 here at Davis Media Access. This episode I'm joined by Kyle Williams and Gunnar Lester. Kyle and Gunnar are longtime media producers here at Davis Media Access. They've been producing a radio show called Building Ideas and Solving Problems. They're going to be moving the radio show into television and moving into the different medium here. We're going to talk to these guys a little bit today about what's inside the minds of a producer, so to speak, and a little bit about some of their motivation and give you a little preview of maybe of the show that's to come on television. Although the format will be a lot different of course. So thanks for coming in, you guys, first off. So yes, Kyle and Gunnar. You guys have been producing media for a while now. And I kind of wanted to spend some time just to ask you guys a little bit first how you both met. And I know you've told me, but tell people at home how you guys met real quick here. Yeah, I wasn't concerned with that. Tom, a significant player at the Capital Athletic Club, knew I wanted to play in a golf tournament down in Brentwood at a country club. And I didn't have a partner to play with. And he wanted to propose that I play with Kyle, but he asked me the question, do you care if you win? I said, oh, I'm really not a good enough golfer to win. And I knew there'd be some scratch golfers playing there. So I said, no, I don't care if I win. I just want to participate. Well, then I'm going to introduce you to Kyle. Have you ever met him? And I said, no. So how many rounds was that? 18. 18 rounds. 18 holes. So 18 holes. You never met before. Never met him. How often does that happen when you play golf? Is it just you get paired with people? That just happens. He was almost late. He says, I'm never late. It's random to answer your question, Jeff. And the reason that Tom asked about the winning or not is that I'm not utterly competitive. So Tom wanted to make sure that Gunnar wasn't all about winning. Yeah. I'm competitive, too. But he's a lot more competitive than I am, as it turns out. But I am not. He's a good golfer. So tell me how you decided to produce media. To become a producer, how did you both decide to do that? Well, I think I was just copying Howard Cosell, the Monday Night Football. So we got Mike Posol, who was in construction. And was he also a golfer? Or how'd you know him through construction? I knew him through here locally. Through Davis and friends and people and so forth. So Howard Cosell was kind of the middleman, I don't know what you would call him. And then you had two guys on his left and right in Monday Night Football. So the brain child is yours, sort of? Correct. And Gunnar, you were willing to go along with this? It was his idea. He wanted to bring Kyle. And he wanted to bring Mike and myself together. I'm a construction man, a roofing man. Retired now. Retired somewhat. And Mike is a pro builder. And we talk the same language, construction talk. It has its own tongue, like any profession does. Jargon. And Kyle encouraged us to do it. And we were reticent and thought it wasn't going to happen. How would that happen? Because you hadn't done anything like it before. No. And you hadn't done anything like it before. No. You call it media, radios media? Sure. I mean, these days, everything's on the web. So people call it content. It's not even these days, it's just producing content. And whether everything's on the web, every format, it's just called producing content. So as ambiguous as it gets, that's like saying it's a thing. But people call it content. So sure. So you hadn't done it before, either. OK. And well, that's my next question. Is it, did you do it because it was fun? Or is there something sort of driving you to like a higher purpose? Because we get people down here producing content, radio, TV, whatever. And some people are, it's for fun. Some for they want to learn new skills. Other people, it's a higher purpose or like a mission or calling. And I'm kind of wondering with you guys how you saw it or how you see it now. Connor, what did you do for fun? I'm a man that thinks that if you have something to say and it can be useful, it can have value. And I thought, maybe it's an opportunity to have to produce some valuable data that could be useful out in the real world. And I thought it would be fun. And maybe to some degree, a little bit confronting or scary, but not very much confronting or scary. We seem to be naturally him. So you're saying it's a combination of, right? It was at the same for you, Kyle. It's a combination of a little bit of fun, a little bit of the higher purpose that of your own higher purpose gunner has his higher purposes. But also, you don't do things unless they're fun a little. Well, yeah, I wanted it to be fun. Yeah, why? And at the same time, make a difference. And it gets, I wanted to, I don't mind being a chief for an Indian. And if you're an Indian, you want to make sure the chiefs are running things the right way. And I just wanted to do my part to let people know out there of how things could be. And plant some seeds of, why are we doing these things this way when we could be doing them this way? So that sounds like a higher purpose to me than more of a mission. You're doing all this effort for a reason that speaks to you. It's not just goofing off and having fun. You could say he has the heart of a teacher. He seems to