THUNDER BAY -- A YouTube series produced by Thunder Bay-born Aaron Bidochka has reached a lofty level—one billion total views.
Bidochka's RC Adventures, a series featuring radio-controlled vehicles, has become the most viewed channel of its kind.
While still a child he moved from Thunder Bay to Calgary where he grew up to manage a computer support network in the oil and gas industry before a downturn forced him to go in a different direction in 2008.
Following his lifelong passion for robotics and engineering, Bidochka began tinkering with remote control vehicles on his dining room table and filming hobby videos with a camera his wife bought him using Air Miles.
"How I started on YouTube was just posting up my normal family videos of having fun," he said in an interview with Tbnewswatch.com.
It wasn't long, however, before YouTube invited him to join its Partner program, in which producers posting content receive a share of the revenue that YouTube earns through the ads placed adjacent to the video.
Nine years later, the channel boasts over 1.5 million subscribers and is just shy of the top 1000 most-viewed YouTube channels of all time.
Most of the videos are currently filmed out of RCSparks Studio, a five-acre ranch outside Calgary that Bidochka bought so he could produce more elaborate videos.
The property includes a film studio, racetrack, lake, canal and workshop where he custom-builds some of the vehicles featured on the channel. It even has a full-size radio-controlled skid steer.
"The great thing about the channel is that I have complete creative autonomy," Bidochka said. "Whatever I dream up, I can build and film. Then I get real-time feedback from the YouTube community."
His top viewership markets include the USA, Indonesia, India, Canada, the UK and Vietnam.
"To establish such a strong connection with an international audience while doing what I love has been truly unimaginable," Bidochka said. "I'm living every man's dream, getting to wake up knowing that I am going to be filming something that inspires people to have fun, while having a good time myself."
Looking back to when the venture began, he recalled, he knew there was potential for the business to do well, but today he still finds it difficult to fully comprehend the magnitude of its global reach.
As for the next stage, Bidochka said he'd like to branch out and assist other people in turning their hobbies into YouTube successes.
"At 40 years old now, having made the mark that I've done, I'd like to move forward and help others, maybe point them in the direction of a job that they would like to have fun with as well."
