(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with an in-depth interview I did with two leaders in the field of media.

Gerald D'Ambra and Lisa Marie Falbo, who's a former producer with the Caucus Educational Corporation, our production company.

We're talking about media leadership.

Gerald and Lisa Marie started an entity called Media First Group.

They own and operate something called On New Jersey.

We discuss the media, digital media, traditional media, the future of the media, media leadership.

Check it out.

- Lisa Marie and Gerald, good to see both of you.

- Great to be here Steve.

- Good to see you, Steve.

- Now where are you right now, what set is this?

- This is our Nutley TV studio.

So this is where we do a lot of the productions on our streaming channel On New Jersey.

- Lisa Marie, tell everyone what On New Jersey is because it's an important streaming service that people should know more about, go ahead.

- Yeah, so On New Jersey, we are the world's only New Jersey dedicated streaming channel, all Garden state news talk, sports and entertainment.

- And Gerald, let me ask you something.

We're part of Legacy Media on one level.

We're partners with public broadcasting, as Lisa Marie knows well, we're partners with them.

We produce our independent programming, but we stream it everywhere we can.

Is it fair to say, Gerald, that we don't have the luxury to be on any or in any one place in media, Gerald?

- I mean, you have to be everywhere today.

And that's what we aim to do.

You know, we look at every platform that we could possibly get on and we put our content there.

It's when you limit or you try to, you know, put your content behind the firewall, it really, really hurts you.

So like, you know, we see social media as good of a platform as a website or a fast channel or an app.

And we put our content out in as many places as we can because the eyeballs are there, so why not?

- So Lisa Marie, in light of Gerald saying that, the paywall, right?

You wanna see our content, you sign up and we'll get your credit card.

Okay, now, that's not the way we operate either.

And thank God for our underwriters and sponsors who allow us to do what we do.

You mentioned the business side before, Lisa Marie, for you who loves media, has always wanted to be a part of media.

How challenging is it for you, paywall is what it is, but we need to get paid and we need that money.

How challenging is it for you to juggle journalism and business?

- As you know, it's 24/7, and then throw in a husband, two kids a house, I mean, the kids are on my lap as I'm doing calls, as Gerald knows, right.

And thank God for COVID, honestly, because that allowed, I think, normalcy in that situation.

'cause I don't think I would be able to juggle all that I do if work from home wasn't a thing.

It's tough because you have to wear multiple hats at the same time.

But it's such a rush, it's so much fun.

And again, Steve, I learned from the best because I saw you do that all the time.

- Yeah, we had no choice.

Because if you don't have that money, you're not able to do what you do.

- Exactly.

- Joe, to Lisa Marie's point, I know she didn't mean, thank God for the horrific parts of COVID.

Thank God that it has allowed us to do this, because I'm convinced, 'cause we were in studios everywhere in Lincoln Center at the Tisch WNET Studio, in downtown Newark at our NJPBS studio.

And we love those studios.

But logistically, for us to do this, you're in Nutley.

I'm in another location.

and our other producers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, all over the place.

It's a long-winded way of getting to this.

To what degree has this remote reality, Gerald, allowed us to do things and have guests on that are logistically a lot easier.

- It allowed us to launch our entire channel because, you know, without having in-person guests, you know, in-person guests are difficult.

It takes a lot of time, it takes staff, there's costs.

I have to turn the lights on in the studio.

But when you are remote, it keeps all of the costs down.

And what we've done and how we've built our business is we built our own custom control room.

We have kept the cost down.

So we don't have the costs that Legacy Media has.

We don't have necessarily the real estate costs.

We don't have the equipment costs that they have.

And we're able to do shows with a lot less staff than you would see at a traditional television station.

So we're very light, very nimble in terms of how we can produce TV shows, even live TV shows.

I think a lot of people would be shocked with how few people are actually behind a live TV show.

Because the technology takes the place.

Like, I'll give you an example, we do live call-ins.

We don't have a call screener anymore.

We have an automated system that looks up callers that automatically screens the calls and then our hosts or our director can put the calls to air, drop calls.

They could both have the ability to do it.

So it puts controls in the hands of the talent, the producers, the technical directors, anyone on your staff can log in and take control if they really need to.

And that's how we built our system to really help us keep our costs down.

- You know, and keeping costs down.

Obviously this keeps our costs down as well.

But Lisa Marie, I'm gonna follow up on what Gerald said.

You were with me, I believe when I was teaching at different universities and trying to teach about communication and media.

And there's where I'm going with this.

Do you believe if I were teaching a course or anyone else teaching a course in journalism or media today, that the teaching, the training and the coaching of future people in media would be dramatically different today than it was just 10 years ago?

- I think technically speaking, yes.

But you weren't teaching that, right?

- The production side.

On the production side, ahead.

- No, because look, to be a good producer, it's about connecting the dots.

It's about building up the story.

It's about understanding the moment and what's going on.

And that's timeless - Even though it's timeless, to what degree Lisa Marie, are you concerned that the trust of those of us in media, President Trump and it's not political at all, has called us the enemy of the people.

We're not sure who exactly he's talking about and when, but for those of us in legacy media, we have to deal with the reality, there are more and more folks who may not trust us, even though PBS, one of the most trusted media platforms ever.

However, there are more questions than ever.

How concerned are you, Lisa Marie with people not trusting us?

- It is very concerning.

And I think that's why with On New Jersey, we make such an effort to make sure that we're telling the whole story.

We are totally non-partisan.

If we have a Democrat on, like for example, on our New Jersey politics with Laura Jones and we have a Democrat on.

- Laura's terrific, Laura's terrific and Laura is the best.

We also have a Republican on we every side to be heard.

And I think that wins back trust.

I think when you turn on the TV and you see someone have an angle, that's where trust gets lost.

But with us, we really make sure that people are getting the whole story.

- Lisa Marie has it right.

And I've said this many times before, we don't have a horse in any race.

We don't pick sides.

And if you think you know where we're coming from, you don't, because we don't have a position.

We just have folks with different points of view.

And that's why media leadership is so important.

And I want to thank Lisa Marie and Gerald for joining us, On NJ is the streaming service.

We wish you both success because those of us in the media business need to stick together.

Well done team.

- Thank you Steve.

Thank you Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we’ll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Newark Board of Education.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

PSE&G.

The Fidelco Group.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

The North Ward Center.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Chamber.

And by NJ.Com.

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