(First official opening day in 1997 | Photo courtesy of Visual Thinking Northwest)
Central Oregon’s longest-running media production company announces the completion of 27 years serving corporate, retail and nonprofit businesses.
“When we started in 1997, we were just trying to solve problems for local clients,” says Kevin Raichl, executive producer. “They were going out-of-market to do TV spots that weren’t doable here, and long-form video was just becoming a tool.”
Raichl and his wife Natalie were the operations manager and program director, respectively, at local station KTVZ-21, when the station was sold, and were informed their jobs were in jeopardy. Instead of following the typical broadcasting career path by moving to a larger market, their outdoor background and a four-year-old son made their decision an easy one. “We didn’t want the hassle and stress of ‘the big city,’ so we got a business loan through Deschutes County and Visual Thinking was launched.”
Because of their expertise with a state-of-the-art camera and editing equipment, business quickly took off. Over 27 years, they’ve hit many milestones:
- Four different broadcast series on local and national networks, including a series on the U.S. Olympic Shooting Team
- Thousands of local and regional TV and radio commercials
- Freelance video projects for numerous major clients, like Anderson Cooper, Golf Channel, UPS, Discovery and Publishers Clearinghouse.
- Still rolling after three economic downturns, a housing crash and a pandemic
“They (Publishers Clearinghouse) really do give away all that money,” laughed Raichl. “When we surprised the winner in Medford with a check for the Grand Prize, he passed out.”
