Speaker Identification

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto, Host. The transcript identifies Mark Otto as the host of Hollywood and Horsepower, and he repeatedly introduces the program, sponsors, charities, and guests.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom, Guest / Co-founder of BBS Radio TV. Donald is identified in the transcript as one of the BBS Radio TV founders. Some responses are attributed to him when the transcript context refers to his direct role in starting BBS Radio TV or when Mark addresses “Don.”

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom, Guest / Co-founder of BBS Radio TV. Douglas is identified in the transcript as Donald’s twin brother and co-founder. Some responses are attributed to him when the transcript context refers to Doug directly or to his position on sharing information freely.

Speaker 4 – Intro / Outro Voice. This label is used for the opening and closing show-theme material.

Speaker 4 – Intro / Outro Voice: I’ve been down roads from Churchill to L.A., met kings of speed and stars along the way. They’ve got stories that the cameras never show. The truth behind the fame is what we know. From the saddle to the silver screen, from fast lanes to punch lines on a late-night show, you think you’ve seen it all, but you don’t know the half until the curtain lifts and we all have a laugh. It’s not just who they are; it’s how they came to be. A little horsepower, a little mystery. Hollywood and Horsepower, baby, take a ride where the legends laugh and the engines roar. From the track to the spotlight, stories unwind. Gather truths a little wild and one of a kind. Hollywood and Horsepower, where the real ones show every twist and turn is a tale you didn’t know. So pour a drink, sit back, and enjoy the show, where the fast and famous let it all go.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: Welcome to the Hollywood and Horsepower show, the show about the story behind the story. Today we are joined by two very special guests.

Today’s episode is brought to us by Tony’s Steak and Seafood, out of Lexington, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Bowling Green, Kentucky. I apologize if I stumbled a little bit there, Tony. As Tony always says, there is always room for one more at our table. As I always say, going to Tony’s is an experience, not just dinner. You owe it to yourself to check out Tony’s Steak and Seafood if you are anywhere close to one of his restaurants.

We also support two charities on this show that are near and dear to our hearts. No Fallen Heroes was started by a good friend, Matt Wiz Buckley, a Top Gun graduate who later became a Top Gun trainer and adversary pilot. I introduced him as the real-life Jester because that is basically what he did. He and his wife, Susie, founded No Fallen Heroes to help first responders and veterans readjust to civilian life. We have way too many suicides among these people, and one of the biggest things No Fallen Heroes works on is helping them see life a little differently so they can function and get back into society.

On the animal side, we support Old Friends Equine at oldfriendsequine.org. It was founded by Michael and Diane Blowen, entertainment writers and columnists for The Boston Globe. They really took it upon themselves to create the largest thoroughbred retirement farm in the world for retired racehorses. Without Michael and Diane Blowen’s vision, this never would have happened. I always say to everybody, if you cannot do a lot, do a little. Every bit helps, and every dollar goes to help both people and horses. I will tell you right up front that we do not take a penny for promoting these charities. This is something we simply believe in. So please remember No Fallen Heroes and oldfriendsequine.org.

Our guests today are for the people who have always wondered what is behind Hollywood and Horsepower. The horsepower that is really behind this and that makes this possible is Don and Doug Newsom, founders of BBS Radio TV. Don and Doug have truly taken me under their wing. I am your host, Mark Otto. They make me look way better than I am. They are the ones who get it out on all the platforms. They create the media. They do everything that makes Hollywood and Horsepower possible. Without BBS, I honestly would not be near where we are today. We are in our third year. We continue to grow. We are on over 200 different platforms every week, and I cannot thank them enough. It is truly an honor that they were willing to come on. Gentlemen, I cannot thank you enough. Don and Doug, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: It is a pleasure, Mark. Such a pleasure.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: Howdy, howdy.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: Thank you. It really is a pleasure to be on your show. I must say, getting to know you has been one of the rewards of doing what I do, and I mean that sincerely, Mark. It has been an absolute pleasure, so thank you. I look forward to the interview. I have my twin brother here, so I am going to be on the network with him.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: I really look at you guys as veterans in this, for lack of a better word. For anybody who is a veteran, do not write any letters. We will not read them anyway. We are not insulting anybody. I mean that as a compliment. I think you guys are amazing at what you do. You are definitely pioneers in this field, and you have done amazing things for me. You guide me all the time. I always tell people, when they ask, “Who do you answer to?” these are the gentlemen I answer to. They run the network. They are the brains behind this and really the horsepower behind Hollywood and Horsepower, because we would not be anywhere without you guys. I cannot thank you enough, and it is an honor. I really appreciate you coming on the show.

I think you guys are interesting, and I love the network. But what is even more interesting, and the reason I wanted you on, is that in talking with Don, and I have gotten to talk more with Don than I have with Doug, I get bits and pieces of your story. It really is amazing what you guys have done. I would like to take you back to growing up. From my understanding, you guys grew up in Canada. Is that correct?

