From the Fidelity Bank Foundation studio, PBS Kansas Presents One on One with Victor Hogstrom.

This is where the stars of Kansas come to shine and shed light on the things that matter.

Our guest this week is a career broadcaster who is making his mark on the Kansas media landscape.

Mike Rajewski was named general manager of KAKE Television in 2019.

During this time, KAKE has expanded its news footprint to 8 hours a day and extended the 6 p.m. newscast to a full hour.

Rajewski also serves on the board of directors for the Kansas Association of Broadcasters.

This is the ninth television station at which he has worked over the course of his 32 year career.

But would you say he has been moving around his entire life?

His father was a 40 year broadcast veteran who moved the family from city to city in order to move up in the business.

Mike grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he met his future wife, Trish.

He and his family later moved to Los Angeles, where he graduated from high school, then might move back to Cincinnati for college and to reconnect with Trish.

They have now been married over three decades.

Together they have two grown children.

Coming up, we'll learn more about their just kids life together and how they've adjusted to living in Wichita.

Also, we'll talk about the competitive local television market and how Mike hopes to leave his mark on the Kansas media scene.

We have a lot to talk about, so let's get it on.

One on one with Mike Rajewski starts right now.

Hello and thank you for joining us.

I'm Victor Hogstrom.

I am pleased to welcome KAKE General Manager Mike Rajewski to the program.

Mike, welcome to Wichita and welcome to One on One.

Thank you for the invitation, Victor.

It's a pleasure to have you.

Who is Mike Rajewski?

Well, as you said, I'm the general manager of KAKE, kake.com, MeTV Kansas.

I like to think I'm a Kansan now.

Okay.

Husband, father and broadcaster.

And what is the word that defines Mike Rajewski?

In a word, optimist.

Oh.

That's a good one.

I have been accused of blinding optimism.

So why are you so optimistic?

Why?

I don't know.

It's just been my natural disposition, I guess.

You know, things are what they are, and you have a choice on how you react to certain situations.

And, uh, I enjoy looking at the positive side of things rather than the negative.

I guess that.

Is a good way to be, but optimistic about what?

Most everything.

Most everything.

The glass is not half full.

It's all the way full.

Half of water, half with air.

Right.

So, yeah, most everything.

I just enjoy people enjoy a lot of things about life.

I've been very fortunate and blessed in my life and, uh, um.

Yeah, that's.

So.

That's all right.

Yeah.

So you and your father, uh, have a combined 70 plus years of broadcasting.

He worked in broadcasting for a long time.

And then you came after him and followed his footsteps.

First of all, tell us about your dad and.

And how he inspired you to get into this business.

Yeah when he got out of the army, he, I think, got a two year associate's degree in accounting.

And it just so happened that his first job was at a radio station as, uh, in the business office.

And from there he worked his way up to business manager and then, running the finance department for some broadcast groups and then Hanna-Barbera animation out in Los Angeles.

And then he ended his career running about a dozen TV stations that were owned by Paramount Pictures at the time.

So and now he's happily retired and Longboat Key, Florida.

And so you get some coaching from him.

Oh, yeah.

Of I mean, it was, I guess a lifelong education.

I remember learning about syndication when I was in the seventh grade.

We moved from Cincinnati to Buffalo, New York.

And all of a sudden Entertainment Tonight wasn't on the ABC station where I thought it was supposed to be.

It was on the NBC station.

Oh, and well, son, that's first run syndication.

So how did you get into broadcasting?

Well, like a lot of people, I went to college not knowing what I was going to do.

And after my freshman year, I think they made me declare a major.

And my counselor said, I recommend either English or communications, and I didn't like English all that well, so I went with communications.

So in the communications school I chose mass communications because it was radio and television and journalism.

And I graduated with the mass comm degree.

Hoping to do what.

I didn't know even.

Even after they made me choose, I had no idea.

Um, my last two years of college, I worked at the ABC TV station in Cincinnati in the newsroom as a intern assignment desk in the newsroom.

And really, all I learned in those two years was I did not want to work in a newsroom.

So it was actually kind of a stressful time.

I was graduating, I was getting married, and I didn't know what I was going to do.

So, a friend of my father's gave me some good advice to get into the sales department at television station, because the sales department has to work with every other department in the building except news.

And I said, sounds perfect.

So that's that's how it went.

I got a national sales assistant job at the sales department of the Fox station in Raleigh, North Carolina, right out of school and went from there.

And did you ever become a general sales manager?

Yes.

