listening,wings of Rotary is a youth
exchange program betweenOklahoma District 5750 and Japan
District 2520.
It's been going on for about 40years now and the student teams
consist of eight to ninestudents plus Rotary team
members and there are a coupleof meetings before the departure

(16:53):
in June.
So there are a lot of questionsand answers that are hashed out
prior to a lot of these eventsoccurring.
That are hashed out prior to alot of these events occurring.
And if you want to check outmore information, you can go to
rotary5750.org and go to thewings section or the wings of

(17:13):
Rotary section of our website tofind out more information.
To wrap up, jeff, as a newmember, do you have any tips for
new members coming in for thefirst time?

I guess I would say just to just try to be kind
of as open as possible and tryto meet people and just kind of,
I guess, learn from them andget involved as much as you can.

That's really good advice.
Well, thanks for coming out,jeff, and thank you to our
listeners.
Thank you to Almonte Library,the Metropolitan Library System,
for supporting this endeavor.
Thank you to ITSpark and RotaryDistrict 5750, as well as

(18:02):
Rotary International and oursubscribers as well.

(18:32):
Have a great night, everyone.
Thank you.

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#0025 - Jeff Harrison

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