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: First off, thank you. I appreciate you very much. Your words are very kind. Hello to your listening audience. We appreciate you taking the time to listen to us, so thank you very much.

Yes, we grew up in Canada. We were born in Vancouver, and then we high-tailed it north from there into an area called the Chilcotin, which is a very untamed world. It is probably one of the more extreme parts of British Columbia. Everything is wild there: bears, lakes, streams, native habitats. It is something to behold. They have flies that bite you and feel like a scorpion sting. That was the sort of environment we grew up in.

We grew up on a real ranch, with cowboys, horses, cattle, rodeos, big events, and cattle spread out for miles.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: My father was trying to create the biggest sawmill in the world. He had backing from Japan at the time. This was way back in the early 1970s. They were going to put up about $90 million, and we were going to put up about $10 million. My dad was fairly wealthy because he had found some very large ore bodies for Gibraltar Mines and other mining operations. He was a very good geologist. He invested a lot of money, went into leverage, bought stocks, did very well, and then wanted to get into the timber industry.

We owned about 33,000 acres, but we leased another million and a half acres from the government. Right around that time, the government was changing to the New Democratic Party in Canada. Sadly, they would not let us timber off the land. We lost millions a year on the lease and everything else. The sawmill we were building and the backing for it fell apart. Then we went straight from being cattle boys to being in one of the roughest parts of Canada, around the Guildford Mall area. We lived in a very difficult place around that mall for quite a while, until we could get our feet back under us. It was an experience.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: What did your father do at that time? Was he still a geologist, or did he go into something else?

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: He actually went into financing mining properties. It takes a while to establish yourself in that kind of industry, but he moved from finding ore bodies to financing and building companies that found ore bodies. It was interesting. We got involved with him in our early teens. We moved into that field and saw how it operated. It could take you back to the movie Wall Street. That is kind of the world we lived in: stock work, desk traders all around the world, major heads of brokerage firms, and partners moving up the ladder. I cannot remember a day when I did not go into a brokerage firm and deal with someone who had half a dozen to a dozen people in a room all trying to sell people stock. It was a unique world. The movie Wall Street is not too far away from reality. It runs pretty close to reality, although what happens behind the scenes is covered in very little detail.

What Doug and I saw was at a greater level of detail, and you would not want to be in our heads. We discovered how the system really works, and it is a lot crazier and a lot harder to believe in the rightness of it all if you really get involved. Bottom line, we grew up in a fast, interesting world.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: Mind you, my brother and I were never lazy. We literally worked from the day we were old enough to hold a paintbrush. I can still remember painting fences you could never see the end of, or running behind hay stackers. There were 2,000-pound bales and smaller bales, and we would be out there turning hay, painting fences, or fixing fences. We were very young. I am talking kindergarten and first grade.

After that, by the time we were eight or nine years old, they wanted us to keep working. As soon as school was done, we had to pick strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. If you got an allowance, you earned it. You had chores. That made us workaholics. I do not know if I would say that is best for all people, but I think it is important to have chores. In our case, if you did not do them, you were going to listen to a lecture that probably encompassed many hours, and it would continue every day until you figured it out.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: I grew up very similarly. My parents lived in a suburb of Detroit until I was about ten, and then we moved out and built a place across the street from my grandparents, who were farmers. Same thing: you were expected to work on the farm. The way you made your money was by working for the neighbors. I got my first job at 13. I know exactly what you are talking about.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: If you did not have enough chores, they would be found for you. My mother was very conscious of neighbors. She had her own hair salons, and when older people came in regularly, my mom would always offer our services. We would go over to their places and shovel snow, clean driveways, clean yards, put in gardens, paint fences. There was always something to do, and our labor was freely given away.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: I am sure you heard the phrase many times, as I did: many hands make light work. One of the things that does is bring you together with people in your community. You are productive, and that is always a good thing.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: My dad had a saying, and my brother and I live by it: “Idleness breeds contempt for society.” I take it a little further. I think it breeds contempt even for yourself, because you have too much time to think about what is wrong, where you are going in your life, or what you are going to do. Whenever I have a problem, I immediately get to work. Why? Because now I am no longer thinking about the problem. I am thinking about the task at hand.

When we see people going out there, getting crazy, picketing, and trying to fight some institution, some of that makes sense, but I often think, “How do they have the time to do that?” What is the action really accomplishing?

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: For people just joining us, we are on the Hollywood and Horsepower show, joined by Don and Doug Newsom, founders of BBS Radio TV and the horsepower behind Hollywood and Horsepower. You have a great point. I have always said it is amazing how many times success follows a lot of hard work. I have heard people say more than once, if you have a problem, get to work. Work the problem. Focus on the problem and work the problem. That is what I have always tried to do.

