Behind the Scenes of Local TV: Sam Lesante Jr. on Creativity, Family, and AI in Media

In this episode of The Painterly Life Podcast, host Shannon Grissom sits down with Sam Lesante Jr., seasoned television producer and president of SSPTV, to explore the world of local television and the creative journeys behind the screen.

Sam shares his early experiences in TV production and reflects on how family support and collaboration shaped his career. He also dives into the unique challenges of working with family, balancing creative vision with financial realities, and maintaining trust and connection with the local community through engaging programming.

The conversation also explores the evolution of media production, including the impact of technology and AI on TV. Sam emphasizes that when used thoughtfully, these tools can enhance storytelling and production quality, while community engagement remains at the heart of successful local TV.

Aspiring creatives and media professionals will find practical advice, inspiration, and insights into navigating a career in television, fostering creativity, and building meaningful connections with audiences.

Key Takeaways

• Family support is crucial in pursuing creative dreams
• Working with family can be seamless and rewarding
• Balancing creativity with financial constraints is challenging but essential
• Local TV has a unique appeal and builds trust within the community
• Technology and AI are transforming media production
• Engaging the community is vital for successful local shows
• Aspiring creatives can gain valuable guidance and motivation

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in storytelling, media production, and the evolving landscape of local television.

Chapters

• 0:00 Igniting Creativity and Inspiration
• 1:35 Growing Up in Television
• 3:27 Family Dynamics in Business
• 5:15 Balancing Creativity and Finances
• 7:09 Local TV's Unique Appeal
• 8:42 The Evolution of a TV Career
• 10:29 Technological Changes in TV Production
• 12:21 The Role of AI in Media
• 14:09 Community Engagement Through Local Shows
• 15:55 Future Projects and Reality Shows
• 17:26 Advice for Aspiring Creatives

Transcript

Shannon Grissom (00:05)
Hi, I'm Shannon Grissom. Are you looking to ignite your creativity? Or how about be inspired by a steady stream of muses? Welcome to Painterly Life, the podcast that celebrates those who create, inspire, and innovate. So whether you're looking to spark your next big idea, reignite your passion, or simply soak in some creative energy,

This is the place for you. Painterly life, where every guest is a new muse, just for you.

Welcome to the Painterly Life podcast. I'm your host, Shannon Grissom. My guest today is Sam Lesante Sam has been making TV magic since he was a teenager, and now he's the guy running the whole show at SSP TV. Welcome, Sam.

Sam Lesante (01:08)
Hi, Shannon. Thanks for having me.

Shannon Grissom (01:10)
You're welcome. You know what? I noticed that you're a twin. I'm a twin too, and so is my husband.

Sam Lesante (01:16)
Okay, I didn't know that. That's cool.

Shannon Grissom (01:18)
Yeah. So do you guys have similar personalities?

Sam Lesante (01:22)
No, no, we're totally opposite actually. Yeah. My sister ⁓ is the more outspoken kind of, ⁓ I stay in the background a lot. Everyone says, boy, we didn't know Jeannine had a twin. They don't really know. I was like, that's fine. I like to keep it that way. to stay behind. I work behind the camera, so I usually like to stay behind and let them do their thing.

Shannon Grissom (01:49)
That's funny because my sister and I are similar. I'm more out in front and she's more in the background. So you've literally grown up inside a TV studio. and If somebody handed you a remote and said rewind to ⁓ your favorite moment in all these years, what would you pick?

Sam Lesante (01:56)
Okay, yeah.

⁓ I think one of the first memories I have was ⁓ my father. He started producing a show with Jack Palance's wife, Elaine. I don't know if you remember Jack Palance. Yeah, so they started producing. Jack was a family friend, so they started producing a show in the 90s called It's Time for Sammy and Elaine. And what they would do, they would travel all over the country.

Shannon Grissom (02:27)
I do. I love Jack Palance

Sam Lesante (02:42)
different locations and interview people like Telly Savalas, Michael Bell, Martin Landau, and I was like a teenager at the time so I got to go with them on ⁓ most of the shoots. So I got to not only see the actors and see my dad doing his thing but I got to see how it was made basically so that was kind of cool.

Shannon Grissom (03:07)
Well, that's amazing. What an amazing experience to have growing up. obviously, both your parents have encouraged your creativity. What are some of the biggest lessons that you got from them?