So I sold in Raleigh for a little bit, a couple of years, moved to New York City, did the rep firm where you're not selling airtime for just one television station, we had about a dozen around the country that we were selling.

I didn't care for that job.

So went back to the station side and sold in Miami and then got promoted into management, in 97.

So from 97 until I got here in 2019 at KAKE, I was in various management positions at different TV stations across the country.

So before getting into all of that, what were your long term ambitions at the time?

What what did you dream about becoming?

You didn't one broadcasting per say you didn't like English, right?

Your major communications.

Yeah I liked flight.

I liked the airplanes a whole lot.

We had a a pilot from American Airlines come to our high school a career day.

And I thought that's what I wanted to do until I figured out youve got to have perfect vision.

And Lasik hadn't been invented yet.

So that kind of went out the window.

So I went off to college not knowing what I wanted to do.

But yeah, uh, it's interesting now here, being in the air capital of the world, right?

Yeah.

So you grew up in Cincinnati.

And met your current wife, right?

In high School?

My current wife.

My only wife, yeah.

Okay.

And so your only wife in high school?

Yeah, in Cincinnati.

But you left Cincinnati and when you worked in, your family moved to Los Angeles, where you graduated high school.

Right.

And you went back to Cincinnati.

Right.

For college.

And you met up again with your current wife?

Yeah.

We dated for maybe six months before I moved away, uh, sophomore year of high school.

So I finished high school in Los Angeles, junior senior year there.

And we.

We kept in touch.

We weren't exclusive, but I would fly out to Cincinnati every once in a while to see her and see some friends.

And she would come to Los Angeles every once in a while.

And then I decided I was going to go back to Ohio for college at Miami University and four years later we were getting married.

Everybody was coming in for our graduation.

We might as well have a wedding while everybody was in town.

So we graduated on a Sunday and, uh, got married that following Saturday?

Yeah.

After college.

Right?

Yeah.

In the same week?

Yeah, 32 years ago.

A brave man.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's what you want to call it.

Yeah.

Smart man.

Smart man.

Well, two huge events in one week.

Oh, yeah.

And then moving to Raleigh.

So in between graduation and the wedding, we drove to Raleigh to find an apartment and back to Cincinnati.

Yeah.

So how many places have you lived there throughout your career?

I think this is 16.

16.

So, yeah.

So before Wichita, where did you enjoy the most?

It would probably be this is going to sound like a copout answer, but maybe there's just too many to pick from.

And as I said, I really did like something about every place I've lived.

But I would say West Palm Beach and Tampa were very, very nice.

And then we spent eight years in Sacramento that were very nice as well.

I really enjoyed Sacramento.

Yeah, but I got to tell you, Wichita is top three or four.

Wichita is right up there for me.

I've been here three years now and I'm loving it.

So compare working in Wichita, in the Wichita market with some of the other cities that you've worked in.

Well, as far as television markets go, this is, I think, ranked 70 out of 210.

Right, it's a, it's a little bit of a slower pace, the Midwest mentality.

You know, I haven't lived in the Midwest since we graduated college and it's been refreshing to come back here with, uh, just a kind of an easier pace of things as things are very frenetic on the coasts in California, New York, Miami.

Um, so just the lifestyle here has been a very nice change of pace and the television station here, I mean, KAKE is, as far as television stations go, a very special place.

How has the commercial television business, Mike, changed over the course of your 30 year career in this business?

Let's say first and foremost, the competition has changed.

When I got into the business, you know, in the nineties, um, there were three, maybe four television stations, cable was an emerging technology.

There was no satellite companies yet.

And you know, you fast forward to today where we're competing with Google and Facebook and.

YouTube.

And everybody.

Yeah.

And it's just, uh, it's, it's been an interesting evolution to be a part of and to witness.

But I really feel like the broadcast industry has evolved and has stayed current with consumer behavior and the, uh, the changing technology so that local free over the air broadcast television remains relevant and a community service to the people that we serve.

So what's your take?

We hear all the time about media bias.

What's your take on that?

Tell me a little bit more about what you mean by media bias.

Well, you hear all the time that the media is one sided.

It's you know, it's biased to the to one point of view.

Right.

Etc., etc.. Yeah, I agree with that.

I think in in let me qualify though in general, when people think of mainstream media, I see it.

I think there's some merit there.

What do you call Main Street.

National Network News?

I don't consider what we do at KAKE.

It is mainstream for Kansas and for Wichita.

But when you hear about media, when you hear our elected officials talking about them or the criticisms, it really is the cable news channels and to some degree the major networks ABC, NBC and CBS.