teach. I mean, if you listen to him, he'll get to give you useful information on specific areas that he's done a lot of research and knows quite a bit. And I've found that when it comes to money and stocks and bonds, he's pretty astute. So as far as producing media, do you think media has a certain power over people? Like, why media? Why using the tools that the media tools that are there? How do you think that that's a powerful tool to reach people? Or how do you see media these days? I mean, that's a loaded question. The media has the audience, a huge audience. And so there's that opportunity to reach or touch that huge audience. And it could be negative. It could be positive. It could be good, bad. But there's that opportunity to do that. And I mean, I've grown up in a mass media environment. But a couple generations ago, newspapers and radio, radio has been around a long time. And even before that, information was exchanged via even slower routes. And so we're living in a pretty hyper-mediated world. Do you guys see problems with the media system that we have now? I think you're going to start to see it leaning more towards radio again a little bit. I mean, TV's always going to dominate. But I think media is going to, this whole Ben Carson started it, saying that the media is whatever. And Trump's perpetuating it. The media is going to have to, how do you say it? Wake up, change a little bit. Guide their direction. What do you think causes that these days? What causes some of the problems that, I don't know what Ben Carson said about it. But as far as the media, he was just one of the first ones to say it. The media is on the muscle now. And they're having a personal fight with Donald Trump, the president. And he's declared that he'd fight and they're fighting. And so the media agenda is to, the big portion of the media's agenda right now is to hit Trump and hit him hard. And the media is very powerful. It's like water on stone. They're so big, so powerful. And so how do you think that came to be? Like how do you suppose, what purpose does that serve the media? Like how does the media work for its own self-interest? First off, it's hard to define the media these days, but I guess we're talking about mainstream media. Mainstream media being the large networks that operate cable channels and whatnot. Well, their power just escalated. I mean, it got to the point where you watched. And I don't want to pick any particular person, but Bob would ask a question and demand the answer on the media as if he was in charge. I mean, we went from Walter Cronkite to giving you the news to telling you how things are. Well, it's interesting you bring up Walter Cronkite because I just watched a documentary about the tower in Austin. And this was a school shooting in 1966. And he reported it. But there's a lot of writing that went into it these days back then. He sort of presented the information. But it felt like there was some creative presentation even then, too, I felt like. So do you see your ability to try to change things by using the media? Or how do you see the media here, the community media? How do you see that helping in the larger scheme of things? Is it just your voices out there competing against the mainstream media or what? Well, I think the smaller guys are going to get a lot more attention. I mean, you're noticing when Trump goes to ask questions, he avoids the big boys now. He's asking the smaller entities, what do you think? You asked the question. Years ago, people believed that their doctor would be more or less responsible for their health. And so they went to the doctor and had complete faith in the doctor and what the doctor said and did. And they had the same feeling about Walter Cronkite. He wouldn't spin the truth. He'd just say it like it was. Today, people have to take responsibility for their own health. Doctors won't really help them. People know that. Majority of people know that they have to take responsibility for their own health. And they also know that the media isn't as quite as authentic as Walter Cronkite. And it shadows the liberty. The film that we saw tells the secret on the fact that they're money-based, profit-based rather than news-based. Sure. All right, well, I think we're getting closer running out of time. And this has been just a short introduction to you guys. I want to invite people, if you're interested in listening to Kyle and Gunnar, building ideas and solving problems and watching their show, they're going to be moving the show to television here pretty soon. And you can see that show on davismedia.org. You can also watch it on cable channel 15, like all of the shows here at Davis Media Access. Any last words for people at home as far as what you hope to accomplish on your show? Well, the radio. Or just that people should tune in to find out, I guess? Well, sure. That's a part of it, yeah. We're going to find out with them. It's going to creep along as we go. We never stop learning. And so education and or learning something is valuable, I think. And so I'm of the belief that we never stop learning. So there's possibilities for us to find something out and share it with the others, and it may be worthwhile. OK, well, tune in with building ideas and solving problems with Kyle and Gunnar and learn along with them as we embark on the new journey here for these guys on television. Thanks for tuning in.