Live from Raymore! Foxwood Springs senior volunteers run TV station

By Kathy Feist

It’s 8:45 a.m. 

Eighty-eight-year-old Stuart McIntosh raises five fingers from a sound room to start a countdown. “Five…four..” Silently, McIntosh’s last three fingers slowly close into a single point.

“Good morning Foxwood Springs!” says Scott Lewis. 

FSTV Channel 1981 is on the air. 

Thus begins a 45-minute segment broadcasted live for Foxwood Springs Senior Living residents on their closed-circuit TV system. 

On this particular day, Lewis, a former comedian and TV/radio personality, will be interviewing the new director of housekeeping at Foxwood Springs. But first, he reads the day’s events and birthdays. 

Eighty-two-year-old Linda Moore stands nearby manning the cameras.

Foxwood Springs in Raymore is one of only a few senior living centers across the country that has its own in-house television broadcasting station. Since 1980, it has been self-run by volunteers who reside on campus. 

Twice a week, guests from in and outside of Foxwood Springs are interviewed by various TV hosts. Some of those guests might include Raymore city personnel, members of an in-house brass band, or a retired world-wise professor. Programming also includes monthly updates from Foxwood staff. 

“It’s a great way to communicate directly with the residents,” says one of those regulars, Nancy Miller, the center’s life enrichment coordinator who gives reports on “Nancy’s News.” “It’s also a way for the residents to become acquainted with each other in the community.” 

The population at Foxwood is around 500 residents.  Built in the late 1970s, the sprawling 138-acre complex consisted of 148 apartments, 246 homes and a 122-bed nursing center. Daily communication became a challenge. 

In 1980, organizers built an in-house TV studio to help address the issue. “By having closed circuit TV, they had a means to communicate to residents on a regular basis,” Miller explains.

FSTV aired with its own unique contraption called the Rolling News.

To keep it simple, a camera was trained on a wooden contraption about the size of a cabinet drawer. Hand- or type-written notices were placed on a belt run by a rotisserie motor, much like a teleprompter. “It was a very primitive way of providing information, but ingenious for the time,” says Miller.  In 1998, the Rolling News was replaced with computer digitized notices that roll 24 hours a day. 

When the notices aren’t rolling, the televised broadcast appears on Monday and Wednesday mornings, followed by a 20-minute taped broadcast of Foxwood’s Fit & Fun exercise class. The taped shows are repeated at 3:15 p.m. and 9 p.m.   

As the new program manager, Lewis schedules shows, coordinates hosts, and comes up with show ideas. “There are so many stories here,” he says. “There are so many people who have done so many interesting things.”

Lewis is one of those people. 

He moved into a garden home with his parents in 2018 to help care for them. Both have since passed. At the age of 62, he chose to stay in Foxwood Springs. “I have always had an affinity for older folks,” he says. 

Lewis was a natural choice when named program manager. He has an extensive career in broadcasting, starting as a radio dj in the army, majoring in broadcast journalism from Central Missouri and working as a videographer and broadcaster for KMIZ in Columbia, MO. He then followed a path into stand-up comedy.  

On Jan. 1, he took over the programming position from Rosemary Young who had found love at Foxwood, married, and happily transitioned into a role as occasional TV host. 

Unlike Lewis, most volunteers at the station have no background in broadcasting. Multi-media operator McIntosh is a retired electrical engineer. Camera operator Woods worked in quality control at a food manufacturing plant. Technical advisor, Dave Carr, age 70, is a former English teacher. 

“It’s frustrating at times,” says McIntosh who controls the sound board and places computer images into the broadcast. “But it helps me to focus.”

McIntosh gets to relax when he presents Friday movie nights on FSTV. This Friday he has chosen “Out of Africa.” 

Derrick Minter, Executive Director since Oakdale Seniors Alliance purchased the property three years ago, says he’s impressed with the residents’ work at the TV station. 

“The volunteers do so many different shows to tie the community together,” says Minter, who appears on “Minter’s Minutes” once a month. “It’s a great asset to the community.”