autumn's blog

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October went by in a flash, and was filled to the brim with community events. Davis Media Access (DMA) and KDRT 95.7 FM were happy to support the Oct. 22 community Fire Relief Benefit. Elected officials, local businesses, and community organizers came together with many generous donors to raise more than $26,000 in four hours, all benefitting those affected by the fires in Napa, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties. We were glad to be on hand with a radio broadcast live from the Sudwerk Dock Store.

That same day, the KDRT community of programmers and volunteers kicked off a weeklong on-air fall fundraiser. I’m delighted to report that we met the $5,000 goal for the week, which is part of the $25,000 we raise each year to support the station. A big thanks to the KDRT Operations Committee, and to Sudwerk Brewing Co., Thai Canteen, Teabo Café, Yoloberry Yogurt, Woodstock’s Pizza, and Berryessa Brewing Co. We thank these local establishments for generously donating a portion of each day’s proceeds towards our fundraiser, and thank all of you that attended, or who donated online. We are also grateful to the bands, musicians and artists who performed at our special events including: DJs Trop’a and Mr. Glass, Justin Cox, The Big Poppies (twice!), Fong Tran, The Philharmonik, and The Nickel Slots.

Fire relief fundraiser planned in Davis Oct. 22

If you’ve been wondering where or how to donate to fire victims, look no further: a group of local elected officials and community organizers in Davis has come together to mount a response to the unprecedented wildfires that devastated Sonoma, Napa, Lake, and Mendocino counties last week.

Spearheaded by Davis City Councilmember Lucas Frerichs, the group has organized a Fire Relief Benefit, to be held Sunday, Oct. 22 from noon to 4 p.m. at Sudwerk Brewing Company, 2001 Second Street in Davis. 

Interested in expanding your skills?  Davis Media Access is holding a one day workshop in Television Studio Production, October 18th, 2017.  You will learn how to run a studio camera, be a floor manager, and run the studio audio board in the control room.  You’ll also learn how to set-up and tear-down the studio for a production, including the proper stowing of cables, configuring lighting, setting up microphones, and flipping the On-Air switch!

We require you attend a general orientation before hand.  The next general orientation is October 11th at 6:30pm.

KDRT will also hold a regular fall fundraising drive from Oct. 22-29. Highlights include special programming, and fundraiser nights at venues including Thai Canteen, Teabo, Sudwerk, Yoloberry, Woodstocks, and Berryessa Brewing. Please visit kdrt.org for dates and details.

KDRT has always been a hyper-local, grassroots effort. Hyper-local means exactly that - we are a team - your neighbors AND your community radio programmers, all depending on generous listener support from the citizenry of Davis.

The City of Davis, UC Davis and Associated Students of UC Davis, are planning the 12th annual Davis Neighbors’ Night Out on Sunday, October 15. Davis Neighbors’ Night Out (DNNO) is a celebration of our community, initiated to encourage neighbors to get to know one another. Connected neighborhoods often make safer neighborhoods with residents looking out for one another.

Neighbors, neighborhood associations, Neighborhood Watch Liaisons, apartment complexes, and/or homeowner associations are encouraged to be a “Party Sponsor.” Anyone interested in more event information or how to host an event, may visit the City of Davis website: Cityofdavis.org/neighbors or contact Carrie Dyer, City staff, at CDyer@cityofdavis.org or (530) 757-5602.

The City of Davis announced the opportunity for artists and arts organizations to apply for a 2018 art grant.  Community Arts grants provide funding for a wide variety of community-based arts programs and projects that foster excellence, diversity, and vitality in the arts, and have been awarded by the City since 1973. This year, the City of Davis has again demonstrated a renewed investment in the arts in our community by increasing the city’s Arts budget, including $50,000 toward Community Arts grants. This money will be awarded to artists or local organizations for projects taking place between January 2018 and June 2019.

Please Save the Date for our always fun and well-attended Holiday Open House, Monday, Dec. 11, 2017 from 6-8:30 p.m. We’ll recognize some volunteers, roll out a winter calendar of workshops and events, and put on a festive spread.

This fall, Davis Media Access (DMA) celebrates 29 years of operation, and 13 years of community radio. It was October 1988 that our antecedent, Davis Community Television, began as a public access station. In 2004, we launched KDRT 95.7 FM, a move that fundamentally changed our organization and necessitated rebranding. And 10 years ago, DMA emerged as the rebranded non-profit offering community media and digital technology services to the community.

