Channel
surfing on a Saturday morning you will find a hundred different bass fishing
shows and hunting shows, most with similar canned country music, bad or no
script at all, little direction, and usually very shoddy camera work. All
in all, as most people in the outdoor business know, fishing, hunting, and
other special outdoor programs, generally, have very poor production value.
This
award winning show touts it’s original soundtrack, videography, scripting, directing,
editing, authoring, and graphic design to a national audience. The work of five
people is all done by one rather busy person, Jim Baugh.
It takes a very unusual background in order to perform all of Jim's tasks.
Jim
Baugh started studying magic at age six, and was studying organ by age eight at
Hammond Organ Studios. When Jim was almost sixteen, he worked in the Paramount’s
Kings Dominion (then Taft) Magic shop demonstrating and selling magic tricks. Due
to the packed crowds around the magic counter, the manager suggested to Jim to
audition for the entertainment department. The following year, Jim was the full
time street magician at Kings Dominion. For one summer, his duties also included
hosting The Great American High Dive Show. Jim continued to work for the company
for six years, and preformed at numerous nightclubs. He preformed for such stars
as Marie Osmond and The Doobie Brothers, and eventually was the house magician
for the 2001 Supper Club.
During his tenure with Kings Dominion,
Jim studied the high art of close up magic for three years under one of the best
close up magic artists in the world. This
is where Jim really honed in on the close up work, basically living and breathing
it night and day. Six shows a day at Kings Dominion, and performing at clubs during
the evening. Jim eventually would end up in Atlantic City performing at Resorts
international Casino. Later he would open up his own magic bar in Richmond VA,
moving into the old Comedy Club’s space, and call it, Jimdini’s Magic Room. Jimdini’s
Magic Room was located under Matts British Pub in Shockoe Slip, next to the famous
Tobacco company restaurant.
While
Jim Baugh was busy entertaining with close up magic, he was also busy doing something
else, music. Jim came to be known as one of the best keyboard players in the area.
By the age of 17, he already had purchased a Hammond C-3 with a 147 Lesli cabinet, and was playing Keith Emerson licks wherever he could. During high
school, Jim would be playing in the Friday night Football game, then play piano
during the intermission for the Saturday night high school play. Weight lifting
was also one of Jim’s passions. He held the bench press record for 320 pounds
during his senior year, and to this day holds the high school squat record of
600 pounds free weight.
When
Jim was almost 19, he formed a progressive rock group called Ukiah, and performed
all original material at various college campuses. This was during the age of
disco, and the future of a progressive rock band was shaky at best. Jim left the
band he founded after about two years. Ukiah went on to play for another two years,
then disbanded
Between music, magic, and a lot of snow skiing
trips, he attended J. Sergent Reynolds Community College in Richmond VA. Pete
Baugh, his father, insisted on a college education for Jim, so Jim Baugh marched
down to the VCU school of music for an audition.
In
a small practice room sat one of Virginia Commonwealth University’s top music
professors and classical performers, Dr. Landon Bylu. “What are we playing today
Jim, do you need some charts for Bach?’ Jim said no, he would just play a little
piece he wrote. After fifteen minutes of pure finger aerobics, Landon admitted
Jim into the VCU department of music based on technical ability alone. Jim could
simply rip the ivory off the keys, pure talent.
Three
years later, Jim Baugh would receive a Bachelor of Music degree from VCU four
years later. His major was applied synthesizer with a minor in Piano.
For the next two years, Jim was employed at Soft 96 radio as an account executive, selling commercial spots to the Tri-City area. He had an idea about packaging his entertainment background, with some radio spots, to create an entertainment package for the station to sell. Well, it worked, Jim would perform and also hire other entertainers he had known from Disney and Kings Dominion. Car dealerships liked this entertainment package, and bought it on a regular basis.
With
his music background, Jim also helped program the Sunday night Soft 96 Windham Hill show featuring artists from the Windham
hill label What Jim loved to do at
the Radio Station more than anything else, was to write copy. He would write copy
all day, for himself and other account executives. Jim also had a distinctive
narrative voice, and would also be the talent on some radio spots. The writing
skills and voice over work would later prove to be an enormous asset to what would
later become Jim Baugh Outdoors television show.