Sam Lesante (03:22)
I guess some of the biggest lessons would be just to follow your heart and dreams and don't give up. And if people say you can't, prove them wrong and say you can and show them how you can. And they've been very supportive and I really appreciate that.

Shannon Grissom (03:42)
Well, it's got to be, you know, just, you know, I think family harmony in a physical sense when you hear people singing, but also when they're working together, I don't think there's anything better than that to ⁓ bring something to fruition. So what's it like working with your family?

Sam Lesante (04:03)
It's, ⁓ I mean, I've been doing it for so long. It just seems like second nature. Like everyone says, how I wouldn't, would never be able to work with my dad or sister or mom. But I mean, it just, like you said, it just flows. Like you get into your different modes. Okay. So this is work mode. So we're going to do this. And then after that, we're like, Hey, let's go out to eat and talk about the day and you know, how's your daughter doing? And you know, it's just, it just clicks, you know.

Shannon Grissom (04:31)
Yeah, it sounds great. So now you've recently stepped into your father's role. How has that transition been?

Sam Lesante (04:40)
So

he's still CEO. I don't want to that right. Yeah, no, that's all right. I'm actually the president. it's just a, yeah. So, I mean, it's the same, I do the same stuff. I just have a little more say in some of the other business, like backend stuff, I guess you could say. Like he was always the money guy and he would always be the hire/ fire guy and ⁓ he would always have the last word.

on anything that came across the desk, but now he's starting to get me involved more in that too.

Shannon Grissom (05:18)
God, that's great. Yeah. It's it's do you find a challenge balancing your creativity with the left brain financial side of it?

Sam Lesante (05:28)
bit.

Yeah, it's tough because I still, I'm still the creative side wants to push more out and the financial side saying, well, we can't do that right now because ⁓ this this cost this much and this is this much. So it's good to have checks and balances with him still in the the mix of things telling me, okay, I see what you want to do here, but we kind of have to tone it down or yes, we can do that. So it's good to still have him.

in that position.

Shannon Grissom (06:00)
Well, what great to have the checks and balances and to be able to bounce things off of him. And so, you know, as you move forward, you're just going to be even more solid. what a great experience. So. Local TV has such a personal touch, right? Compared to just broad network shows, can you?

talk a little bit to that and you guys have been incredibly successful award winning your number one talk show. So how do you, what do you attribute that to.

Sam Lesante (06:39)
I think we just attribute to the fact that we, I mean, everyone asks like when they're saying like, how do you guys do it? We just we just do what we do. And if people watch it, we love it. I mean, we just tell tell it out. It is we try to make every show informative, a little bit of entertaining our local. We don't do a weekly.

We don't do a week night news anymore. We've switched it over since COVID and with social media coming out, Facebook, you know, all that everyone knows they're watching Facebook live as it happens. So we tried to turn it to where people could come on and talk about their community events or if there's someone in need in the community. we do also have a lot of medical shows that cover any everything from orthopedics, general health.

skin care, eyes, I mean, we've basically tackled every aspect and we also have joined with our local hospitals to do shows to introduce all the new doctors and the different ⁓ techniques that they're doing now. So I think it's just a matter of getting information out to the public. And I think that's what has kept us on and ⁓ what keeps people trusting us.

with our shows.

Shannon Grissom (08:07)
Yeah. Do you ever get stuck coming up with a new concept for a show?

Sam Lesante (08:14)
Um, not really. No, we, we get stuck with having too many concepts for shows. want, we want to put so many different shows out, but we just don't have the manpower or the time or the, money to do it. Cause I mean, it revolves around, you know, let's face it, it revolves around sponsorships and commercial ad time and all that stuff. So yeah, it's hard when we have an idea, but we, just have to table it for now.

Shannon Grissom (08:44)
Well, at least you have a bank of ideas for the future. that way. So how do you balance family life with, know, when you have your own business, it kind of gets all mixed together and it's like 24 seven. So how do you balance all of that?

Sam Lesante (08:48)
Yeah.

That's a good question. I should ask my wife that, but she's been great. I mean, we've been together since high school, so she kind of knows the whole process. And when I need to be here longer hours, she understands because she knows how passionate I am that I want to just make sure it's either like getting the finer details or having to stay longer to work on another project or...

going somewhere out of town to visit with people to talk about something. she's pretty responsive when it comes to that.

Shannon Grissom (09:44)
Where do you see the future? Where do you see you guys going?