The other thing that touched me is the sense of community. We grew up the same way. My mom and dad used to help older people around the area. My dad always said, “You help the people who cannot help themselves,” whether that is somebody elderly, somebody lame, or somebody in need. I do not think there is enough of that anymore.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: I agree. Not only that, but there does not seem to be a lot of courtesy for that generation. Young people today often do not pull out chairs or open the door for a lady. Even the idea of paying for the meal if you invite a lady out has gone the way of the dodo bird. I am not saying I want a particular caste system where you have a role and I have a role, but it was such a beautiful way of seeing and treating the world. It was courtesy.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: Absolutely. That is the way I see it too, as being a gentleman. I do not think it is a gender thing or a caste thing. It is good manners and good form. I have made the joke with people when I have gone out with them and they ask, “Which of us is supposed to get the bill?” I say, “I have dead relatives who will come back and haunt me if I do not pick this tab up.” It is unacceptable.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: When it comes to people today, especially the younger generation, they are missing out on a lot of that. They are missing the community aspect, getting out, meeting your neighbors, having brisket barbecues with neighbors, getting to know people at the bank, coffee shops, and the local businesses you want to support.

A lot of that is being lost because the world wants you to see problems that are bigger than you are, problems so big that you cannot fix them. But you know what we can all fix? We can fix the things that happen in our own backyard, the things that occur in our own vicinity, and the people we actually encounter. Those are the moments to fix. If we all did that, we would change the world. You change the world by doing what you love and by affecting the people in and around your daily life. You do not need to solve the problems in China. I understand that some problems out there are severe, but we all go crazy when it seems like we cannot make change or affect change. Then people become depressed and start blaming something. That does not make sense in my head.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: We believe there is too much division in general. You cannot even have a conversation with people. There is immediate hatred or division, and people get so angry rather than discussing things. Based on the words and works of others, not even our own experiences, we lambast somebody or something. That is a telling sign.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: You have a very good point. It is not even firsthand experience. Our show is not political, so I do not want to get off in the weeds, but I hear people talk about China or any other country and say they make nothing but junk. I have worked in manufacturing, marketing, and sales for most of my career, and I have done a lot of imports. I have done things almost everywhere on the globe. I tell people all the time that it is not a lack of capability. I would put the engineering up against Germany. It comes down to what you tell them to make and what you inspect. I say they are actually geniuses at manufacturing.

If you set a widget down and ask them to make it, an honest engineer there will ask, “Do you want this, do you want better, or do you want worse? We can make anything you want. You just tell us what you want.” Then you have to inspect it. I always say, inspect what you expect. These are not bad people. They are different cultures and different systems. I have always told my kids that Mark Twain said it best: travel is fatal to bigotry, prejudice, and narrow-mindedness. Go talk to people and meet people. You will find that no matter where they are from around the world, you have a lot more in common than you have in difference.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: A little kindness goes a long way. Recognize that they are people just like you are. Talk to them. Learn about them. You might be surprised by what you find.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: We have been propagandized to the point where we do not really understand the truth anymore. A lot of information and reality has been hidden or sequestered. They abscond with the truth and leave us with division. Of course, that is a money maker for big companies, and people have bought into it without even knowing. Our younger generation is falling prey to a lot of that as well.

Things will change, but again, it gets back to being the shepherd of your own backyard and learning to be part of the community again. We need to get personal relationships back in our lives and be willing to step out of our comfort zones from behind the computer and meet the people who are actually part of that community.

I pose a question to open up the minds of most people. I think about this quite a bit as a soul, because I like to think of everybody as a soul. It makes us look at ourselves differently. Let us say you spent 30 years of your life, all of your energy, money, and time, developing something brilliant that could make you very wealthy. Then somebody else comes along and says, “I am creating something just like what you are doing.” Would you share the knowledge that took 30 years to find and develop freely, or would you expect some sort of remuneration or gain from that?

I have a fiancée, and we discuss this a lot. People will phone me and say, “Doug, help me with this business plan,” or, “I have a financial mechanism. Can you tell me how this might work?” That experience I have acquired can be given very easily. In some cases it is harder, but I do it without expectation. I do it without asking for anything, and I do it even knowing that someone could run with something that took forever to learn and make a lot of money while I do not. Yet I see the world where people who do that, who do not seek gain but are willing to give what they have learned freely, may provide something of greater benefit than looking at it only on a financial level.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: Here is a case in point. Doug brings up something I will divulge to your audience. When I first started this, it was out of curiosity and a desire to make certain information available to the public that they were not privy to, but I was. I wanted to make various information available on the internet and eventually make it interactive. When I built BBS Network, my brother came aboard about five years later. I had developed the machinery and hardware behind it all, and I wanted to patent everything. I wanted to send it to the patent office and earn a percentage from anybody else who decided to use the style of operation I had developed.