Launched on Sept. 24, 2004, KDRT airs an eclectic mix of music and public affairs programming, and builds community by promoting dialogue, encouraging artistic expression, and acting as a forum for people who typically lack media access. KDRT’s mission reflects its values: localism, social equality, public participation, media literacy, diversity, and, of course, community media.

This week, I participated in a research study looking at links between community media, media literacy, and libraries, conducted through the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College in Boston, MA.

They first asked for my definition of media literacy, which is as follows: media literacy is the ability to understand what media is, its role in our lives, and the kinds of messages it sends. To teach media literacy is to deconstruct media, with an end goal of understanding it well enough to create one’s own messages.

I believe this is particularly important for our youth, who spend inordinate amounts of time online. I’ve heard adults discount youth by saying, “real life is not about likes and followers.” And yet for many of our young folks, it is. So let’s not discount that. Let’s understand that in order to get the likes and follows, first, they become content creators. They’re putting stuff out there that in many ways is very personal. They’re making themselves vulnerable. And why are likes and followers so important? What role is media playing in their lives, and what hole is it filling?  As a mom of two teenagers and one young adult, these are things I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about.

Donations, whether by local businesses, donor-advised foundations, or individuals, keep KDRT on the air, and help support our work on local election & youth media services. We fundraise all year, but conduct our major drive during the spring months, with on-air fundraisers on KDRT in both fall and spring. Our goal for this year was $30,000.

DMA's donors and supporters make possible a great deal of the work we do. We appreciate you!

$1,000 & Above

This article originally appeared in the September 06, 2017 issue of the Davis Enterprise.

During my early years working in community media, the topic of hate speech arose frequently at conferences and on listservs.

Davis Media Access is excited to announce several new workshop tracks. We’re launching this month with our Core Competency series. These workshops will be offered at least quarterly and are free to those who live, work, study, or volunteer in Davis.  Prerequisite: attendance at a DMA General Orientation within the past 18 months. All workshops are offered at the media center, located at 1623 Fifth Street in Davis.

Later this quarter, we’ll roll out our Cinema Skills workshops, and a community lecture series to boot, with the first topic addressing online privacy & media literacy.

Final Cut Pro X Media Management - Wed., Sept. 13, 2017,  7 - 8:30 p.m.

Keep organized as you collect media for your production, so that editing can be a creative exercise. Tips on staying organized for fiction and non-fiction pieces, as well as some advice on the types of shots to collect and how to shoot them. By using the organizing tools available in Final Cut Pro X (events, tags, markers, stars), or even pen and paper, you can focus on the story you are telling, instead of searching for the elements you need( or wondering if you even have them). Investing some time in staying organized will save you lots of time when you edit and make it easy to try variations as you think of them. Lecture format w/overhead. Feel free to bring your own laptop.

Canon XA-25 Orientation: Camera Basics (7 - 8 p.m.) & Composition (8 - 9 p.m.) Thu., Sept. 21, 2017

DMA is offering two workshops back to back.  Sign up for one or both.

In the first session, learn the basics of operating and configuring the Canon XA-25, DMA's workhorse HD camera, available for checkout to volunteers. We’ll cover automatic and basic manual configuration, as well as various audio options.

In the second session we cover composition for your video or photo shoot.  Whether shooting fiction or non-fiction, certain ways of framing your image, accounting for lighting, and using selective focus can help communicate your story to the viewer. This workshop will help the filmmaker, documentarian, and photographer understand the ways in which composition can affect the viewer, both positively and negatively. Hands-on demonstration w/ Q & A.

DCTV Website: Reservations & Resources Training Wed., Sept. 27, 2017, 7-8:30 p.m.

Training for how to use DCTV's website to make reservations, create show records, add episodes, and otherwise manage your production(s) at Davis Media Access.  A review of available equipment and the requirements for checkout or use will also be included.  Moving forward, this workshop and the skills learned in it will be required to make use of DCTV's facilities. Bringing your own laptop to follow along is suggested, but not required. Lecture w/ overheads and Q & A.

One of DMA’s projects is KDRT 95.7 FM—low-power, non-commercial grassroots radio located in Davis, CA. Launched on Sept. 24, 2004, KDRT airs an eclectic mix of music and public affairs programming, and builds community by promoting dialogue, encouraging artistic expression, and acting as a forum for people who typically lack media access. KDRT’s mission reflects its values: localism, social equality, public participation, media literacy, diversity, and, of course, community media.

