How did a fishing show my dad created showcasing his passion turn into the family run production studio, JM Associates, managing several large scale projects?
Well, it started with my dad’s show “The Fishin’ Hole” in 1965. He began filming his experiences as a fishing guide on the river in Little Rock, Arkansas and with help from partner Jim Marion, he began airing those segments on local midwest television stations. In 1982 as his show grew, it gained the attention of an upcoming new channel at the time known as Entertainment and Sports Programming, now called ESPN, which showcased sports and outdoor content.
As “The Fishin’ Hole” continued to successfully air on ESPN, JM Associates received the opportunity to get involved with the production of several reality outdoor based series that were being developed. This started with the “Great American Events” series which featured participants competing in different events related to activities like timber sports, ballon racing, fireman competitions and more.
I continued to create theme songs and background music which I did for several “Great American Events” but I also started creating more and more sound effects for the shows transitioning to more sound design and less music.
As one of the main production units working for the channel, when ESPN 2 launched in 1993 it helped expand our footprint working on additional weekend outdoors content and informative segments like fishing and hunting tips, and highlighting events like Earth Day.
Throughout the early 90’s we continued to help create content including the VCI World Racquetball Championship and Iditarod Dog Sled Racing.
By mid 90's the Forrest Lee Wood (FLW) Tour was developing and I became one of the offline editors for the show and created music tracks and elements for its broadcast up through 2000.
Another segment we produced in earlier years that offered sport dog training tips, became a full series my sister produced called “Waterdog”. I provided the music and sound design for her show and to this day, my sister is still a producer on an additional series “Super Retriever Trials”.
While I never was on the travel team to film for these productions, I worked behind the scenes as did other editors and post production team, making sure the music, sound and editing, were
done well and delivered on time for each show or segment we worked on.
It’s easy to see why so many skilled production professionals came to JM Associates to learn and growth in their craft. Working on these projects were my education in becoming a media producer that I use now for my own creative business efforts and I’m grateful for the experience it provided me.
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