My twin brother fought me on it. He said, “No. You cannot patent anything. We are not going to do it. I will not join you as a partner if you do that. What we know, we are going to give away freely. I am never going to play that game.” He said if they could take what we had and do it better, great, more power to them. He was not going to make the information unavailable to others because they might use it or benefit from it. That was not the way he wanted to do this. He and I had quite a row over it.

There was nobody at the time who had put together systems the way I did in order to make an interactive talk-radio system. There was one company that formed before us, although we do not know if they started on the World Wide Web before us doing interactive talk shows, what we called internet radio at the time. But I developed these systems independently in my own way, and I wanted to trademark and patent them.

Later, someone who worked for another company came to do the books and talk to me about the books. This was a personal-care products company that we were a 50-percent owner of and had helped finance. The accountant came in, saw that I was putting together this interactive radio system, and could not believe it. The exuberance on this individual was profound. He said, “You are doing what I have always dreamed of doing. I would like to take what you are doing and start my own company in Los Angeles. I want to do it in a studio setting where people can walk in.”

That meant everything I had done and the way I had done it would become visible to the public, to the hosts and guests who came into the studio. They would see how I put together something no one else had done. My brother said, “Let him do it. Do not worry about patents.” We agreed. Eventually, that individual became our best friend. We have known him since 2008. He moved his family to the States, and I love the man dearly. That is how my brother felt about sharing information. It does not matter what it can make you. If it can benefit people and the world, there is no reason to keep it secret or make it a solitary financial gain.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: I agree with that. I have always said a rising tide raises all boats. Everything good in my career has come from going into something without looking at what is in it for me. It is amazing how much good has come when I go into something with no expectations. I had a really good friend and mentor, Michael Blowen, the entertainment writer for The Boston Globe and founder of Old Friends. He told me, “I do not say no to anything. If somebody wants me to do something, I do it.” He said he used to analyze and question everything, but once he started just going into things and doing them, it opened so many doors. So much good came from it.

One of the things I picked up along the way was that we are purveyors of information. If we can share something and somebody else takes it further, it all works together and we all grow. Sometimes you cannot look at it as just, “What is in it for me?” Sometimes people do things in a selfless manner, and it benefits everybody.

For example, when we talked earlier about the thoroughbred industry, there was a well-known breeder by the name of Bull Hancock, owner of Claiborne Farm. He took it upon himself to import stallions into the United States, going back to the 1950s or 1960s, and began breeding horses in the United States because the bloodlines were becoming too narrow. He did this at a financial loss. There was no way he was going to recover what he was spending, but he knew he had to do it for the good of the breed. Stories like that are countless throughout history, where people step up and do things because they see a need, and in the end it benefits everybody, including them.

For anybody just joining us, this is Hollywood and Horsepower, and we are joined by Don and Doug Newsom, founders of BBS Radio TV. Not to jump around too much, but I wanted to take you back. You guys are in your early teens, you are working, your farm has hit hard times, and your dad went into finance. Where did it go from there? How did you get from there to here? Where did you go to college, and where did things lead?

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: If that was not rough enough, it went from that to absolute chaos. It is a hard story. We have been through three situations where each time we should have made tens of millions, and it was taken from us. I can remember one time when we funded a company completely in the oil industry. It went public and came out trading at around a billion dollars in value. Their lawyers and everybody pulled us in and said, “We are never going to treat you like the prior companies. We are always going to love you. We are family here.” It was the whole rigmarole.

We were young, in our very early 20s, yet we had a lot of ability and were courted by big people and big names. We went to work and did what we did. Then, when it was payday and we thought we were going to make tens of millions, the lawyers sat there and looked at us and said, “We are going to screw you out of all your money, and there is nothing you are going to be able to do about it.”

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: That was almost the precursor to BBS Radio and how it all started. It was after that meeting.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: It happened twice to us. Another deal was similar. When the lawyers brought us in, they had a room full of moneyed people around a big table. They basically said, “You are not going to get your $30 million.” We sued and settled for about 10 percent, which was about $3 million. These were the sort of scenarios we went through, one after the next. Not at the same time, but we also went through two fires and one flood. It was biblical in nature. It was a lot to handle.

We have been through the wringer up and down, yet we still have not lost our sense of responsibility or our desire to help the world. Our belief system is not specifically Buddhist or Christian or any single belief system. It is more universal and encompassing. We kind of believe that everything is connected at some level, and as a result, if you affect something outside yourself, at some level you are still affecting yourself. So it is best to affect everything on a positive level. That belief system guides us.

There was a lot of money involved, and for some reason the people my dad put us in touch with were players. They played us. They had the might, moxie, desire, and connections, and we could not fight that. We did not have the means to fight that kind of power coming at us. Those depressing circumstances were really the precursor to BBS Radio TV, because some of the people we had met were involved in every industry, from space and astronauts to technology companies, trucking, wireless products, and more.