Sam Lesante (09:48)
⁓ I think it's still local shows are still what people want to see, especially with all the streaming ⁓ services that are out now. I know there's great ⁓ national shows out, but people still miss the localness. So I still think local TV is where it's at. I mean, it doesn't mean

We wouldn't be working on any other projects. know we've talked about doing some documentaries. We've done some in the past on local towns and we just finished a reality show with a local couple that's actually on Amazon Prime. Yeah, so give a shout out. It's called Raising Dylan on Amazon Prime if you want to check that out. But yeah, I mean, we just keep doing what we're doing, I think.

Shannon Grissom (10:31)
Yay!

You guys are doing great. Thank you. You're welcome. ⁓ I'm thinking back to did you always know as a kid that you just wanted to stay in TV and work in that direction? Did you ever have any other things that you wanted to try or?

Sam Lesante (11:02)
Was it a straight path? No, I wanted to be a baseball player. Unfortunately, didn't work out. In high school, my dad, he started producing in 1984 a local talent show called Spotlight Talent Showcase. He invited me up to check it out, maybe to see if I was interested. We'd have local bands on or dance companies, singers, authors.

clowns, anyone who had a talent could come on the show. So I was able to watch him ⁓ do that show. And then he eventually had me helping him out running the teleprompter. We had to physically tape the papers together and put it on a board and scroll the the camera. So then, yeah, that were fun days. And then after I

was there for a couple of years. said, you know, why don't you co-host the show with me? And I was like, well, what am I going to do? He's like, well, why don't we create a segment for you? So he created a segment called Sammy Says. And that was where I would come on for like a minute or two and say, in this week's edition of Sammy Says, we'll see why toilets flush differently in Australia. You didn't have Google back then, right? So you had to go to the library, look it up.

write it down, put it on the prompter. So I would give like a little fact about that. And then there was another one called remembering yesterday where I'd say in this day in 1950, so and so happened and milk was this much and gas was this much. So he got, he got me involved. And then I also got to see how it was produced, obviously in the control room, just sitting by the director, watching them do their magic there. So I kind of got the bug, I guess you could say from there.

Shannon Grissom (12:55)
Wow. So has technology changed dramatically? mean, were you still doing linear editing when you first started or how has that all changed over the years?

Sam Lesante (12:55)
⁓ yeah.

So it was basically tape to tape. don't know if you're familiar with any of the formats, but it was like, you have the VHS tape or the more professional kind of like three quarter inch tape. Yeah, was very, and the cameras were like about 400 pounds, I think it was. So you had the camera strapped to you, had the deck, but yeah, technology definitely helped with minimizing ⁓ all that. It was definitely.

I could remember our first ⁓ nonlinear editor. was just like in awe of it and kind of afraid at first because I didn't understand. Like you could actually move stuff around on a computer and yeah, so it was very altering, mind altering for me. But once you got the hang of it, it was pretty cool.

Shannon Grissom (13:59)
So on the formats, where do you see technologically this going? Is AI a big factor in what you're doing?

Sam Lesante (14:10)
I think so, yes. ⁓ I've started dabbling with it just to do a couple like voiceover work or maybe if I have an idea just to help me get molded, crafted a little bit better, doing ⁓ some B-roll footage that you maybe couldn't find or your specific B-roll. know that sounds redundant, but...

Yeah, I think AI is gonna, it's here and it's, if you don't learn how to use it properly, it can definitely be hindrance. mean, everything's, there's always good and bad to everything. But I think for the most part, if you do it properly, it should ⁓ help you out in your field.

Shannon Grissom (15:00)
⁓ I found it to be tremendous, even with the episodes for the podcast, to be able to just get the transcript. mean, I mean, instead of trying to type that out. ⁓ man. And, know, I'm a one one man show here, so I don't know how I would do it if it wasn't for that kind of thing. So what role does your.

Sam Lesante (15:09)
yeah, exactly.

Right, yeah, that's a godsend.

Shannon Grissom (15:30)
your whole company play and keeping the community together.

Sam Lesante (15:36)
I think by our local shows, especially our community news that we run weekly now, which used to be our nightly news. We have a lot, like I said before, we have a lot of people on that come on and talk about the organizations, whether it be nonprofit or for profit. They talk about different events, if they're having fundraisers for people in the community who have had loss in their life or are battling certain diseases. So I think.

