This episode we flip the script and put JTV's Bart Hawley in the guest chair for the first time. Bart takes us back to 2000, when a portrait photographer and former radio DJ took over Jackson's government access channel and built it into JTV, now the world leader in local high school sports television and the most visited website in Jackson County.
We talk about the "no plan" origin story (his words: an entrepreneur jumps off a building and figures out the parachute on the way down), how JTV's commitment to unedited, long-form interviews became its differentiator from traditional news, and why staying hyperlocal rather than going regional or franchising to other markets was the right call, even when AT&T came calling to try to replicate the model elsewhere. Bart also shares how his sons Andy and Joey grew into the business, what it took to pivot to live sports production during the pandemic, and the Gandhi quote that got JTV through its early "this will never work" years: first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
If you've ever wondered how a small local station ended up with 40,000 guests and 25 years of daily programming, this episode is for you.