When you deal with powerful people, especially when you are young and naive, and when you were brought up to believe that a handshake meant everything and that you kept your word above anything, those people recognize that quickly. We were taught that it is better to be owed than to owe, so you are always giving and never receiving. They used that, and it led to dark moments, quick growing-up moments, and very depressing times. Some of the people I had met communicated with us, and some were in various segments of government, intelligence, contracting, and related fields. During that time, I thought people out there really did not know the truth or how things worked. I felt that the truth was being denied and people were not getting the full story of anything. I felt as if everything was a lie.

That led me to the journey of bringing the unbringable, so to speak, to the public. That is why we have a foundation where we do not censor and never will censor. We do not scrape information and sell it. We are still very private. We respect people and their information. But a lot of information that was not available to the public should have been. It was being closed down for various reasons, and I never understood those reasons. So that is how I laid out our policy when I started this. I developed a forum that would not be censored, where people could say what they wanted. It did not matter where they came from, what walk of life, what belief system, how they felt politically, what job they had, or what credentials they held. I wanted a safe place where they could speak without fear of reprisal, without being booted off the network, and without having their voices quieted. It has been a journey, and it has been a journey of love ever since.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: I will add one thing. When you are young and have a lot of energy, and your brain is filled with information, you may look at things differently than other people. What Doug and I believed in was the idea or the product. The companies that came to us had great ideas, life-changing ideas in some cases, world-changing ideas. We went after those projects because we thought they would make a difference. What we did not know, and sadly what my father did not teach us, was that people were more important than product.

If you go into a business, look at the people in that business, not just what they are trying to do. Good people can turn something bad into something successful, but bad people can take something really good and corrupt it. We did not learn that lesson when we were boys, and I wish we had. It would have stopped a lot of the craziness. We worked on the idea and did not look closely enough at the people. Ultimately, it was the people who hurt us.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: There is also something to be said for not giving up on people. I have had similar experiences. I have had people who really took advantage of me. I think sometimes people target people who are energetic and have a lot of ideas because they think they can take advantage of them. But someone once told me, “For every person who does that, do not focus on that. Keep doing what you do, and good will come from it.” Maybe I am naive, but I still believe that.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: I do too.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: I do too.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: My dad told me one time, when I was going through a tough situation where I had been taken advantage of, “You are paying tuition.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “You are getting a life lesson. It might be an expensive life lesson, but you are paying tuition. You are getting an education.” He was right.

It is hard, and it is also hard not to carry that to the next situation. I have always had to remind myself that this person had nothing to do with that person. I really try to judge each person on their own. I pound this into my kids. I have a son who is 23, getting ready to be 24, and a daughter who is 19. Great kids. I tell them always to judge a person on who they are. Never judge a person by religion, skin color, race, or anything else. Judge them on who they are. If a person is evil, he is evil no matter who he is. If a person has a good heart and is kind, that matters too, no matter who he is.

That was the premise of this show. I like listening to people, and I like learning. I learn from everybody. I love hearing people’s stories and how they came to be. That has always intrigued me, and it is amazing how much I have learned from people from all walks of life. I really appreciate people, and I try to keep that centered.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: That is why we get along with you so well, to be honest. We love this business, and it is people like you who give us faith again, real faith in society and people. My dad used to say you meet only a handful of people you can truly trust, and you will count them all on one hand. In this business, I have found that is not true. There are many people out there who are pillars. They have hearts of gold and the right soul. It has been a privilege to be part of that. It has changed me and my brother. We laugh a lot, we have a lot of joy, and it is an adventure that allows us to get up in the morning feeling great.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: That is a good example. As Doug said, you need that sense of community, and BBS has become a community. As you know, we are all very different. My show is much different than a lot of the other shows on the network, but there is a community there. There is common ground and respect. I respect what other people do. I may not always understand everything they do, and I may not always agree with everything they do, but I still respect them, their shows, and their craft. That creates a community in itself.

Going back, what brought you guys to the United States?

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: That is a great question. We were about nine years old, roughly. We had lost the ranch and ended up in a very poor area of British Columbia, in the Vancouver area. My mother and father decided it was time to move to the United States. We did not really have a choice; we were too young. This was in 1977. We moved to the United States and landed just over the border, about 10 or 15 minutes from the Canadian-U.S. border in Washington State.

We ended up in a wonderful town we all fell in love with called Ferndale, just north of Bellingham. We lived there for the better part of our younger lives. We went to Riverdale Elementary in Canada, and when we moved to the U.S., we started elementary school in Ferndale. We went through middle school and high school there, and then ended up in university down in the Tacoma-Seattle area at Pacific Lutheran University.