I think that's what keeps us centered on the community, as well as all the different shows like the medical shows that we put out to kind of give people information and keep them aware of what's going on in the medical field.

Shannon Grissom (16:24)
Yeah, I think you guys have an amazing balance of entertainment and information. So you guys do a great job of that. You're welcome. I want to go back to the creativity side of it. Do you find yourself getting lost when you're running camera and into a creative thing that you see? I mean, I know that I've done some shoots where I'm just...

Sam Lesante (16:32)
Thank you.

Shannon Grissom (16:52)
So excited about one little scene that I seem like. And the director's yelling at me to shoot something else. Does that ever happen to you?

Sam Lesante (17:02)
⁓ not, really. mean, our, shows are a little different than that. They're, they're more, sit down, talk, talking head kind of interview shows. But, ⁓ yeah, I mean, sometimes if I'm, we're in the process of doing a show, I might get an idea and try to like quickly like write it down so I don't forget. Yeah. I mean, it does, it does, ⁓ happen often.

Shannon Grissom (17:30)
So what do you do, having your own business and it is an incredible amount of work, what do you do to decompress or to fill your well?

Sam Lesante (17:44)
Not much, guess. Both my wife and I, we work a lot of hours, so we just basically work and then go home and just relax. maybe I'll hit the gym once in a while if I'm motivated. Go for a nice walk or something like that. Try to get outdoors a lot. Decompress like that. Get away from technology for a while.

Shannon Grissom (18:08)
Yeah, somebody was asking me, do I do? And ⁓ when I need to decompress, I need to not do. Sometimes it is just sitting on the couch and binge watching something because I just need to shut down. ⁓

Sam Lesante (18:25)
Yeah, you just

want to turn on something and just let your mind go, I guess you could say.

Shannon Grissom (18:30)
Yeah. Wow. So what what's exciting in the future? What's coming up for you guys?

Sam Lesante (18:37)
I think just, I mean, doing what we're doing is exciting. We have a couple of different shows like I talked about earlier that we have ⁓ on the plate, but we're trying to figure out how to get them on and maybe do some more documentaries, ⁓ maybe another reality show, who knows? mean, ⁓ the possibilities are endless, as they say.

Shannon Grissom (19:03)
Sounds like it. So the logistics for a reality shows, is there a lot more involved in that because it's not talking heads?

Sam Lesante (19:13)
I would think so. we don't do a lot of reality shows. so I know we probably do them a lot different than you would see like a national reality show because they have a lot more. They have a bigger production crew, bigger budget, obviously. So, I mean, I just try to think of what would the viewer want to see or we don't stage anything. know reality shows now are mostly scripted, even though they're called reality. I don't understand that, but.

All of our shows are non-scripted. just record ⁓ whatever is said or whatever they do. It could turn out entertaining or it could turn out to be a flop, but that's reality, right?

Shannon Grissom (19:58)
Great.

So where can people find you online?

Sam Lesante (20:05)
Our website is SSPTV.com that shows all of our services and our shows on there. And I'm on LinkedIn. I have a Instagram account and we have a TikTok page that we ⁓ keep up with occasionally too. Still starting to get into TikTok a bit. My daughter's hoping all that because she's always dancing and wanting me to do skits on her TikTok page.

Shannon Grissom (20:34)
That's fun getting the next generation involved. Well, if you could talk to your younger self about starting out, what advice would you give somebody who wants to get in your field? What's the main thing that you would want them to know?

Sam Lesante (20:38)
Right.

I guess it would be to ask questions, be motivated and also listen. Because people nowadays, some of the younger kids, they mean, let's face it, they think they know it all, but they don't. So like just stand back, listen, you know, and show that you want to be a part of this. You know, if you you show you're motivated, then

people will be more willing to ⁓ give you more opportunities, I think, and help you along the way.

Shannon Grissom (21:30)
That's great advice. Well, thank you. You have been incredibly inspiring, Sam. You're welcome.

Sam Lesante (21:37)
thank you. I appreciate it. It was

nice talking with you too. And I like watching all of the things that you do and all your posts. They're very inspiring. You're welcome.

Shannon Grissom (21:47)
Thank you.

Well, that's a wrap for Painterly Life. Please make sure to like, subscribe, and share so that I can make more episodes. Thank you, Sam. Thanks. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.

Sam Lesante (22:00)
Thank you Shannon, have a good day.