Editor’s Note: Probably thousands of YouTube videos have been made with hosts who have bought video cameras, editing software and remote mics. These videographers are telling everyone they have TV shows, when in actuality they have YouTube channels that they call TV shows. Numbers of really-good television shows are on several channels and cable networks where the hosts and the people they have working with them have spent thousands of hours and plenty of money to produce quality shows in a professional manner. But how do you become a television host and producer, produce a TV show that’s good enough to attract national sponsors and stay on major television networks for more than a year or two? One of the TV personalities who’s found the path, put in the time, gone to college and learned all she can about hosting, producing, filming and marketing is Melissa Bachman (https://melissabachman.com/) of South Dakota. Bachman’s TV show, “Winchester Deadly Passion,” (https://www.thesportsmanchannel.com/show/winchester-deadly-passion/81951) has been running continuously for 52 weeks every year for 10 years on the Sportsman Channel, airing four times a week. Anyone interested in having a television show on a national network and gaining  sponsors who can help pay for expenses, needs to learn from Melissa and understand the route she’s taken to get to where many outdoors folks hope to be.

I’m trying to cut back on the amount of time I spend on the road away from my family. I’ve got youngsters now who are growing up, and I want to make sure I’ve got time at home to teach them how and where to hunt and build those memories my family built for me. In the past, I’ve travelled about 320 days a year. That’s a lot of time on the road and away from home, so I’m trying to be smarter about how I plan my schedule, and I look for ways to take my family with me on some of my trips. I want to just keep doing what I’m doing and get more people involved in the outdoors and especially hunting.

To see some of my TV shows, go to YouTube, look up Deadly Passion (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7VrAWY7ctAakmotUGFr3g), and my shows are on there. On Facebook, you can contact me at Melissa Bachman (https://www.facebook.com/melissabachman), or at Winchester Deadly Passion (https://www.facebook.com/WinchesterDeadlyPassion), and on Instagram @melissa_bachman.

In past years, I’ve received a lot of fire from anti-hunters. As a hunter, I feel the anti-hunters are noticing me and probably consider my show a threat to their organizations. They feel like we outdoor people are recruiting more hunters, and they’re absolutely right. I want to get more women, families and young people involved in hunting and shooting. I especially enjoy getting families involved in the outdoors because being outdoors with your family is a bonding opportunity. I sometimes think anti-hunters don’t have enough to do, so they’re mean toward hunters. But that’s okay, because they don’t really bother me. I basically ignore anti-hunters. Or, if they have something ugly to say about me, my show or other outdoor shows and use social media to fire at me, I just delete their comments, block them and move on, since I’ve got much better things to do with my time than to answer them or have a discussion with them.

Often I’m asked in seminars why I hunt. I promote hunting because I believe it provides a great opportunity for families to be outside together. I was raised in a family who hunted together on the weekends, and I know what a great bonding experience it was for me and my family too. I know other families can have similar experiences, if they participate in hunting. I’ve also learned how to prepare meat for the table and use wonderful recipes to cook and eat the animals we’ve harvested.

Today often the members of a family spend the majority of their time on their cellphones and/or computers, and there’s very-little social interaction within the family. I truly believe hunting together solves this problem. Even when I go back home to be with my family, the number-one subject of our conversations is remembering hunting and fishing trips we’ve been on as youngsters. Those memories are precious to all of us.

To learn to cook wild things, check out John E. Phillips book, “The Best Wild Game and Seafood Cookbook Ever: 350 Southern Recipes,” available in Kindle and print at http://amzn.to/WkbLRg.

Tomorrow: Melissa Bachman on Social Media and More on Her Background