Media News: PDXposed To Become "Next Stop!"
MOVIN' ON: Big changes are afoot at the locally produced PDXposed. Executive producer and host Jon Olson is moving away from what has been billed as "Portland's Arts, Travel and Entertainment Show" to something with a bit more regional, national and international flavor. The change has been in the works for a while, but Olson wasn't able to talk about it—until now.
His new show, Next Stop!, will include bits from various locations throughout the West Coast and beyond. And, yes, it looks like it will include the involvement of Daniel Baldwin.
I caught up with Olson in Hawaii, where he answered some questions about his changing show.
I am confused. Your name is PDXposed, but you don't film much in Portland anymore. What's going on?
Jon Olson: We hear that question a lot, and I'm pleased to finally answer it in a public forum. We owe this to our show's viewers, deserving a true answer as to WHY we have had no choice but to expand outside of Oregon. It's simple. This is our livelihood. We are not paid by the networks and we have to raise every dollar ourselves. Travel Oregon and other tourism related entities in the state of Oregon have given us very little assistance, so there's your answer—to survive as a TV show, we have had to grow into a regional travel show and seek funding outside Oregon. I will say that we owe a big thank you to the cities of Newport, Lincoln City, Seaside and Astoria, all of which have helped us stay closer to home and we hope to continue building on our warm friendship with each. I'm currently on Maui filming our 11th show in Hawaii, another state which has supported our show. Wouldn't you come to Hawaii if they offered to pay your production costs? Of course you would!
We will be changing our name to reflect this and we'll also be airing in other cities—reflecting our true regional nature. We wish that the Portland market could sustain our show, but it just can't. We do appreciate our wonderful viewers' support over the past years and I'm sorry we can't sustain our show in just Oregon. We do live in a very beautiful state! Having said this, I'm hopeful that Travel Oregon and the seven regions in the state will see the value of supporting our new show, as we'll be in many more homes, promoting travel to more locations - including Oregon!!
Tell us about the new show? How will it differ from PDXposed?
The new show will be called "Next Stop." The name was simple as many people continually ask us, "Where's your next stop"? We feel depicts perfectly what we are all about—always on the go. It will not differ much from PDXposed, in that we'll be keeping our two themes of FUN & POSITIVE television. We just received our seventh Emmy nomination and we'll continue to improve on the quality of our production, always striving for better!
I will remain the main host and executive producer, for now, but we'll also be utilizing more guest hosts, locals in the areas we'll be featuring. If you notice from our last few shows, we've already begun doing this. Most travel shows are about places but we want to be about places and more importantly, the PEOPLE that make the places culturally diverse and interesting. We want to entice our viewers to not only want to go where we go, but we want them to say, "I want to meet Tony from Alaska Brewing in Juneau"! We'll still continue to feature local musicians, sports and activities, food, nightlife, festivals, etc.
Click "Read more" below to find out if Daniel Baldwin has a role in the new show.
So, is Daniel Baldwin involved?
I knew this question was coming. The answer is a hopeful yes. Daniel is a great guy and I've enjoyed getting to know him and his Grilletto crew. In fact, we are moving our production studio into the Indent Studios on June 1 and we'll be right next to Daniel and his guys. We are definitely continuing talks about working on movies (plural!) together and Daniel has been very supportive of our name change to "NEXT STOP" and he has ideas and suggestions for us to take our game to a new level. I respect Daniel and look forward to continuing to build our personal and professional relationship.
When will it start airing and where?
This name change really started last year, after we signed our contract with KPTV/KPDX. Patrick McCreery, GM and all around great guy, said almost a year ago, "Now, let's talk about a name change." We were too invested in our PDXposed production, our graphics package, etc., that we weren't ready to make that change. Now.......we are ready. So the name change will take effect in September, 2010. The big question is........how many cities will we be airing in? I can say that we'll definitely be keeping our great timeslots on FOX 12 OREGON (6pm Sunday nights) and PDX TV (Saturday's at 8pm). Other cities/markets we are currently in talks with - Seattle, Honolulu, Denver, San Francisco and Anchorage. We haven't ruled out syndication either. We are ready to take our show to the "NEXT STOP" and where we end up, remains to be seen. It's been a fun ride and it's about to get more interesting.
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Last Updated (Thursday, 29 April 2010 20:22)
