[Editor’s note: You can view and listen to FAIRtax Power Radio {and streaming video} every week on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. Read this week how it all began and how you can listen to, and view, this informative program.]
THE FAIRTAX GUYS
PART 1 OF 2: HOW FAIRTAX POWER RADIO [AND INTERNET TV] ALL GOT STARTED
By Bob Paxton
One of the two FAIRtax Guys
I don't remember the exact date, but I believe we started [FAIRtax Power Radio] around four years ago. A gentleman named Greg Martin posted on Facebook that he was looking for content for a conservative leaning internet talk radio station. I got back to him asking if he'd be interested in a show promoting the FAIRtax. The logistics were such that we could not go on live, so I recruited FAIRtax-er Ron Maiellaro to do a weekly program that we recorded and sent to Greg's Leading Edge Radio Network (“LERN”).
Left, Ron Maiellaro, Right, Bob Paxton
Not long after we started on LERN, they said they could no longer run our show for free and that we'd have to pay for the time. With no budget and not much to indicate that we were reaching very many people with our message, we ended our relationship with them.
At that point, we went looking for a way to publish our program ourselves. Former AFFT Board Member, Autry Pruitt [a New York FAIRtax-er at the time] turned us on to spreaker.com. That worked well until a friend of Ron's, and a big FAIRtax supporter, Tony McKnight, said he was buying a couple of radio stations in Gainesville, Florida, and asked if we'd like to be on his stations.
Tony and Sherrie McKnight
We assumed Tony meant over-the-air radio stations, but we came to find out he was really talking about streaming video over the internet. We met with Tony and his staff last May, and our first digital TV show aired on June 6, 2018. Now FAIRtax Power Radio is a weekly video streaming program that airs at 11:30 AM Eastern time every Wednesday. Generally, we go to Big Daddy Studio in Gainesville every other week. We do one show live and then record another one to play the following week. The programs streams on the FAIRtax Official Facebook page and on the subscription service www.xcluded.tv. The audio portion is still available as a podcast on the Spreaker platform.
[Next week learn from Bob how he and Ron prepare shows every single week.]
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Bob Paxton at the board
Bob Paxton’s telecommunications talent comes from his start as a radio DJ working at various stations in North Carolina and Florida (WMDE, Greensboro NC; WTIK, Durham NC; WMOP, Ocala FL; WRYO, Crystal River FL). Bob learned that radio is fun, but that fun doesn't pay the bills. He transitioned to computer programming, working as an IBM mainframe computer programmer for Central Florida Community College in Ocala and for NEFEC (Putnam County School Board) in Palatka. Bob retired in 2011.
Bob is originally from Winston Salem North Carolina. Bob moved to Ocala, Florida in 1973 and married his wife, Vickie, in 1976. The couple has a daughter, Lisa, who is a respiratory therapist at Shands Hospital in Gainesville.
Just to give you an idea how multifaceted Bob is, Bob is a NASCAR enthusiast as well as a devotee of “railfanning” (especially steam locomotives), bowling (197 league average), and skydiving. Bob has been the PA announcer for the athletic events at the College of Central Florida (formerly Central Florida Community College) since 1986.
Bob is active in the Ocala Church of God of Prophecy as part of the music team. He is a southern, country and gospel music singer and songwriter.
Bob became interested in the FAIRtax from listening to radio talk show host, Neal Boortz. Upon his retirement, Bob volunteered in the Florida FAIRtax Educational Association.
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CALL FOR PICTURES AND WRITEUPS
We need MORE of you to send in pictures and news. If you have anything to share, please send your material to me at jim.bennett@fairtax.org, or text me at (908) 578-4975, or fax me at (908) 598-2888. When others see your activity, they are inspired, and the process snowballs. When the process snowballs, Congress Members and Senators and, yes, even the President start to listen.