There's been a lot of trust over the years that's been lost from the media, but not with their local television stations.

Local television stations, people, you know, the audience is pretty intelligent and they can tell when something sounds a little off or smells a little fishy and the people that are giving it to them straight.

Is there such a thing as fake news, in your opinion?

That's a good question.

I think the only way news can be fake is if it's inaccurate or if the facts the accurate facts are presented with a slant.

So yeah, the the moniker Fake News has a place, but I don't see it in local broadcast post here in Wichita or any of the markets that I've worked in.

But maybe on social media platforms.

Yeah, I wouldn't.

Yeah, there is a misinformation, disinformation.

We know it.

We've now seen over the last five years the propensity of that.

And fortunately, people are taking steps to avoid that.

But like I said, the viewing public, they're smart and they know when something comes up in their news feed that doesn't look right or sound right, they can now have the tools to go investigate it.

Right.

So let me try this on you.

If a station's major advertisers were involved in some kind of a scandal, should that station's manager direct its news department to ignore the story or take it easy on them because they are a major advertiser?

Can't do that.

You can't do that.

We have an unwritten agreement with the audience that we are going to give them the news and the facts.

And if a major advertiser does something that they shouldn't, it's going to be on the news.

Okay.

That's the thing.

Ethical, right?

You have to.

You have to.

Be.

You have to because we you just can't afford to to lose the viewing public's trust.

Right.

We play a little game on this program, and I have one for you.

Okay.

That our producer has come up with.

I'll start a sentence and you finish it.

The last time I complimented someone was this morning.

The last time I criticized someone once.

I try not to use that word, criticize.

Hopefully it's not a criticism.

But, you know, we're always talking in the station about getting better.

So yesterday.

Constructive criticism, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

The last time I encouraged someone was.

Again, I try to do that on a daily basis.

I would say yesterday.

Yeah.

Being the boss makes me feel.

Makes me feel, uh, humbled to be running a station like it is a great responsibility.

And, uh, I've told a lot of former employees that I promised them I would not screw this up, but.

So far, so good, right?

Yeah.

So far so good.

Yeah.

The things more important to me than my job include family.

Yeah.

My son, my daughter and my wife got a great extended family.

Brothers, sisters all over the country now from moving around.

So yeah, we enjoy traveling and usually traveling to see family.

While you're talking, thinking about family.

Tell us about your family briefly.

Yeah.

I've got a daughter who's 28.

She's a graphic designer in Charlotte, North Carolina, and just got married a year ago to a great guy.

And my son is an aspiring script writer in Los Angeles.

So coming back to the game, my greatest talent is.

Going to go back to my optimism, optimism, the ability to see the positive in most situations.

All right.

So one thing I'm not very good at is email.

That's my least favorite form of communication.

I do not like email.

What's your favorite form?

This interpersonal face to face.

Yeah.

Okay, that's a good one.

Yeah, that's why you studied communications, right?

Right.

Yeah.

Well, I learned it there, I guess.

Maybe.

Yeah.

So is it nicer to be important, or is it more important to be nice?

More important to be nice.

Whys that?

You can't put a price on kindness.

Uh, especially in today's world, you know, a thank you.

I've been told I overused that.

I thank people too much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't think there's any such thing, you know.

So, yeah, definitely more important to be nice.

More important to be nice.

Okay.

What has been your biggest missed opportunity in life, professionally and personally?

Well, I like to think everything happens the way it's supposed to.

Everything works out the way it's supposed to.

But I'm having such a great time in this job here, and this is my first general manager role.

Um, I wonder if I should have been more aggressive about getting to this level while I was a director of sales or general sales manager for, I think 15 or 16 years.

Um, but like I said, everything works out the way it's supposed to and I'm here now and having a ball.

So while you're having that ball, Mike, there are commercial television competitors and every television market and they certainly have some here.

Yeah.

So how do you keep ahead of the competition?

Well, as you said, we've got some of the biggest broadcasters here in Wichita, Nexstar, Sinclair Broadcasting and Gray and Lockwood.

My ownership is is not a small company.

It's a really, really tiny company, relatively speaking.

So, you know, I'm often asked, well, how do you guys compete when these other stations have the resources?

And the answer is, I think it's in our people.

We do get the resources from Lockwood that we need to compete, and we're competing very well.

But it starts with with the people.

And I was blessed to walk into the station with a really good leadership team intact.

And over the last three years I think we've, we've gotten better and, uh, we've got a really great employee base that wants to be had cake and wants to make cake better each and every day.

