SEQUIM — The Los Angeles-based TV show “Insider Exclusive” is an Emmy Award-winning program with cameras that mainly focus on underdog stories.
“And this is an underdog kind of a story,” the show’s executive producer, Steve Murphy, said Wednesday at the offices of KSQM community radio at Kite Girl Plaza, 551 W. Washington St.
Murphy and the show’s producer and director, Robert Manciero, and director of photography Al Magallon were midway through filming a documentary about the station’s success after just two years on the air at 91.5 FM, which is also broadcast live online at www.ksqmfm.com.
“It’s quite an honor,” said Rick Perry, co-founder and station president.
“What they are doing is recognizing us for what we intended to do” — establish community radio in Sequim.
The crew will finish interviewing a number of KSQM listeners and volunteers Friday, then head back south to Los Angeles to edit, possibly releasing the 44-minute piece for broadcast this summer.
Murphy, who calls himself an activist as well as a documentary film producer, said he and Manciero look for the overlooked when it comes to mainstream media stories.
“Rick and others have turned it into something much more,” he said.
Turned into something more
“It is like a remembrance from the heartland” in which listeners from “the Greatest Generation” can recall where they were and what they were doing when they first heard a song.
Murphy cited one listener he interviewed Tuesday who is on an oxygen tank and lives in a remote part of Agnew, and the radio station is his connection to the rest of the world.
“I just realized that this is his life,” Murphy said of the station.
Murphy said KSQM’s 1940s and 1950s oldies music and upbeat community-information format appeals to the less fortunate as well as to the Dungeness Valley’s many retirees with money.
Manciero said he learned about the station through his friend for about 20 years, Jeff Bankston, KSQM’s general manager.
Murphy also has a local connection: His brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Theresa Schmid, live in Port Angeles.
Manciero said the show is being produced on the crew’s dollar.
“We decided this is a story that had to be told,” he said.
Before it is aired, Manciero said, he and Murphy plan to return to Sequim to show the story at a KSQM fundraiser.
The show reaches some 114 million viewers, Murphy said, and the program’s top-rated website for legal-issues shows can be found at www.insiderexclusive.com.
“Insider Exclusive” programs have featured on Inside Edition, PBS, NBC, ABC, Showtime and Fox News and can be seen at 6 a.m. on DirecTV Channel 354 every Sunday.
‘Feel-good story’
Murphy said the KSQM project is a “feel-good story” that is intended to connect the area’s older generation with the rest of the country.
He sees the station’s approach to establishing itself in the community as a template for others to follow in small towns nationwide.
The documentary project has created a lot of excitement around the station.
“What’s important is that KSQM is not really the focus,” Bankston said.
“It’s how the station has such an effect on the people here.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.