It’s been a busy summer of engineering for the new antenna, vetting new programs, and having the programmers shadow experienced DJs and learn the core competencies needed to broadcast on non-commercial, educational radio. In the process, some of our existing programs shifted around a bit. Please find the full program schedule online, or pick up a copy in the lobby at DMA. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at some of the new shows:

“Music to Make Pancakes To” Live Sunday 11 a.m. – noon. Tune your radios to 95.7 and heat the skillet to 420, 'cause DJ Presto Pancakes will be flipping records while you flip your 'cakes! Psych, soul, and funk is what's up.

“Praise Time with Preacher” Tuesday 4-5 p.m. DJ Preacher says, “Gospel music is very powerful, whether one is a Christian or not. Through the music and chat in my show, I hope to help you find in you the thing I strive for every day: my spirit. You have it too, and I will work to help you find it and show it to the world. As I say most nights before I go to sleep, ‘We fall down...but we get up.’ We can work together to get up and listen to each other, and bring each other up.”

“Smashed and Rehashed” Live Tuesday 5-5:30 p.m. Local musician Justin Cox (The Polyorchids) hosts freeform conversations with local bands, artists, promoters, and others who actively shape local culture. This show tilts in the direction of indie and punk music because that’s where Justin interacts the most, but it’ll reach far beyond that as well.

“Rap Snacks” Live Wednesday 6-7 p.m. Join your host, Kay-Beezy Fa Sheezy, as he takes you on a weekly hip-hop source-sample voyage. Rap Snacks will delight your ear holes as you experience live the oh-so-fresh vinyl records that inspired hip-hop producers to create the legendary tracks that shaped an entire generation. There are no artificial flavors or preservatives as the wheels of steel that stay spinning do not rust. Word is bond, kid!

“This is Your Brain on Music” Live Thursday 5-5:30 p.m. Is your favorite song on the radio? Well, it should be! DJ Rebecca Hirsch, a 10th grader at Da Vinci High School, says she hopes to put the songs people love on air while playing songs to become someone's new favorite. “My dad would blast Beethoven in the car and my Mom played Chopin at home. I am a big fan of most every kind of music, and am always looking for suggestions of new bands and genres. I play Clarinet, Tenor Sax, Guitar, Bass Guitar, and Ukulele. Be it Igor Stravinsky, RHCP, or Thelonious Monk, music is a transcendent experience for me.”

“Silver Nine Volt Heart” Live Thursday 6-7 p.m. Join your host, Rodriguez, as he swings the gate wide open for a cool musical trip featuring sounds from all points of the compass.  Being mindful that "everything connects to everything else,” on “Silver Nine Volt Heart” you will find the many colorful threads that make up the tapestry of recorded sound...just click it on and let the music start.

“Cowboy Tracks” Live Friday 1-2 p.m. Join DJ Nancy Flagg around the campfire to hear heartfelt cowboy music and poetry. Something deep in your soul will resonate to stories from the early wranglers, Mexican vaqueros, Hawaiian paniolos, Silver Screen buckaroos, rodeo riders, contemporary real cowboys, and all who appreciate wide open spaces, freedom and the cowboy lifestyle.

Curious about KDRT, DCTV or DJUSD Channel 17, and want to learn how Davis Media Access can help you? Plan to attend one of our General Orientations!

Potential volunteers should attend an orientation, held monthly. They last about an hour and include the history of Davis Media Access, a tour of the facilities, and information on how to get involved. Anyone is welcome to attend an Orientation, but to use the facility for your own productions you have to live, go to school, or volunteer at an organization in Davis, California.  

DMA does not charge for the use of our equipment and facilities and attending a General Orientation is the first step for getting involved.

During my early years working in community media, the topic of hate speech arose frequently at conferences and on list serves.

The example that always surfaced was, “if the Ku Klux Klan comes to us and wants to air programming, do we have to air it?” Back then, and in a town like Davis, that seemed like a very remote possibility, and our discussions about it seemed academic. But in the context of American politics today, the question has surfaced anew on community media forums.

The answer then, and now, is yes. It’s neither an easy nor a comfortable answer. Talking about free speech is a slippery slope, especially when hypothetical scenarios meet grim reality, as they did in Charlottesville.

Centers such as Davis Media Access (DMA) are rooted in the tradition of public access channels, which are platforms for free expression and free speech. In conversation with perhaps 100 community members over the years who have complained about programming espousing a viewpoint they didn’t like, I’ve always said that free speech is a double-edged sword.  We may not like or appreciate every viewpoint aired on our channel, but as a colleague of mine says, ‘it’s above our pay grade to decide what is legal; that’s a decision for the courts.”