With an eye toward maintaining and growing business relevance and sustainability within an ever-changing and challenging environment, a lot of thinking outside of the box has been going on within Wahkiakum West Communications, largely driven by CEO Ken Johnson.
That thinking has resulted in the entry by Wahkiakum West into the video production field. As the company's expertise grew and gained recognition, it caught the attention of the Washington Filmworks Incentive Program as well as tourist agencies from Wahkiakum County, Pacific County, the city of Long Beach, Oregon Coastal Visitors Association and Lower Columbia Tourism. The agencies have joined as sponsoring partners in the production of a new travel show focused on the region of Washington and Oregon where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean and coastal areas to the north and south.
Nine hour-long episodes have been completed thus far for the show, and two more are almost complete. Production of the final two is expected to be completed in September. As a result of Johnson and his team's discussions with the A&E Network, the travel show to be known as "The Columbia Coast" will be aired both nationally and in a number of Caribbean countries on A&E's FYI Channel starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, with a different episode being shown in that same time slot for 13 Saturdays in a row.
"A&E Global Media's FYI is a powerful distribution platform, which will provide our show outstanding exposure to not only U.S audiences, but also many Caribbean countries," said Johnson, who also serves as the show's producer. "We will also have a presence on their website for the show. We'll be in their video on demand library and we'll also be in their streaming app. People will be able to find us in several different ways. The video on demand and the streaming is especially exciting because, if somebody doesn't find the show until the weather gets bad in mid-November, and they say, 'Hey, I really enjoyed this,' it will provide the opportunity for them to go back and binge stream the whole season."
According to Johnson, the goal is to do a deep dive into the authentic experiences available in the region and not just do the typical top-10 trip advisor thing. The show has three hosts: Actor/Model Mark Justice and Robert (Chef Stew) Stewart, who are both from Las Vegas, Nev., and Naselle resident Heather Johnson.
"We have great communities and each one is authentic but with a different culture," says Johnson. "Cathlamet versus Skamokawa versus something happening in Naselle versus Ilwaco, Long Beach, South Bend, Raymond, Tokeland. All so vastly different and, in many respects, the locals don't necessarily cross-pollinate. And on the Oregon side, Astoria, Manzanita, Nehalem, and Wheeler. We're just having a ball uncovering those interesting tidbits unique to each location."
Describing the general format for each episode, Johnson said, "Heather is a Naselle resident who moved up from the Las Vegas area where she knew Mark Justice and Chef Stewart, who both work in the entertainment business. Every episode starts with her welcoming them back to the area for a long weekend or a little getaway and she gets them checked into some boutique lodging. It might be a rental, an Airbnb, [or] a boutique hotel. Something that's not a chain or a national thing. She gets them settled and then Chef Stew goes out and tries to uncover an authentic local/regional culinary ingredient. Mark then seeks out and highlights something to do with art, history or culture. Heather, toward the end of each episode, figures out some group activity for the three to engage in. For example, the cast and film crew just returned from enjoying and filming catch and release sturgeon fishing on the Columbia. Each show ends with Chef Stew who, with the help of the other two hosts, cooks up his own idea of a menu based on whatever local culinary ingredient he came across. It's designed to be entertaining but not too highfalutin. All the things that we do - the boutique lodging, the culinary stuff, the art, history and culture, the group activities - everything is designed to be capable of being recreated by the viewer. That's our goal. Somebody that's watching in Arizona, Nevada or Southern California or even the Midwest, that's really never thought about the Pacific Northwest. We want them to see, vicariously experience it, and then put it on their bucket list."
The area, the businesses, and activities highlighted are benefited by the recognition they receive through the episodes. Wahkiakum West Communications benefits by developing relationships with these businesses, leading to adding them to their high speed internet customer list. Such thinking out of the box benefits the region and allows the company to continue to survive and grow its business. Readers are advised to stay tuned for what comes next.
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