It really started from that beautiful town of Ferndale. That is why we eventually ended up in Paradise, California, because it reminded us of that hometown feeling. When I had four kids and we were living in Texas, with a lot going on, I decided to move to a small town in California. That is why we ended up in Paradise. We were there for about 12 years before the fire wiped us out. After a couple of years of living in California after the fire and moving around, we finally moved back to Texas. So we have lived in Washington, Texas, and California, and have gotten a feel for the lay of the land. They all have their differences. I love the West Coast, and I love Texas. Everything is big here in Texas, of course.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: What brought you from the Northwest to Texas?

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: Opportunity. We met somebody who wanted to start an oil company. We sat down at a table over a napkin and drew up the plans to finance and start it. We were in California at the time, and he said it would be best if we moved to Texas. There was nothing holding us back, so we moved to Texas and started financing the oil company. Eventually, we had drilling rigs, workover rigs, crews, and everything that comes with that.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: Everything went wrong. Everything you touched was thousands of dollars, and everything went wrong. We drilled 23 wells. We actually drilled into somebody else’s hole. How is that possible? We hit gushers that we then had to shut in because we did not have the capacity to handle the oil coming out of the ground. When we shut in the wells, we lost them. We had rejected piping, collapsed tools, tools lost in the hole while trying to drill them out, and destroyed casing. We probably encountered almost every bad event in that industry that is humanly possible. This was when oil was under $10 a barrel, back in the early 1990s. It did not prove fruitful.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: At the same time, we were building another company, a cosmetic company, and they said, “Move to California. We need your help too.” So while Don was traveling up to Paradise, I was going down to Los Angeles. That was also part of why we moved back to California.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: For those just joining us, this is the Hollywood and Horsepower show, and we are joined by Don and Doug Newsom, founders of BBS Radio TV. For anybody who does not know, they are twin brothers. Have you guys always lived close to each other?

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: We have been like two peas in a pod. We have lived together almost all our lives, gone to the same jobs, worked together, gone to school together, and started our own businesses together after our mother and father passed away. We have always been extremely close. We are of a similar mind and vein. We each have strengths and weaknesses, but we have learned to meld together very well. It has been a real plus for me, because what you miss, fail to understand, or do not comprehend, the other is readily available to explain.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: I have to be honest. I feel like it is an honor that you guys have joined me, and I feel fortunate that I was able to be part of the network.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: We love you, Mark. We love you, my friend. We love your soul.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: Thank you. You guys are rolling in what you do. You were in cosmetics and oil. Is this about the time BBS started, or was BBS already going?

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: We were in Simonton, Texas at the time. We were renting a home there, and things went south in the oil business. The big payday did not pay off, and we ended up broke again. Some of the people I had met were interesting people, but I was very depressed. When you lose a lot of money through your own ignorance and naivety, it is a hard pill to swallow. It got to a point where you are so personally depressed that you do not know what you are going to do, or where to go from there. You lose the meaning behind life.

I had pulled over about half a mile from the home we were renting. It was after the meeting where we realized we were not going to get anything, or very little. I pulled off to the side of the road in deep thought. I did not know what I was going to do or where to go from there. At that moment, some very strange things happened, some paranormal things, let us say.

Those paranormal events led me on a journey for the next 12 years that I cannot explain. It involved things that would make me sound like a crazy person if I really divulged them. Let us just say it had a lot to do with some of the things now breaking mainstream. Those things gave me the understanding and feeling that I had a real purpose and that I was truly loved. The various things that happened throughout my life brought new people to me. Those people started to explain some of the things that were occurring, why they were occurring, and gave me greater understanding. Then more paranormal events happened, almost on a daily basis, or at least it felt that way. It was radical, and it changed me fundamentally.

That led into BBS Radio, because it changed me so much that I wanted to share that and other information that was not readily available to the public at the time. It was all being dismissed as fabrication or mind candy, but I knew what was. I wanted to allow the public to share in that.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: You wanted to give a voice that was uncensored. Did you guys ever host a show of your own? Is that where it started?

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: In a way, it first started with me talking with somebody. We had discussions on the phone because of this paranormal activity. This person was involved in various divisions within government, more intelligence-oriented divisions. We had discussions, and during some of those discussions I said it would be wonderful if people could hear the truth from someone who knew.

They were reticent at first because of their position and what they could or could not say, but eventually, after several months of continuous conversations, they agreed that some of the material could be talked about. I facilitated a way to put those conversations onto the World Wide Web, a bulletin-board system as the World Wide Web was forming. People heard it and wanted to call in. They wanted to add their two cents. I thought I could do that, so I eventually created a way for people to call in, and that made it interactive. That led to more and more systems that evolved into what we are now.

It was the desire to get those conversations, the ones I was having and the ones other people were chiming in on, into a public forum where others could gain insight. Maybe they would not have to feel like I felt, or like others have felt going through similar situations. That can lead to true growth, because adversity is where you grow. The more adversity you encounter and overcome, the more growth there is. I truly believe that.

