Spokane’s Gibby Media Group

Still Rockin’ the Video Waves

Written by Steve Elias

SPOKANE, WA ( August, 2007) --You may not know this, but Lon Gibby was the poster child for Fender electric guitars. Really.

The monochromatic framed ad hangs on his office wall, evoking the SoCal Surfin’ Safari ‘60s: the 13-year-old blond-headed surfer dude from Laguna Beach, riffin’ the Fender Stratacaster hanging around his neck as he rides a skateboard. Twentieth Century Fox recently used the famous poster within the new children's movie release “Alvin and Chip Monks”.

Forty years later, Gibby, founder, owner and CEO of the internationally known Gibby Media Group, Inc. (GMG), headquartered in Spokane, still surfs when he can (on family trips down to Southern California) and still works riffs on one of his electric guitars, banging out the twang-laden sounds pioneered in his youth by groups such as Jan and Dean , Dick Dale and the Ventures.

It’s hard to imagine this “fun” flip side to Lon Gibby – dedicated husband and father, community leader, award-winning cinematographer and videographer, visionary and hard-working, no-nonsense businessman. It’s a part of him he doesn’t share easily, but it’s an important part in understanding the creative drive, discipline, organizational abilities and business development savvy that have kept GMG on the cutting edge of electronic visual media production and delivery for the past 30 years.

Simply put, he and his team of top-drawer video/technology professionals thoroughly get a kick out of what they’re doing: producing outstanding video product and state-of-the art Web sites for a wide array of local, national, and international clients; and blazing new electronic trails across the video landscape, and, with increasing frequency, around the world via new Internet and disc applications.

GMG’s proprietary GIBBYDISC™ presents videos on CDs and DVDs that load instantly and play without hassles on Windows and Mac computers as well as home CD/DVD players – an achievement that sets the company apart from other video production houses. “You have complete control over how you view the content,” Gibby says. “The video window contains a control bar that lets you move forward or backward, or jump to a particular section or scene of the show.” The Tridisc format brings reliable, high-definition videos to the desktop and the TV nearest you via next-generation HD DVDs. In another coup, Gibby helped bring BlueRay Technologies, one of the developers of the Blu-Ray format, to Spokane to establish a major Blu Ray production-manufacturing plant downtown. And there are hints of other groundbreaking developments on the horizon.

Blazing trails seems to be a hallmark of Gibby’s career and his entrepreneurial efforts. It all began in 1977, when Gibby opened his first production company in Spokane. Fresh from college, with roll-up-your-sleeves, hands-on experience in all aspects of film and video production (while a student, he helped engineer and hardwire the complex post- production facility at Brigham Young University, his alma mater, and also ran his own audio and multimedia company), Lon Gibby began producing instructional and corporate videos for Spokane businesses. His company was one of the first in the Inland Northwest to create video programs for a variety of new and innovative corporate applications. Creative Audio Video Inc., as Gibby’s company was known back then, won a raft of local and national awards, and acquired a roster of high-profile clients such as the U.S. Government, Fluor Corporation, American Sign and Indicator, Kaiser Aluminum, Hewlett-Packard, and Trans World Airlines (TWA, at the time one of the largest air carriers in the world).

Back in the ‘80s, when cable was still in its infancy, he pioneered the first, 24-hour real estate television network. The new enterprise garnered the attention of NBC News, CNN, ABC News, PBS, and a host of major national newspapers, including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Lon also was interviewed about his cable venture on “Entertainment Tonight.”

Gibby conceived and produced the first infomercial for a local business – a program that morphed into a weekly, syndicated show that ran weekly on the Financial News Network for 4 years called “OTC Newsline.”

In 1983, at 29 years old, Lon started Lon Gibby Productions Inc. (LGP). That year saw the production of a documentary on an English Formula One racing team and developer of all-terrain vehicles. ESPN’s first OP Pro surfing championship program, which took place at Huntington Beach , was assisted in post production by LGP.

More documentary opportunities popped up: the oldest furniture company in the country, Richardson Brothers, several feature-length documentary programs for the Boy Scouts, the 1984 Olympics, windsurfing’s world cup competition, the Sugar Bowl, the 1986 Super Bowl. LGP produced programs used in the public schools; companies such as Allstate Insurance, Olivetti North America, and Ford hired Gibby’s company to produce motivational or instructional corporate videos. Major documentary projects took Gibby teams to Alaska, Russia, Japan and Costa Rica.

Another weekly, syndicated program out of Gibby’s shop hit the airwaves: 26 episodes of “Outdoors With Art Reed” were seen by 35 million viewers in the U.S. and Canada. The company produced a variety of medical programs on topics ranging from dialysis and phlebotomy to mental heath and heart issues. LGP also secured a 2-year contract to operate the front-end, large-screen video system for the Los Angeles Coliseum and worked games for the University of Southern California and the L.A. Raiders. More national (Telly) awards followed, two for two surfing documentaries that brought Lon back to his Stratocaster for business reasons: he wrote and produced the original “surf’s up” music for both programs. Eventually, the company would win a total of 16 of the prestigious Tellys.

The company (now known as Gibby Media Group) has been honored as one of Spokane’s Small Businesses of the Year.

All told, in the past 30 years GMG has produced more than 2,000 major projects for industry, governments, and corporate, educational and organizational clients across the nation and around the world. One of those major projects, “Spokane: The Regional Destiny,” highlights the city, our region and its diverse opportunities for business, recreation and leisure. A new version will be released this year.

The company is producing many medical related projects throughout the country and has helped direct and produce the 8-disc set dance series “Louis Lets’s Dance” with Louis van Amstel of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and Honey Let's Dance, Inc.

“As we celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Gibby Media Group, I’m mindful of the fantastic support we have received from the community,” Gibby says. “Spokane has been very good to us, and I’m extremely grateful.

“I hope we have been able to give back in a way, through our community contributions and involvement, that shows how much we appreciate everyone in this community.”

Lon Gibby has been married to his wife, Mary Ann, for 33 years. They have five children and seven grandchildren. Lon was president of Merry Glen Home for the Disabled for 4 years and serves on the executive board of the Inland Empire Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) as a vice president. He also serves as a director for the annual Spokane Lilac Festival and is an advisor to the Guilds’ School. He is honorary base commander of Fairchild Air Force Base and a member of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association. Gibby recently was awarded the Silver Beaver Award – Boy Scouting’s national top adult leadership award – for distinguished service to youth. Gibby Media Group won BSA’s National President’s Award 2 years out of the last 3 years for the best marketing piece – from those produced by 300 Boy Scout councils—in the nation.

Not bad for a surfer dude from Laguna Beach.