After marriage, Moyer took a full-time job at KHQ, making a whopping $3.33 an hour. He stayed at the station for 10 years, eventually becoming the manager while the couple started their family of three children. But when the station was sold, he retired from radio for a while.
“Radio is a tough business. You’ve got to do it because you love it,” he said.
Community Mission
Love is a driving force in Moyer’s life, and the love of God afforded him and Amy is also a Christian mission to give to the community. Moyer became the director of development for the Union Gospel Mission in Aberdeen at a time in the 1990s when the logging industry was severely curtailed, devastating the local economy.
“I was raising money for the mission, and I would preach at lunchtime, then put out something like 6,000 newsletters a month,” he said.
It became the genesis of his multi-media business.
One of the Union Gospel Mission donors was the local Techline business run by Jerry and Gloria Brown, who got Moyer interested in computers. They hired him to be an internet salesperson, and he became adept at the new technology.
“Never in history had we ever been able to sit in our homes and do work for the entire world. I got excited about it. And the guys there taught me all this really cool stuff about websites and graphics and how to use Photoshop. Well, immediately I knew ‘this is my media."
His media prowess came to the attention of the pastor at the couple’s church, Christian Life Fellowship, and he was asked to help out pastor there, a position he held for the next 10 years.
“I think I was the first person on the Harbor to ever do a sermon on the internet,” Moyer said. As a pastor, Moyer admits he was fairly unconventional.
“I thought of all these ways of communicating. I’m a storyteller. So, I would communicate in crazy ways. I would bring frozen sculptures into the sanctuary and blow them up with blowtorches to illustrate points. I would write plays.”
A rift in the church, however, began to develop and the Moyers felt they could no longer be a part of the congregation.
Amy, who grew up in Raymond, still had connections with the Raymond First Baptist Church, which had just lost its pastor.
First Baptist asked Moyer to fill in until they found a pastor. The position, which was supposed to be six months, turned into three years, Moyer said, adding that he made sure to explain that he wasn’t a conventional preacher.
Moyer recalls one Easter service where he worked his multi-media talents to portray the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
“I had my friends build me a big wall on the stage. And it was black. Then I put together some footage of Jesus on the cross for Easter, like depictions that were stitched together to form a movie. I had the projector shining onto the black wall. And I talked about how we see things very dimly until, all of a sudden, things come into focus. I talked about how I converted to Christianity and how my life had changed. And then the projector starts onto the screen, but you can barely see it.”
Moyer then pulled out a paint roller and some white paint, painting a cross on the black wall, which allowed some of the scene to project clearly on what was against the white portion. Then he kept enlarging the white portion.
**“And by the time I was done with my sermon, I got all the way to the end and you could see perfectly clear. You saw Jesus hang his head on the cross, then the very end was him resurrecting. And there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
“Visually, I love to use media to bring to life what I’m selling. And I know as much as you say you don’t sell Jesus, you do. I mean, you’ve got to get the thing across. We’re all selling something, right?”**
However, Moyer had not been sold on his own health at this stage of his life. He was now up to 355 pounds and started having congestive heart failure.
Lifestyle Change
After struggling to breathe, an emergency trip to urgent care one day brought things to a head when doctors told him he might be having a heart attack. The health scare brought about a complete lifestyle change, prompted by several medical professionals who convinced Moyer he could make lasting changes to preserve his life.
Now, he’s lost 160 pounds through diet and dedicated exercise, ending his reliance on insulin and reversing that heart condition after seven years.
After he began to recover and shed pounds, Moyer decided it was time to branch out on his own full time.
“My gift is to promote and to encourage people. That’s what I do. And I can do that. Selling their product. I can do that. Encouraging them to be everything they can be. I can do that just by the gifts and talents that I have. That’s when I started doing all this stuff on social media and becoming more involved in the community. Because I wanted to see our community grow and be good. And I wanted to see these businesses prosper.”
He started recording commercials from his home studio for businesses. He began websites and social media platforms and working for the old MySpace internet media site from his home in Central Park, managing the site for an Australian organization called “The Martians Are Here.” He did an audio book along with music, producing a CD called “Stargazer,” which is music to watch the stars by.
At 52, Moyer also began to “reward” himself with tattoos as a testament to his rebuilding health.
One of the first was a depiction of Golgotha, the hill where Christ was crucified. Another is the Bible verse
Romans 10:13: “For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
And then there is the dragon called Fat Slayer: “In his mouth he has 150 pounds,” Moyer said, showing off the colorful tattoo. “That’s how much weight I had lost at that time. And he’s crunching it with his mouth. So, when I look in the mirror, I look at that and go, I’m not going back. I’m under 200 pounds now.”