Now we are at the last leg before Jim begins
on what would be a life long career.
After Jim’s two-year stint with Soft 96 radio, he was hired as the General Manager for the Blab Television Network. This was a somewhat syndicated live call in talk show format, where businesses would go on air, and take questions about their product. When Jim was hired, his responsibilities were to improve the on air look of the station, and of course program development. In addition, Jim would produce and air his own entertainment\magic program that would air on a weekly basis. One of the most popular programs Jim produced at Blab was a live call in talk show called, the Fishing Line. Jim was raised by his dad fishing the Chesapeake Bay, and had literally grown up on the water.
All good things do change, the station was sold,
new management came in with their own people, and Jim was left at the hospital
holding his brand new baby, Casey Baugh, neither one of them had a job.
He
had the idea to produce a broadcast fishing show called Fishing Virginia. This concept had never been done before
in Virginia, Jim had the contacts and the Television experience, so he figured
he would give it a try.
After three months of sales calls and presentations, Jim had
the contracts he needed to begin production. And begin he did.
What
he did was notate every segment of each program, then figure out each shows format.
Jim would take the formats that he liked, combine them, to make a totally different
format for an outdoor show. When Jim finished outlining his format for Fishing Virginia, he then compared it to every single show that he had studied.
What he found was that he had come up with a format that was totally original,
and one that would allow for great diversity within the show.
After
the first 13 Fishing Virginia programs were produced, it was time for
the public to see Jim’s efforts. Manager of the local Fox station told
Jim he would air his show for a price, and that Fishing Virginia would never show in the ratings. When
the first Neilson ratings came out, Fishing Virginia did show up, and it showed it had a big audience.
Fishing Virginia aired on the local Fox station for a year, when the NBC affiliate Channel 12 contacted Jim and wanted the show broadcast on their station. Fishing Virginia aired as a part of a three-show block on Sunday mornings at 7:30. Jim’s program was airing after Frank White’s Southern Sportsman, a show that Jim had watched since he was a child. Jim Baugh later met Frank White on several occasions, and still considers Frank to be one of the most entertaining outdoor hosts in the biz.
Fishing Virginia blew the Nelson ratings off the charts, pulling higher numbers
than the NBC morning news. However for Jim, high ratings did not mean high dollars.
Being a small independent family business, Jim could never sell the show locally
for what it was worth. With expensive production and increasing air time cost,
it was time to cover more markets. Syndicating throughout the state was easy for
Fishing Virginia, everyone loved the show and it was a top quality production.
The problem that Jim found was that even airing state wide, he needed more production
dollars to improve the program.
Jim
Baugh then headed to North Carolina looking for new markets to air the show. No
one wanted it or would even consider airing it. The problem was not the program,
it was the name, Fishing Virginia. Television stations in Carolina were
not going to air a program called Fishing VA. So CEO and father Pete Baugh suggested a name change, he
said, “Call it Jim
Baugh Outdoors”. Jim told his business partner and father he did not have an ego,
and had NO interest in hosting and self-titling the show. Jim felt since they
always featured local fisherman as the host and guest for the show, the program
should have a generic name.
Well the battle over the name was negotiated
on two fronts, Pete Baugh wanted the program to be hosted by Jim and call it Jim
Baugh Outdoors.
Pete believed that Jim’s experience in entertainment would make for a better on
camera appearance rather than continuing to use local fishing guides. A
compromise would soon be agreed on. Jim would host the show, but call it The American
Angler,
Offshore and Inland. Pete Baugh hated the name, but agreed
only if the offshore and inland was dropped. So Fishing Virginia became the American Angler, and Jim Baugh was off to find national
sponsors and a national broadcast.
It
was only about a year into syndicating on various cable stations when Jim and
Pete Baugh found out that there was another show called the American Angler. The Baugh’s saw the show, and quickly realized they did not want
anyone to confuse their product with the other same named program. Pete Baugh
sat Jim down and insisted on changing the name to Jim Baugh Outdoors, it just made too much sense, and so
Jim reluctantly agreed.
Jim Baugh Outdoors was now hosted, edited, and produced by Jim Baugh.
