• Reflections of a day job. I deeply appreciate where I work and for those whom I work with throughout the years, now and in the future.

A year behind us and I find some of the  work has changed and some of the battles will continue into the new year.

Along the way there have been wonderful successes, both with the family business and our work in public service across the state.

Let’s start with the business. Just in the past year and recent years, our incredible little staff  has literately turned radio and live stream athletic events inside out and upside down.

The trail has included adding multiple services, among them an app, improved website, live-stream and digital spot-on advertising;  all of this while still putting out an award winning valley community newspaper and delivering an incredibly popular morning radio show every weekday.

Amanda Nelson and Aubrey Taylor work wonders with the paper every week. Janet Erickson finds interesting stories for them to compliment with their art work.

Paula Nield, retired business teacher, keeps the books in order.

My wife Kim, is back at SVI after  a 25-year limited absence with the schools, and in her reliable form — she  helps keep it all tied together. She still helped with the bookwork during that time away.

And after 38 years, my wife Kim and I still get a thrill with putting out a valley community newspaper.

I commend our excellent staff for their work!  They do what larger organizations are still trying to accomplish or have long since given up.

Take for example SVI Media, sports; I can recall celebrating one night in Riverton when we surpassed 14,000 views. We have since experienced 50,000 plus viewers  for key play-off games. Much of that is credited to our “Wizard of Oz,” producer, Dave Cazier.

Duke Dance and Dahl Erickson are great in those sports broadcasts and in the morning on the radio as exemplified from the number of responses we receive every day. They take you into the day with a smile on your face!

I’m honored they let me join them for a few news cut-ins and interviews throughout the morning, on the Weekday Wake-Up Show.

And for our earlier risers, I enjoy wishing the “Jackson 500” safe travels up the canyon as I cut in with newscasts starting at 5 a.m. and continue on the half-hour marks leading up to Weedkday Wake-Up at 7 a.m.

It’s a great start to the day when I come on-the-air in those early dark-thirty hours and say “Good Morning Star Valley, Kemmerer/Diamondville and Bridger Valley!”

And then for the fun of it, giving temperatures in a few of my favorite places, like Smoot, Hoback Junction/Snake River Canyon and Little America/I-80 (my favorite place for 15-minute naps going back and forth from Cheyenne), and all are part of the SVI broadcast area!

That’s the day job!

Next week in “Inde. Notes,” I’ll share some of the insights with the public service responsibilities such as working the property tax issue, taking care of our schools, present and future, working for access to public lands, BLM/Forest Service and saving a few hundred jobs along with a multi-million dollar mineral tax base for one of my favorite counties — Lincoln!

Thanks everyone! It’s good to work with you now — and in the years to come.