B.A.S.S. ownership partner Jerry McKinnis recently closed a deal whereby he and B.A.S.S. repurchased the JM Associates (JM) production company he founded. Remember that McKinnis earlier sold the company to production giant Career Sports & Entertainment (CSE). Although CSE is based in Atlanta, Ga., JM continues to be based in Little Rock, Ark. where it was founded.
McKinnis and by extension JM is a founding property in fishing. From the original Fishin' Hole, through the filming of FLW Outdoors and then B.A.S.S. competition and programming, plus saltwater staples like Spanish Fly and MadFin Shark along with digital creative, JM remains front and center in the world of broadcast fishing.
But now the company is owned by B.A.S.S.
Here's a brief Q&A with McKinnis about the repurchase.
BassFan: Is it now correct to say that B.A.S.S. programming will be produced in-house?
McKinnis: Yes, that's right. B.A.S.S. is bringing everything in-house. Through all those years, it was being done by JM either for B.A.S.S. or ESPN, and now it'll be done by B.A.S.S. itself. I guess the two companies will be called the same name for a while, but I think we're going to gradually just get away from the JM name. I think we all came to the conclusion that JM has an awfully good name in both the production and fishing world, so there's no sense in trying to cut that off right away. It'll be thought of as JM doing the production work, but we'll gradually, when we think the time's right, get rid of the JM (name).
Does this mean that B.A.S.S. now owns all its television content that JM produced, such as the Bassmaster Classic footage, B-roll stuff and outtakes from the past decade?
Yes, B.A.S.S. does own everything that was shot in the past. We own all the Bassmaster Classic shows. Everything there ever was – B.A.S.S. owns it all now. When the dust settles, our idea is to eventually start finding the right direction for all that. We hope to be able to utilize a lot of that and bring it back, if not for TV, at least for the Internet.
One of the things I personally find very compelling is the old Classic shows. And although they weren't produced like we'd produce them today, they're really fun to watch. They're kind of like the old black-and-white movies – the production's lousy, but they're so darn interesting that it does make it compelling. We really want to utilize all the old stuff. I think we've got reels of the first Classic. We might be missing a few but we've got the very first one.
Does the repurchase of JM also include all the production equipment?
It does include equipment, and our facility there in Little Rock.
Does the repurchase impact any employees in terms of relocating to Little Rock or Atlanta?
There'll probably be no moves whatsoever. The only person I can think of who was in Little Rock working for Atlanta was Angie Thompson, and she'd already moved over to B.A.S.S. before this all happened. So for the most part nobody will be making any wholesale moves.
You talked about some of the old footage. Do you see more alternative B.A.S.S-branded programming in the near future, in addition to the Elite Series shows?
We certainly intend to do some other things. I can't tell you what they are. I'm not trying to be secretive. I just don't know what they are yet. Our little gang has been really strong at coming up with great, innovative TV properties in the past, and one of the assets we're buying is that creativity JM had. So I'm sure we're going to be doing a lot of outside things, and we'll do some things that aren't bass-related either.
We've always done the Jose Wejebe show (Spanish Fly), and we're down shooting a pilot for him right now that's for National Geographic. It's about the fish, and the fish-catching. Now we do Zona's show, and we'll continue to do the timbersports and things like that. We'll keep going right on down that road.
Do you foresee braodcasting some lower-level events, like the Opens or Federation Nation?
I hope so. I really hope so. As I've said all my life, I've got ESPN blood in my veins, and I hope to forever have that with our main programming. But certainly we have the opportunity (to broadcast more events). We're re-running the Elite Series shows right now on Outdoor Channel, and we've got a great relationship there. We'll probably explore all that and of course the main guy over there (at Outdoor Channel) is Roger Werner from ESPN. So we've got a good relationship and connection there.