Rick and Amy Moyer currently maintain one of the busiest photo/video enterprises in Grays Harbor, booking shoots for graduations, weddings, family gatherings and local businesses.
Moyer has produced videos for rock bands like Clint and the Eastwoods, Hall of Flame and Metal Church; for the debut of photographer Darrell Westmorland’s book chronicling his portraits of myriad musical acts; for community events like the Downtown Aberdeen Spooktacular, the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival and for local businesses.
He has recorded music with several bands, written commercials and jingles for many businesses, hosted the afternoon show on radio station KIX-95.3 FM, and continues as the late-night rock show host on KDUX-104.7.
Pat Anderson, the station manager at KDUX and another longtime radio host with the morning show at KDUX, calls Moyer “a truly exceptional guy.”
“I’ve been broadcasting here for 35 years, and I’ve known Rick for several decades. ... I knew he was a radio pro early on,” Anderson said. “I tried to lure him back into broadcasting a few times over the years, but I was finally successful about 11 years ago.”
It wasn’t just his radio ability and his public presence that compelled Anderson to bring Moyer back to local airwaves.
“Rick, beyond all of his technical talents, of which there are many, is a kind, compassionate guy. He approaches his on-air listeners just like he does all people in the community, with an upbeat attitude, full of enthusiasm and a genuine joy,” Anderson said.
At the station, Moyer also provides video and photo services, produces commercials, handles digital editing duties and website services.
“Rick, as a veteran broadcaster, has the background not only in radio but a breadth of technical knowledge that we’re so grateful for here at the radio station,” Anderson said. “He’s invaluable.”
On this particular Thursday night, Moyer is in his element at the controls of the fully digital system that operates the radio station, bubbling with his infectious enthusiasm: “Fleetwood Mac on the rock of the coast 104.7 KDUX. Rick Moyer with you tonight on your Thursday. All right, are you ready to rock? Your Thursday’s never gonna be the same now. Crank it up!”
When Moyer talks, broadcasts, snaps a photo or directs a video, a big part of Grays Harbor is listening in, watching and taking his word as gospel.
Reach Rick Moyer through his website:
Moyer Multi Media LLC – Wedding and Family Photography; Video Production, Social Media Marketing:
“Radio is a tough business. You’ve got to do it because you love it,” he said.
Community Mission
Love is a driving force in Moyer’s life, and the love of God afforded him and Amy is also a Christian mission to give to the community. Moyer became the director of development for the Union Gospel Mission in Aberdeen at a time in the 1990s when the logging industry was severely curtailed, devastating the local economy.
“I was raising money for the mission, and I would preach at lunchtime, then put out something like 6,000 newsletters a month,” he said.
It became the genesis of his multi-media business.
One of the Union Gospel Mission donors was the local Techline business run by Jerry and Gloria Brown, who got Moyer interested in computers. They hired him to be an internet salesperson, and he became adept at the new technology.
“Never in history had we ever been able to sit in our homes and do work for the entire world. I got excited about it. And the guys there taught me all this really cool stuff about websites and graphics and how to use Photoshop. Well, immediately I knew ‘this is my media."
His media prowess came to the attention of the pastor at the couple’s church, Christian Life Fellowship, and he was asked to help out pastor there, a position he held for the next 10 years.
“I think I was the first person on the Harbor to ever do a sermon on the internet,” Moyer said. As a pastor, Moyer admits he was fairly unconventional.
“I thought of all these ways of communicating. I’m a storyteller. So, I would communicate in crazy ways. I would bring frozen sculptures into the sanctuary and blow them up with blowtorches to illustrate points. I would write plays.”
A rift in the church, however, began to develop and the Moyers felt they could no longer be a part of the congregation.
Amy, who grew up in Raymond, still had connections with the Raymond First Baptist Church, which had just lost its pastor.
First Baptist asked Moyer to fill in until they found a pastor. The position, which was supposed to be six months, turned into three years, Moyer said, adding that he made sure to explain that he wasn’t a conventional preacher.
Moyer recalls one Easter service where he worked his multi-media talents to portray the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
“I had my friends build me a big wall on the stage. And it was black. Then I put together some footage of Jesus on the cross for Easter, like depictions that were stitched together to form a movie. I had the projector shining onto the black wall. And I talked about how we see things very dimly until, all of a sudden, things come into focus. I talked about how I converted to Christianity and how my life had changed. And then the projector starts onto the screen, but you can barely see it.”
