‘Michigan Magazine’ TV show goes national with neverending supply of great stories

Back in their salad days, when Del Vaughan and Barry Stutesman were picking up pop cans and beer bottles, scrounging for gas money to keep their fledgling TV show on the air, they got some sage advice from one of their guests.

They had managed to score an interview with the venerable Mort Neff, late host of “Michigan Outdoors,” who after the taping of the show told them, “Boys, as long as you keep your show focused on Michigan people, Michigan history and Michigan events, you will never run out of resources.”

“He told us it was one great big pool of stories out there and we could never reach the bottom,” Vaughan said. “And you know, he was right. There are so many stories we could never tell them all, no matter how hard we try.”
Not that the two aren’t giving it their best shot.

Vaughan and Stutesman criss-cross the state, covering stories to feature on “Michigan Magazine,” the television program the pair have co-hosted for the past 15 years. Most of the stories are about artisans of one sort or another. The duo has interviewed painters, furniture makers, cooks and bakers, authors and photographers, all willing to share their dreams, their inspirations and their talents.

Vaughan and Stutesman always seem to find a good story in these people beyond their art.

“These are people who through some circumstance or shift in their life, for whatever reason, have been forced to, or chose to, embrace their art,” said Vaughan.

Like Tom Christenson of Mio, who was featured on “Michigan Magazine” earlier this year.

When an injury sidelined Christenson from his construction job in 2001, he dabbled in an untapped interest – wood carving – as something to do while he recovered. Now an award-winning wood carver, with several world-champion fish decoys to his credit, Christenson makes what he calls a “decent living,” selling wildlife carvings and decoys.

Christenson gave the pair a lot of credit for what they do, and how they do it, noting their personal and inquisitive interview style.

“It was a blessing, really. The exposure I got from the show was very good,” he said. “I got a lot of good response.”

Shown on the Michigan Public Television Network since 1990, the half-hour program has grown to include a printed magazine – Michigan Magazine – as well as the Michigan Magazine Museum, located on M-33 about two miles south of Comins in Oscoda County.

The show’s audience recently became considerably larger. In January, the program was picked up by the RFD-TV Network and can now be viewed in nearly 26 million homes from coast to coast and in Canada.

The program airs Mondays and Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. on cable television throughout the United States, as well as on satellite television’s DirectTV, channel 379, and Dish Network, channel 9409.

To Vaughan, of Rose City, and Stutesman, of Prescott, it confirms the faith they have maintained that the stories they tell – including recent ones about a cranberry farm in Rogers City and the Ogemaw County Fair – deserve a wider audience.

But these guys are a pretty good story, too.

With their studio in the corner of a cluttered pole barn behind Vaughan’s Ogemaw County residence, amid video cassettes representing nearly 1,700 former episodes, the two meet each day to produce their show.

Both are amazed that from one corner of their little world they can create a show that generates fans as far away as Oregon, Florida and Maine, as well as every state in between. People are discovering what Vaughan and Stutesman – like Mort Neff before them – were saying all along: The one-of-a-kind stories found here have an appeal far beyond Michigan’s borders.

“People love the show. It is what our audience is looking for,” said Al Stein, program director for Nashville-based RFD, an acronym that stands for “rural free delivery.”

“It is a well-done program and it is just what we look for here, as well,” Stein added, noting the network’s programming focus is on rural living – “right down to the cattle auctions” that are frequently aired on the network.

To Vaughan and Stutesman, national exposure is the latest step in an already lengthy journey.

The duo’s first attempts to launch a program were on radio. That show – “Michigan Music Review” – was carried by the Michigan Farm Radio Network during the early 1980s. When TV interviews promoting their radio program prompted more viewer response than the program itself, they knew they were in the wrong medium.

“There were a whole lot more people watching TV than there were listening to the radio,” said Stutesman, noting television success came slowly, and with increased work and greater costs.

To buy a half-hour time slot for the program, it cost the pair $2,500, according to Vaughan, who said the only money they made came from commercials they sold and recorded themselves. And with no equipment, they were left to rent cameras, as well as lighting and sound systems.

“It would have cost us $28,000 for the whole month,” said Vaughan, of the commercial equipment the venture required.

“We rented it by the hour. But we had to rush down, pick it up, and then get it right back,” he said. “I would go in and sell commercials and Barry would come along right behind me, ready to shoot them.”

“We were pushed for time so hard we would do six and eight interviews a day,” added Stutesman.

And to hear them talk about it, they weren’t exactly making ends meet.

“We were picking up beer cans and pop bottles for gas money, trying to get this thing going. Our wives were the ones working to support us,” said Vaughan, still giving credit for the early support provided by Garneta Vaughan and Rhonda Stutesman.

Telling of the road-weary Chevrolet Cavalier the two had to drive during those early days, Stutesman recalls exiting an interview they conducted with a ranger at Wilderness State Park, west of Mackinaw City.

“Here was our car, chock-full of clothes and equipment, parked next to a nice, big Ford Expedition,” said Stutesman, recalling the looks and comments the car attracted.

“It is hard to tell what people thought of us back then,” he added.

But that was more than 10 years ago, when the two were viewed on PBS. Things have changed considerably since then, and their viewership has grown without even counting RFD-TV.

A few years ago, they were given an opportunity to see what people thought of them. In 1998, the Michigan Magazine Museum opened its doors along a desolate stretch of highway.

The following year, Vaughan and Stutesman held the first in a series of now-annual Expos, promoting the many guests they have had on their show, as well as other crafters, musicians and artists from throughout the state.

When someone asked Vaughan what kind of crowd he expected to attract to such an out-of-the-way location, he jokingly replied: “I don’t know. I’m just hoping my wife shows up.”

Garneta Vaughan was there, but she had plenty of company.

“Traffic was backed up for miles all the way to Fairview,” Vaughan recalled. “The sheriff came tearing down here and said, ‘What the heck are you guys doing?’”

They were just visiting with friends they didn’t know they had.

“We could not believe it,” Vaughan said. “We didn’t have any idea.”

Even after all this time, the thrill of conducting interviews with their guests remains. They love talking with the people they feature on their show. There have been thousands over the years, but all share one thing in common, according to Vaughan.

“Every time we do a show it is an inspiration,” he said. “The people we talk to are encouraging others to do what they want to do. …

“These people invite us into their lives. It is all very humbling, really, when you stop to realize they want us to tell their story.”

Viewers seem to be legion, loyal and friendly. It’s commonplace for Vaughan and Stutesman to be recognized wherever they go by total strangers.

But to Del Vaughan and Barry Stutesman there are no strangers, only friends they have not met yet – some of them with a story waiting to be told.

“Barry tells them, ‘Hey, don’t I recognize you?’” said Vaughan.

Yes, you do, Stutesman tells them, adding: “I visit with you every Saturday morning.”