Tech Tip: There's a "Buzz" in the Air...

by Russ Alman, Communications Director 

Update: The Buzz is now on the air! Please visit this link for more information. 

Many of you are aware that I have an extensive background working with technology. Thanks to my father’s interest in amateur radio — he is KO8T and I am KZ8F — I was exposed to technology at 9 years old, a very early age for someone in my generation. My dad bought our first computer in 1981 (a TRS-80 Color Computer) and I’ve had access to a home computer ever since.

Russ Alman, age 12, in front of the ham radio station he shared with his dad in Rockford, Michigan.

Ham radio also piqued my interest in using technology as a tool for communications. Keep in mind that this was a time before the internet and cell phones. Imagine how exciting it was for a young boy to be able to carry on live conversations with people all over the world!

This interest evolved into college degrees in communications and electronic media. While I was at Western Michigan and Michigan State universities, I had part time jobs doing desktop publishing. I also worked as a contractor for my parents’ Montana log home company, installing computers and computer networks, setting up their website, designing many of their brochures and flyers, producing a nationally-distributed newspaper, and building their sales and marketing database from scratch.
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After over two decades of providing computer support as my fulltime career, I started to miss the other side of my interests in communications. But in 2008, one of my business acquaintances introduced me to Facebook.

I immediately recognized that this would be the “next big thing” in technology and communications. Over time, I pivoted my work away from computer support into providing social media consulting.

After my wife and I moved to Wenatchee in late 2011, I stopped doing computer support altogether and went fulltime into digital media production.

In addition to providing an opportunity for me to combine my technical and communications skills, this track also allowed me to bring another longtime interest and hobby — photography and videography — into my professional portfolio.

The Senior Center had been a social media client since my partner and I started our digital media business in 2014, primarily to help promote the thrift shop to a younger audience. That all changed with the pandemic shutdown.

The Senior Center was one of the very first organizations to shut down to the public. Dave Tosch, our previous executive director, realized that he had to find a way to continue to reach the local senior community during the closure. Thanks to some pandemic grant money, Dave and I, along with the guidance of Darrell Dickeson, developed a variety show we called Vibrant Living that aired on NCWLIFE. Over three years, we produced 88 episodes of the half-hour program. In addition, thanks to the cooperation of our fitness instructors, Connie Townsend and Pat Robbins, I was also able to produce 88 one-hour episodes of a sister show, Vibrant Motion.

Now that the pandemic funds have gone away and I’m working for the Senior Center fulltime, I don’t have the bandwidth to produce the television shows. At the same time, I do want to develop another avenue where we can offer similar content with lower production requirements.

As a result, I am creating a new podcast called The Buzz. Rather than create full TV shows, I'll record minimally-edited video interviews with members, staff, and community organizations relevant to the Senior Center. Those interviews will be posted to our YouTube channel and then to our new podcast channel in audio-only format. That means you'll be able to tune in to these segments wherever and whenever it's convenient for you — YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, and other podcast networks.

Personally, The Buzz brings my career full circle, back to communicating with others through technology all over the world.
If you have not been introduced to podcasting before, it has quickly become another medium for individuals and organizations to communicate online, largely because of the reasons I’ve already mentioned — they are relatively simple to produce and the expectation is for a less polished, more casual production style. They also have low requirements for internet and device speeds. If you have any way to access the internet, you should be able to listen to a podcast.

The Buzz will also allow me to maximize my use of the same material I collect for print in The Livewire and The Spark. I can record an interview, quickly edit it into a podcast and then write an article based on the interview.
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I haven't started producing episodes yet, but I have our podcast channel all set up to distribute across all of these services. I'll post links to new Buzz episodes in The Spark as they become available, our website and on our social media accounts. And if you subscribe to The Buzz through your preferred service, you'll automatically receive updates when I post new episodes.
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I'm really looking forward to getting The Buzz "on the air." If you have topics you'd like me to cover, or you'd like to be on the program as a guest, please email me at [email protected] or call me direct at (509) 433-7824.