Program Spotlights Businesses
As the video technicians fiddled with the camera, trying to get audio, Patricia Levi smiled at the restaurant chain president and apologized. “This is our second show,” said Levi, referring to “Business Beat.” “We’re still getting used to it.”
In a large office stocked with vintage golf balls and clubs and scattered with paraphernalia from a new restaurant venture, Hof’s Hut President Craig Hofman shifted in his chair uncomfortably and responded with a tight smile.
Levi continued her friendly chatter.
“Of course, [co-host] David Dugan and I hate to look at ourselves in it,” she said, referring to seeing one’s image captured on video.
The community access business show, sponsored by the Los Alamitos Area Chamber of Commerce, is not exactly Regis and Kathy Lee. It is, however, entertaining, informational and very home-grown. It gives residents insight into how local business ventures started, how they are succeeding and why they are based in Los Alamitos.
The show, produced and broadcast by Time Warner, is aired on Channel Six, Mondays and Saturdays, at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. LATV, the local television access channel, will also air the show in the near future on another channel. This particular episode will be shown beginning May 1 in 13 cities, including Los Alamitos, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Seal Beach and Fountain Valley. A new episode will replace it after three months.
Two chamber businesses are profiled for each half-hour show and the last segment, about 10 minutes long, is spent discussing and tackling a city or countywide issue.
Connie Pedenko, CEO of the chamber, says the show is not an advertising tool for local businesses but an educational vehicle. Before she came to Los Alamitos five years ago, she was vice president of operations at the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce where a similar show was produced. That particular show, however, lacked the feature angle that makes it “exciting,” she said. “Our goal is to educate the business community, particularly the business entrepreneurs that are struggling.”
The secrets to success, she said, include having a vision of the future and not giving up. The first show profiled Frieda’s, an exotic fruit wholesaler, and California Wok, an Asian restaurant.
The first topic of discussion was the proposed commercial airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
Meanwhile, at the Hof’s Hut corporate headquarters behind one of his restaurants on Los Alamitos Boulevard, the audio issue was resolved after about 15 minutes. Hofman told Levi how his parents began the chain in Long Beach. The first restaurant, he said, is still in Belmont Shore and opened the day he was born in 1951.
Looking into the camera, Hofman told how two years ago, they left Long Beach and moved their headquarters to Los Alamitos.
“We wanted to be in a central area . . . When this building became available, we converted it to offices.”
Ana Cholo-Tipton can be reached at (714) 966-5890