The darkness is the teacher. If we can have gratitude and bless those situations instead of carrying animosity, anger, and fear, then real growth occurs. For me, it was soul-changing. I have never been the same since. I understand now that a lot of people wonder why the world always attacks them, why they are in the worst position, why their life seems worse than their neighbors’, or why they always have bad luck and never good luck. It turns out, in my view, those people are ready for greater growth. They came to hone in on the harder aspects. They have the bigger boulders and harder things to overcome because they are ready for it. They have asked for that. You have to look at it as something to be grateful for rather than something destructive.

It is a spiritual thing. My brother and I feel that we are very spiritual. Growth is of utmost importance because we are here for a short time, and growth is really what you are striving for.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: That is a key point. Another thing I have noticed in my own life, and people close to me have told me this, is that sometimes people who are very genuine, kind, and good-hearted assume everyone else is too. So you go into things feeling that other people will treat you the same way you would treat them, and it does not always work that way. But as my dad said earlier, you are getting an education. It is growth. You cannot give up. You have to keep moving forward. Walt Disney said it best: keep moving forward. When he was building Disney World and everyone came to him with problems, his standard answer was, “Keep moving forward.” Never stop growing and never stop learning. Around here, we imagine and we grow.

I have always tried to keep that mindset. There are adversities in life, and everybody has them. Sometimes you do not understand what they are for, but you just have to keep being kind to people and keep being open. I believe good things come from that.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: Never giving up is the key to life. There is no reason to give up. None.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: It is tough for some people, though. I understand that. I have been through some pretty dark times in my life, and I understand how people get there. That is one of the reasons we support No Fallen Heroes, because I believe in what they do. Their biggest focus is suicide prevention, especially for veterans and first responders, for people who feel there is no hope. As you say, do not give up. Keep moving.

That brings us up to modern day with BBS Radio. I do not want to get out of here without pointing out that there is a campaign going on right now, a GoFundMe. Could you talk a little bit about that, where BBS is today, and what is next? I know there are big things coming, and I know you may not want to talk about all of it, but please share what you are comfortable sharing.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: Thank you. The GoFundMe is a little campaign we started so we could pay some of our credit lines. As a corporation, we have credit lines, and we are going through money like water, unfortunately, especially now because we are developing whole new systems, putting new software in place, and creating new tools. Your audience and others are going to see this sometime this month. We are hoping to roll out a whole new system, website, and AI systems incorporated into it. That will be the evolution of our network.

We are going to have two separate sites. The current one will always be active, and the newer one will be much more modern, user-friendly, and full of new tools. It will be for current broadcasters and will gear a lot more toward video distribution, video broadcasting, and podcasting, although it will still have audio. It is going to be built for what we have not done in the past: broadcasting and distribution of video, with the tools that go along with that. BBSRadio.com will remain, and BBSRadioTV.com will be the new system. It will work in tandem with our updated app, which will be part of the new system.

The campaign helps cover a little bit of the credit payments we have. Do we need to raise the money? We would like to, because my brother and I use our own money, and it is tough when you do not really make anything and you are always upgrading. We are trying to be a big boy while we are short guys, so we are little boys trying to wear big-boy pants that do not quite fit. We are always trying to establish ourselves because of the way we were brought up. We think large, and we are always putting a lot of money, time, and effort into development and systems.

We might bite off more than we can chew because of that grandiose mindset, but that is what we are trying to do now. We are trying to be at the top of our game and show others that we know what we are doing. We know podcasting and broadcasting. We know what talk-show hosts need and want, and we want to give it to them in a way no one else has done. We think we have developed a situation where that is possible. We are going to be rolling that out this year. To us, it is incredible, but we will let people decide.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: I can speak from the other side of the table. As a host, you guys are amazing. You have taken me further than I ever thought I could go. In three years of the show, to have it where it is and continuing to grow, for a little show that is basically about absolutely nothing, that means a lot. People ask me what I am most proud of, and I say Jerry Seinfeld thought he had a show about nothing. This is a show about absolutely nothing. We talk, and it continues to grow and gain momentum. I really credit you guys for that. You may say you are smaller people, but you will always be 10 feet tall to me.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: Mark, you are too kind. Truly, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: You take a little bit of effort from me and make it look monumental.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: It really takes a great host, and your approach of developing the behind-the-scenes story of the people you interview is beautiful to us because you do it so well. I have been fortunate enough to hear your interviews. That is why I wanted my brother and me to be on your program, because of the way you bring out the behind-the-scenes story. I appreciate your show more than you know, Mark, and I love having this opportunity.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: It is truly an honor to have you guys, and it is an honor to be on this network. I know I am a small piece of this network, but it is an honor to be part of it. It has been a great experience. You teach me things all the time, and I still do not know nearly what I should. Thankfully, you make up for that and help get things done that are beyond me. Doug, I know you do a lot that I do not see, and that nobody else sees. It is amazing how many things this network does to help further the show, to get it out there, and to get things to drop on different networks like Apple, Google, Spotify, and Audible. That is not as easy as it sounds. You make it look easy, but I know there are hours, days, and weeks that go into getting it done. I cannot thank you enough for everything you have done for me.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: Thank you, Mark. You have to love it because it comes with challenges. They say it takes a community of knowledge, and it really does. We have to accept our limitations because there is so much knowledge needed to make everything run smoothly. We become dependent on those who have knowledge. You hope you bring on the best people who can do their jobs well, and you try to oversee them as best you can. More often than not, they are so specialized that overseeing them is difficult. If you do not know code and have to figure out what a coder does, what do you do?