Moyer then pulled out a paint roller and some white paint, painting a cross on the black wall, which allowed some of the scene to project clearly on what was against the white portion. Then he kept enlarging the white portion.
**“And by the time I was done with my sermon, I got all the way to the end and you could see perfectly clear. You saw Jesus hang his head on the cross, then the very end was him resurrecting. And there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
“Visually, I love to use media to bring to life what I’m selling. And I know as much as you say you don’t sell Jesus, you do. I mean, you’ve got to get the thing across. We’re all selling something, right?”**
However, Moyer had not been sold on his own health at this stage of his life. He was now up to 355 pounds and started having congestive heart failure.
Lifestyle Change
After struggling to breathe, an emergency trip to urgent care one day brought things to a head when doctors told him he might be having a heart attack. The health scare brought about a complete lifestyle change, prompted by several medical professionals who convinced Moyer he could make lasting changes to preserve his life.
Now, he’s lost 160 pounds through diet and dedicated exercise, ending his reliance on insulin and reversing that heart condition after seven years.
After he began to recover and shed pounds, Moyer decided it was time to branch out on his own full time.
“My gift is to promote and to encourage people. That’s what I do. And I can do that. Selling their product. I can do that. Encouraging them to be everything they can be. I can do that just by the gifts and talents that I have. That’s when I started doing all this stuff on social media and becoming more involved in the community. Because I wanted to see our community grow and be good. And I wanted to see these businesses prosper.”
He started recording commercials from his home studio for businesses. He began websites and social media platforms and working for the old MySpace internet media site from his home in Central Park, managing the site for an Australian organization called “The Martians Are Here.” He did an audio book along with music, producing a CD called “Stargazer,” which is music to watch the stars by.
At 52, Moyer also began to “reward” himself with tattoos as a testament to his rebuilding health.
One of the first was a depiction of Golgotha, the hill where Christ was crucified. Another is the Bible verse
Romans 10:13: “For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
And then there is the dragon called Fat Slayer: “In his mouth he has 150 pounds,” Moyer said, showing off the colorful tattoo. “That’s how much weight I had lost at that time. And he’s crunching it with his mouth. So, when I look in the mirror, I look at that and go, I’m not going back. I’m under 200 pounds now.”
Rick and Amy Moyer currently maintain one of the busiest photo/video enterprises in Grays Harbor, booking shoots for graduations, weddings, family gatherings and local businesses.
Moyer has produced videos for rock bands like Clint and the Eastwoods, Hall of Flame and Metal Church; for the debut of photographer Darrell Westmorland’s book chronicling his portraits of myriad musical acts; for community events like the Downtown Aberdeen Spooktacular, the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival and for local businesses.
He has recorded music with several bands, written commercials and jingles for many businesses, hosted the afternoon show on radio station KIX-95.3 FM, and continues as the late-night rock show host on KDUX-104.7.
Pat Anderson, the station manager at KDUX and another longtime radio host with the morning show at KDUX, calls Moyer “a truly exceptional guy.”
“I’ve been broadcasting here for 35 years, and I’ve known Rick for several decades. ... I knew he was a radio pro early on,” Anderson said. “I tried to lure him back into broadcasting a few times over the years, but I was finally successful about 11 years ago.”
It wasn’t just his radio ability and his public presence that compelled Anderson to bring Moyer back to local airwaves.
“Rick, beyond all of his technical talents, of which there are many, is a kind, compassionate guy. He approaches his on-air listeners just like he does all people in the community, with an upbeat attitude, full of enthusiasm and a genuine joy,” Anderson said.
At the station, Moyer also provides video and photo services, produces commercials, handles digital editing duties and website services.
“Rick, as a veteran broadcaster, has the background not only in radio but a breadth of technical knowledge that we’re so grateful for here at the radio station,” Anderson said. “He’s invaluable.”
On this particular Thursday night, Moyer is in his element at the controls of the fully digital system that operates the radio station, bubbling with his infectious enthusiasm: “Fleetwood Mac on the rock of the coast 104.7 KDUX. Rick Moyer with you tonight on your Thursday. All right, are you ready to rock? Your Thursday’s never gonna be the same now. Crank it up!”
When Moyer talks, broadcasts, snaps a photo or directs a video, a big part of Grays Harbor is listening in, watching and taking his word as gospel.
Reach Rick Moyer through his website:
Moyer Multi Media LLC – Wedding and Family Photography; Video Production, Social Media Marketing:
