Blog

June already. Hard to believe how fast time is going by.

After 9 long months I am happy to say we have been able to finally increase our page count. We appreciate the support of our old and new customers as we head into the summer months. We know how tough it has been since last year, and placing your trust, and advertising budget, with us is very much appreciated.

Since we started focusing on the coastal communities back in January our online numbers have gone crazy, so many people, from all over the state, have chimed in our magazine. We are grateful for that, as well as the subscriptions from all over the United States. When we started this magazine 9 years ago, our main focus was to promote this beautiful area of Florida. Little did we know that we would go head on with tropical storms, hurricanes, pandemics and recessions. We have learned a lot, lost a lot, but we are still here. We thank our readers, advertisers and local counties for their continued support.

Our June issue continues with focusing on local communities and this month it is Chiefland, ”Gem of the Suwannee Valley”.  We have also included Hurricane Preparedness pages with a tracking map, county information and several local businesses who specialize in storm damage and recovery.

We also welcome several new advertisers in with us for June, and the rest of the summer. Suwannee River Bend RV Park, Bruce’s Weather Page, Tide & Timber RV Parks, Big Z RV Resort and Oaks Feather Realty.  We also have some old friends back in with us as well. Compass Homes & Land Vacation Rentals, Cabins on the Corner, Foundation Professionals and Tom Donnelly Plumbing.

Foundation Professionals and Tom Donnelly Plumbing join Miller Homes Public Adjusting, Apex Land, A&O Site Prep, Creekside Farm Supply, John Kasak State Farm Insurance and Spanns Heating & Air Conditioning in our Hurricane Preparedness section. We urge everyone to put this edition away and hold on to it throughout the upcoming season. Fingers and toes crossed we will not need to use it!

Finally, a big thank you to Phoenix Park Model Homes. On the cover of our Real Estate Magazine for June and a long time customer. A great company that offers some outstanding choices for vacation homes in the area. If you considering property in the area, make sure you check them out.

Until the next time, stay cool!

 The kick off of spring brought us many festivals and fishing tournaments in the area, and what better way to move into a new season?

We continue to spotlight our coastal communities with this edition and this month it is Horseshoe Beach. A mall community that took a direct hit from two major hurricanes in just over a year. The community was devastated and we lost several longtime customers because of it. Our correspondent, Elizabeth Burr, has done a tremendous job in brining these stories to paper and we thank her for her hard work. I was able to speak the business owners we have featured in the article, as well as Tammy Bryan, Compass Realty of North Florida, who was instrumental in getting this story done. We thank everyone for their time and effort and hope we are successful in getting their story out and letting our readers know, “they haven’t given up, so don’t give up on them.”

Elizabeth also gives us two additional stories in the issue. One is on Tina Thomas, Tri-County Testing, and ForVets, Otter Springs Park and Campground.  Tina offers a unique service for employers that helps keep everyone safe and secure and ForVets, Inc is a veterans’s program for “life’s next mission.” Both businesses continue to leave their mark on The Hidden Coast and we appreciate their long time support of our magazines.

We also welcome several new customers in with us for this round. They include; Fear No Evil Guns & Ammo, Sky Monkey Media, Candis Langford (realtor), Valena Driggers (realtor), A&O Site Prep, Florida Saltwater Flats Fishing Charters and Reds & Beds. We welcome everyone into our magazines and we appreciate your trust and support!

Finally, we welcome Shelby Robb to our media family! Shelby has been selling advertisements for us part time and the long list of new customers in the last paragraph are almost all hers! We appreciate Shelby’s hard work and hope she will be with us for a while. We’ve known her for many years, as she was an agent for Barnett Realty in Steinhatchee. Unfortunately the business was lost due to Hurricane Helene, and along with some other factors, Shelby decided to step away from the real estate market for a while. We are glad she stepped our way!

We have several projects planned for the summer so please keep checking in. Until the next time, Happy Spring, enjoy The Hidden Coast and don’t forget to honor all the moms out there this month – Happy Mother’s Day!

With it comes an abundant of festivals and events throughout the region and it all starts the first weekend of April. The first annual Crossroads festival in Cross City, The Arts Fest in Cedar Key and The Blue Grass Festival in Perry. All happening the weekend of April 4-6. What a way to kick off the month.

We urge you to attend one, if not all of these festivals. It has been a rough six months for these communities and they sure could use help. What’s even more amazing is most of these events are supported by local residents who volunteer their time. The same residents who have suffered tremendous heartache and loss over the past two years. Fun for the whole family, beautiful weather, good food, good music and good artwork – get out and enjoy! 

We have focused in on one of these communities, Cedar Key, and the road back from Hurricane Helene as told by four business owners. Amazing strength and resilience from each of them to get where they are today. We will continue this feature in our next two editions focusing on some of the other communities and how they are doing six months later. 

You can also stay up to date each week with our Hidden Coast Brief. A quick overview of what’s happening in the region emailed out every Friday morning. If interested please email us at sales@nfmservice.com and place in the subject line “sign me up for HCB”. 

We are also excited to announce that we now have two retailers selling our Last of Old Florida apparel and knick knacks – The Cedar Key Welcome Center and Brooks Dockside Seafood. A big thanks to both of these locations for their support! And look for some old favorites coming back to the lineup in the coming months. 

Until the next time, enjoy the Hidden Coast. 

“Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.” ?  Lewis Grizzard

A fitting quote as we flip the calendar yet again this year and count the days till spring. It’s been unusually cold in this part of the country this year – something I am not a big fan of. I’ve hated the cold weather since the late ’70’s when I was on a camp out with the Boy Scouts. We left town in sunny weather on Friday. Saturday night it snowed and yes it was here in Florida. No one had any warm clothes and I remember standing so close to the fire that might pants were burnt on the bottom. I shivered for two days after that, probably frost bite. Lol 

Those days are long gone and we are happy to be delivering our magazines for the new month later this week. Happy Birthday to Gilchrist County Florida (100 years old), John Kasak State Farm Insurance and Afishionado Fishing Guides don our covers!

We are also excited to announce that we have had several new customers join all of our publications this year (the three previous being some of those). We are very thankful for all of our advertisers, new and old, especially after the last few years we have had. 

As the weather gets warmer there are several events to put on the calendar. The Lower Suwannee Art and Nature Festival March 8, The Big Bend Brew Fest March 15 and  The Cedar Key Arts Fest and the Crossroads Festival on April 5. Mark your calendars to attend one, if not all of them, this year.

Until the next time, look for our magazines throughout the area or read them online.  

Where did January go. I can’t believe we are already looking at the second month of the year. Curse you sands of time!

We kicked off the new year in bed. Second year in a row my wife and I have slept through the New Year’s festivities. After that we were on our way to Atlanta to celebrate the 100th birthday of her great aunt – an amazing lady indeed. From there it was wedding plans starting to roll in. The big day being August 23, 2025. It will be here before we know it and I’m trying oh so hard to be ready. Still struggling with the “empty-nester” thing but we’re getting used to, but marrying off my little girl I’m not so sure of. This month also gave us the flu and bronchitis. They have made themselves comfortable in our home and we can’t seem to get either one of them to leave. Two visits to the Urgent Care and I’m still battling it. On top of everything it has been bitterly cold for the month and I’m just not built for that stuff anymore.

We are sending our 2nd edition of the new year to press tomorrow along with our annual business card directory and our Fishing Lowdown. Putting much time and emphasis into expanding this business this year. Steps have already been made down south and we look to the north with much anticipation for all of our magazines. “You have to spend money to make money” and that is what we have been doing to start 2025. Goals and bench marks on the marker board and we will see when we hit them.

We are also reformatting our magazine a bit this year. This was an idea I was going to implement this past fall, but Mother Nature had other ideas. We want to get more personal with our magazine and really focus on the businesses and individual who make The Hidden Coast what it is. Our next issue will have Brooks Seafood out of Inglis on the cover. A diamond in the rough that offers so much to the area. We certainly keep promoting all the fun events that happen in this region every year, but we want to give that same exposure to the businesses and residents and well.

We have several more story ideas scheduled so please keep checking our website or follow up online. Until the next, out with cold weather and bring on Spring!

The holiday season is officially upon us. I’m not so sure I’m looking at it from that point of view, or just happy that the 2024 Hurricane Season is over. The fall was indeed a crazy rollercoaster ride. Starting with our long planned trip to the northeast in Mid-September that was interrupted on day-two by news of the Cedar Key fire and the loss of almost 80% of our apparel line. The following week, upon arrival home from our trip, we had just enough time to drop our bags and prepare for Hurricane Helene. The most powerful storm I have ever experience in my 50+ years of living in Florida. My nose was pressed against the glass that night as I watched age old pine and oak trees twist in the 100mph+ wind like straws. The next morning we found are home town reeling with 95% of the power out and the Hidden Coast region devastated from another hurricane in just over 13 months. We were without power for six days and without phone and internet for another 10 days. Several family members and friends had major damage to their property, some losing everything. Two weeks later the state went through it again with Milton, but thank goodness our area was spared the direct hit our neighbors to the south took. In October our daughter and her boyfriend purchased a house together, proud dad moment. And a month later they were engaged at our annual family trip to the beach for Thanksgiving. In the end we have so much to be thankful for. Our health, our family, our jobs… we can rebuild homes and businesses but you can’t rebuild a life. Once it is gone, that’s it.

Overall, 2024 was a continuous roller coaster ride with many highs and lows. We look to 2025 as a renaissance for The Hidden Coast and also for our lives, both personally and professionally. My wife and I are adjusting to being “empty nesters” and our business took a huge hit from the storms. “Don’t work harder, worker smarter”. That will be our motto going into the new year as we celebrate nine years in business and 30 years of marriage.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year. No offense, but the state of Florida is due a good year… a successful year. We have been knocked down quite a few times lately, but we are still standing to tackle the next day.

Enjoy the holiday season, enjoy family time, and we will see you in January.

A date that changed the landscape of this beautiful region overnight.

We have been in business for eight years, starting right after Tropical Storm Hermine hit the area. We adapted to the world and made it through the pandemic. Last year, we took a hit from Hurricane Idalia and again refitted and retooled to keep going. Nothing could have prepared us for the month of September. We lost 90% of our apparel in the fire that hit Dock Street on September 19 and almost 40% of our racks and 90% of our magazine inventory a week later due to Helene. To top everything off, we lost many customers. Not so much customers, but friends. Friends who worked hard and supported us over the years – some from day one. Some of them had just rebuilt and/or reopened from Idalia and lost everything this time… everything.

The stories and images were heartbreaking. So much I could only take a few glimpses at a time online. Like the rest of the state, our home base of Lake City took a major hit. I’ve lived in Florida for over 50 years, and I have never experienced wind like we did the night of the storm. We woke up to devastation everywhere and 99.6% of the county with no power. It would stay that way for us the next six days followed by another 10 days to restore phone and internet service. We picked up, cleaned up and then went and did the same for family and friends over the next few days. Now, as we move into the holiday season, there is some normalcy coming back to OUR lives. But we still pray and think about The Hidden Coast region.

This is our first edition after the storm. And as many of you can tell, it’s a little smaller than usual. Quite honestly, we didn’t know when, or if, we would print another magazine. We turned to the internet and began sharing as much information daily. This came in handy, as we faced our third hurricane of the season. We will continue to do that indefinitely, but we also want to get our product back out on the streets. To let residents know we are here, and to let visitors know, “The Hidden Coast is open for business”. It may not be 100% but there has been much progress made. Debris is being cleaned up, businesses are opening and events are being planned.

As you gather for the Thanksgiving holiday this year, take a moment to look around the table and give thanks for what you have. No tomorrow is guaranteed for any of us, and the world in which we live continues to get faster and faster. It’s easy to overlook the things we take for granted. Our health, our family, our homes and our friendships. Count your blessings for all that we have been given and remember our friends on The Hidden Coast with a prayer or donation.