Pete Baugh had a lot of business experience,
and provided legal services to his son Jim. Pete incorporated the company, and
was CEO of Jim Baugh Productions, Inc. Many things would quickly change. Jim and
Pete realized that with mounting production costs, it would be better for the
company to try to build it’s own edit suite. So off to the bank, and get deeper
in dept. Broadcast editing decks alone can cost between 10 to 70 thousand dollars
a piece, and one needs several of them, plus a ton of other gear for shooting
and editing. Jim soon began editing his own show which would lead to editing other
projects as well.
Jim Baugh now began to call on all of his talents he had developed over the years to produce the show. He could not afford a music service, so he produced his own music, and then began selling his soundtracks to other production companies. His background in magic was monumental in helping Jim’s editing style. Television is magic, it is an illusion that manipulates time. Many of the principles Jim used in close up magic, he applied in the studio producing his show. Jim would also write and narrate all of the script for the program. The electronic recording and engineering that Jim learned in college, helped him to engineer his rather complex editing suite. It was these combined talents that would create a formula that greatly increased the quality of the show, and what also began to make it so unique.
Jim Baugh Outdoors would later be the first outdoor program
ever to air nationally on the Family Channel to over 55 million households. The Family Channel agreed to
air Jim
Baugh Outdoors based
on it’s total production quality and informative content. The New England
Sports Network, a premium pay sports channel also contracted to air the show. Jim Baugh Outdoors airs on NESN to this day and also was
one of the first programs to sign on with the Outdoor Channel.
Jim
Baugh now is chief editor at Jim Baugh Production Inc, and among his many
talents, is one that is quite frankly hard to believe. Jim is a full-fledged
computer freak. He has over seven computer workstations in
his studio, and is known as one of the top Interactive CD author’s in the
USA. Jim is a national beta tester for Pinnacle Systems, the largest manufacturer of production
gear in the world. Pinnacle uses Jims interactive CD’s for demonstration purposes
world-wide as well as Jim’s streaming media presentations. Jim Baugh has also
Beta tested for Artel
software’s 3d effects products, and even is moderator of the
Impression section of
the Dc1000
web site. Jim Baugh Outdoors was the first outdoor show ever to be
distributed on interactive CD rom and DVD. Jim also tutors video editing and
interactive CD and DVD authoring to state agencies, and even does some teaching
through the web.
If
you ever meet Jim Baugh, you may be surprised that he does not talk much about
the fish they catch on the program. Jim believes that the show and the catch speak
for itself. All one has to do is watch a few programs, and it is clear that Jim
usually has very dramatic fishing footage, about the best in the business. He does not falsely embellish fishing
products or fishing techniques. The “magic” about the fishing segments in the show is that the program highlights what actually happens during a trip,
without over commercializing it.
Jim Baugh Outdoors is not about a 30-minute show watching two people catch a few fish. It is about a mix of exciting outdoor adventures, mostly Saltwater Fishing, wrapped up in a nice package that includes tons of travel features, cooking segments, and information that can truly aid the traveling sportsman.
People come up to Jim all the time and
tell him that they actually plan their family vacation based on a Jim Baugh Outdoors Program. For Jim, that is his goal, to get people
excited about adventures in the great outdoors.
Jim Baugh Outdoors now bases it’s program in Hampton Virginia. For years the show has had a close alliance
with Virginia
Tourism. The Baugh’s are known as “the first family of Virginia’s Outdoors”.
This is mainly due to the fact that Jim was the first to ever produce a commercial
program promoting Virginia’s Outdoors, Fishing Virginia. Jim also produced over twenty-five travel features promoting
different locations in the state of Virginia. Jim Baugh was also the main speaker
at the Virginia Outdoors conference held by Virginia Tourism.
Pete and Jim always wanted a saltwater location
for the show's base of operations. The Baugh’s felt that Hampton Virginia had
the best location on the East Coast for fishing and water sports activities. So
Jim approached Hampton Tourism during the fall of 2000 with the idea of producing
Jim Baugh Outdoors from Hampton VA. Hampton was thrilled
about the idea,, so in a cooperative effort with several local business, Hampton
CVB, and VA Tourism, Jim Baugh Outdoors has a new home.
You
can see Jim most of the time in Hampton on his Custom
28 express fisherman powered by Suzuki, or on the company’s 36-foot Trojan production
boat.
NOTE:
History of electonic music
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