Tell us about a defining moment of your life.

You know, as I said, I've been blessed throughout my life, and I really haven't had a whole lot of tragedy come my way or even death in my family.

And, uh, I was fortunate that I was in my thirties, I think, when I, I lost my grandfather that I was closest to.

So I feel fortunate that I was well into adulthood when that happened.

But when it did that, that one threw me for a loop.

Yeah.

That was a serious one.

Yeah.

So when you decide to hang it all up in the future, what would you suggest would be your greatest contribution to broadcasting?

Well, hopefully I haven't made my greatest contribution to broadcasting yet.

I you know, I'm going to be doing this another, I don't know, ten, 12, maybe 15 years, depending on how things go.

But, um, you know, as I said, I came up through sales.

I've been working with, um, business owners most of my career and that's been very rewarding.

Every station, every market that I've been in to, to help them with their marketing and have them attribute their growth to the things that our station has done for them is is very rewarding.

I've always been in awe of a local business owner.

I take risks.

I've moved around the country to a limit.

I don't think I have the risk tolerance to bet on myself.

Open up my own business and be my own boss.

But when a business owner opens up day one, they're expected to be a marketing expert.

Right.

And because they are the one that has to make all the decisions and with the sea of options that are out there right now, radio, television, billboard, digital.

Um, they need a guide to help them achieve the goals that they are looking to achieve so that that is, has been the most rewarding part thus far.

Now that I'm at KAKE and in a different role, um, my mission is to have KAKE be the number one source for news and weather information in the state of Kansas.

So talking about that, you recently expanded your newscast.

Yeah, it's.

Easy to do that.

Well, we we had Entertainment Tonight in the in the time period.

You're talking about 630 to 7.

So we have a 5:00 newscast.

That's local David Muir and ABC comes on at 530 and then it was followed by a 6:00 newscast and then we had a half hour of Entertainment Tonight, which is entertainment news.

Right.

And we just decided last year that, you know, with the competition in that time period, we'd be better served to provide even more local news instead of that, you know, a lot of people don't get home until 530, 6:00, or they're making dinner and they would miss it.

And then they'd have to wait to 9:00 to watch our news on the Fox station or 10:00 So we just decided another newscast at 630 would serve a certain segment of the population.

So for you, what is the goal yet to be achieved in your career that you're hoping for?

You know, I'm.

I'm having a great time right here.

Do I want to move up in markets or do I want to move into the corporate realm and have greater oversight?

Not at the moment.

Maybe in the next ten or 12, 15 years that that'll be in the cards.

But, for right now I'm energized each and every day when I come in, I'm having a great time here at KAKE.

How do you define success?

Well, certainly not through Nielsen or Commscore ratings.

I just read an article this morning, Victor.

Strive for excellence.

Don't strive for success.

You know, Nick Saban, head coach of Alabama football, said if everybody on their team does their job to the best of their ability, every single time the ball is snapped, there won't be a reason to even look at the scoreboard.

And so it really isn't about the score.

At the end of the game, you want to win, but did you give it your all?

Did you strive for excellence?

And I think some of my employees might say strive for perfection.

We know that perfection is rarely attained, but we do strive for it every day.

I know that you also play an instrument which you don't claim very much.

Yeah.

But what do you do in your spare time?

Yeah.

I've been playing music since I was seven.

Started with the piano, the violin.

Well, was in the, you know, school orchestra for many years.

And then, uh, when I got into high school, it wasn't cool to play the violin anymore.

So my parents let me trade the violin and for an electric guitar, and I taught myself how to play the guitar.

So, you know, fast forward to today.

Every once in a while you might find me out at or restaurant or a bar playing acoustic guitar and singing.

Really?

Yeah.

Playing and singing.

Yeah.

Wonderful, great talent.

It's a lot of fun.

It's, it's my creative outlet.

And I also like bike riding a lot.

I love the road, the rural roads in Kansas with no cars on them.

It's great bike riding.

Long stretches of road.

Yeah.

Cows looking at you, wondering what you're doing out here.

Yeah.

Mike Rajewski general manager of KAKE TV or KAKE, as we call it.

Yeah.

Thank you for joining me.

Hey, thank you again for the invitation.

I enjoyed it.

Thank you.

And thank you for joining us as well.

oneonone@kpts.org is our email address.

If you have any questions or comments, we enjoy hearing from you.

Until next time.

I'm Victor Hogstrom.

Stay safe and I'll see you again soon.