We added two new publications to our library plus a new website, my daughter graduated from nursing school and passed her boards and we are closing in on 1MM views for our Real Estate Magazine website. Goals reached but we’re not done! We look forward to the Fall Season and increasing our advertising both in-print and online. While at the same time promoting the best of The Hidden Coast region.

The fall season brings a couple great BBQ festivals to the area so plan to get out and enjoy one if not both of them. The Smokin’ In The Pines festival takes place September 20-21 in Perry and the BBQ from the Hart festival takes place October 19 at Hart Springs Campground in Bell. Also, don’t forget the Central Florida Peanut Festival taking place October 5 in Williston. Lots to do and more reasons to get outside and enjoy some (hopefully) cooler weather!

Fall is a beautiful time here in Florida. Take advantage of the vacation rentals and campgrounds advertising with us. These are some great places that will welcome you with open arms.

Don’t forget to check out our online store for Last of Old Florida apparel and knick knacks. You can also find them in person at The Rusty Hook on Deck Street in Cedar Key.

Until the next time, chill out and relax. Fall is near.

The end of summer is coming quickly. We find ourselves in August and already our first (and hopefully last) hurricane behind us. Debbie followed almost the exact same path of Idalia last year, but thank goodness she was not as strong or destructive. A lot of rain and wind, but most of our customers (and us included) were able to clean up and move forward very quickly!

The scallop season is also winding down, and from what we have heard it was a big success for many of the communities in The Hidden Coast region. Trust me, these folks deserve it and we are very happy to hear the news.

As we move closer to fall, and some cooler weather, we are promoting two upcoming festivals in the area. BBQ from the Hart, Hart Springs, and the Central Florida Peanut Festival, Williston, will both be happening in October. BBQ from the Hart is a somewhat new event and the Peanut Festival is over 30 years old. Mark your calendar now and make plans to attend one, or both, of these fun festivals.

Our usual writers have given us some outstanding articles again for this month. This includes Jamie Chewning, Antoniette Meyer, Nikki Douglas and all of our charter captains.

One other part of our magazine which we seem to overlook each month is our real estate. We have close 20 realtors who advertise with us monthly or throughout the year. These folks are true professionals and excellent in what they do. Thinking of moving to the area or investing in some rental property? Contact one of them and get all the help you will need!

Finally, we finished our two special sections for the summer. Our Business Card Directory and Voters’ Guide were something new we wanted to offer to our readers and visitors to the area. We have close to 60 businesses who took part in our inaugural Business Card Directory and we couldn’t be more happy. Look for it throughout the region and also online at www.FLAcoastBCD.com Our Voters’ Guide didn’t get the feedback we were hoping for so we kept that section online only. We appreciate those candidates who did take part and you can find their answers to our questionnaires on our social media pages. The Hidden Coast is changing quickly and we feel this is a very important election year. Please educate yourself on the issues and candidates and cast your vote.

Until the next time, enjoy The Hidden Coast.

Busy Busy Busy as Professor Hinkle would say. So much going on around the region as we hit the midpoint of summer, plus a lot going in our North Florida Media Service office.

Our July edition will be 64 pages of scalloping content! We have local businesses, charter captains, TDC offices and IFAS all promoting the annual season in The Hidden Coast region. Please make sure to pick up a copy throughout the region and support all the local communities and businesses who are advertising with us.

We are also working on our inaugural Business Card Directory for The Hidden Coast region. This publication will be distributed from Perry south to Crystal River, plus we will promote it both on our websites and social media pages. Be on the lookout for it!

Another publication in the works is our 2024 Voters Guide. We have reached out to all the candidates running in five counties we cover. These counties are centrally located in our distribution area and include most of our racks and drop points. Again, be on the lookout for it!

We also have a new addition to our online store – custom patch hats! 8 different styles to chose from. Please click on the link to check out these styles, along other items we have for sale. https://thehiddencoastmag.com/store-2/

Finally, one other bit of good new we have. You can now buy our Last of Old Florida Apparel and novelties at the Rusty Hook Bait Shop on Dock Street in Cedar Key! Several items will be on display just in time for the 4th of July holiday.

Until the next time. Happy summer and stay cool!