In this case, we have servers, coders, hardware, machinery, data centers, hubs, other companies, APIs, and outside systems. It is a lot. You really have to love this business. My brother and I do. We get what we want from it, which is information and the ability to help people. We benefit from it so much that our expectations are not high in terms of what we gain financially. Our gain is almost daily in terms of what we learn and how we help. I say to my brother that if someone wants to compete against us in this industry, they had better be prepared to work forever for nothing, because that is ultimately what it takes. Can I give you my information freely? Sure. Do you want this whole setup? Are you prepared to lose millions, lose time, and dedicate yourself to such a cause? You had better be, because the rewards at the end of the day are the rewards of getting information out there, helping people, changing lives, and giving people aha moments. When you can affect people at that level, that is such a high. That is what we work for. I can honestly say I would not want to be in anything else, and I am sure my brother would not either. It is because of people like you as well, Mark, and I truly appreciate you and your listening audience.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: I appreciate that very much. For me, this has been a dream I never thought I would have. Over the years, several times in my career, when I was working in sales and marketing, mostly for manufacturing companies or representing them, people would say, “You should think about doing broadcasting.” I always made the joke that my mother said I had a face for radio. But I never got there, and I did not know where to start.

It was another gentleman who guided me to you guys. He said, “You should talk to Don and Doug.” That was really how this became. I had been a guest on several other networks and enjoyed it, but I always thought what made it interesting was asking questions that the average person would ask. I feel like a lot of people enjoy learning what they do not know about somebody, and I enjoy that myself. This is a joy to do. It is fun for me. I love hearing people’s stories. I feel like I have the best seat in the house because I am right up front, across from you guys.

Speaker 3 – Douglas Newsom: You pry open the clam and find the pearl, Mark.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: It is really fulfilling for me, and I feel like it is growing into something bigger than myself, much like I am sure you guys feel about BBS. I heard someone say one time that we are stewards of this. It is up to us to take care of it and pass it on to the next person so they can continue it. That is kind of how I look at it.

Speaker 2 – Donald Newsom: I love that. I am with you. Truly with you.

Speaker 1 – Mark Otto: I cannot thank you gentlemen enough for joining me today. I really appreciate it. It has truly been an honor to have you on the show.

Folks, take a chance and take a minute to look at BBSRadio.com. If you scroll to the bottom, you will find a GoFundMe page. Take a look at that. If you cannot do a lot, do what you can. We always appreciate everything you can do. This is not the purpose of the show, but I want to promote it because it is important. What Don and Doug Newsom, our guests today on Hollywood and Horsepower, have done is remarkable.

I know you guys talk a lot about the next steps and becoming even greater, but I have to tell you, and I do not have the experience you guys do, but from what I have experienced, I do not think there is anybody doing what you are doing currently, let alone at the next level. What you do, at least for my show and I am sure for all the other shows on the network, is remarkable. You have taken it to the next level for me, and I cannot thank you enough. I appreciate everything you do.

This has been Hollywood and Horsepower with the story behind the story. Today’s guests were Don and Doug Newsom from BBS Radio TV. We were brought to you today by Tony’s Steak and Seafood in Lexington, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Bowling Green, Kentucky. If you have an opportunity, please go check them out. You will thank us. Tony always says there is always room at his table for one more. I always say it is not dinner; it is an experience. You owe it to yourself to go.

We also always support No Fallen Heroes and Old Friends Equine at oldfriendsequine.org. We really appreciate everything you guys have done here at BBS Network. We want to ask all of our guests to take a look at the website BBSRadio.com. Scroll down and look at the GoFundMe page. If there is anything you can do, please help out. This continues to grow and continues to give a voice to people who need a voice in an uncensored and unedited way. If we know anything from the world today, we need more honest voices. I appreciate you joining us today, and we will see you again next week on Hollywood and Horsepower.

Speaker 4 – Intro / Outro Voice: So stay awhile. You are in the driver’s seat, where the road and the rhythm finally meet. Stick around. You never know who is next, and trust me, they have a story worth hearing.