autumn's blog

Davis Media Access offers two kinds of summer camps for kids aged 10-13. In the production camp, participants will learn how to produce a program in DMA's television studio, including storyboarding, operating cameras and sound equipment, and media literacy training. New this summer, campers will be able to take advantage of DMA's brand-new HD Field Cameras. They will also get an introduction to the radio booth KDRT 95.7 FM, DMA's low-power community radio station. The course is team taught by DMA staffer Alex Silva-Sadder, with assistance from high-school or college-aged assistants.

The life of an executive director is full of report writing, with perhaps none more important than an annual report, a document that tells the story of an organization, why it exists, and how it makes a difference. For the second year, we've taken what used to be a big written annual report and made a short video instead.

I constantly hear from people involved with one of our projects that they had no idea how many other things happen here at the media center. The video aims to give some insight into the whole organization by looking back on what we did in 2015. You can find it here, and I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check it out. Big thanks to Darrick Servis and Jeff Shaw for their production work, and Eunah Cho for the majority of the still images used.

A note from the Director

I’m musing about this town’s fascination with numbered days. We’ve got our First Thursdays, wherein our good friends at the Davis Odd Fellows host free live music at the Hall on Second Street. Then we’ve got 2^nd Fridays, with the Art About downtown.

I’ve learned to love numbers, so here are some others I’d like to highlight:

1: Number of Picnic Day parades the KDRT contingent will march in this year.  Be sure not to miss us April 16 on the route from the UC Davis campus through downtown.

3: Number of Live in the Loam radio programs recorded in the past month with appearances by Bob Woodruff, the Rev. Shawn Amos, and I See Hawks in LA. 

14: Number of local non-profits we helped create short public service announcements during our annual PSA Day.

28: Number of years we’ve been doing local election coverage. DMA is ramping up to cover forums, record “Meet the Candidates,” and produce a live show on election night, June 7.

DMA requires all new participants to attend a free General Orientation. These one-hour sessions happen once per month and include some history and background of DMA and community media, examples of media produced, and a tour of the facilities. Our facilitator will cover specific ways to get involved, depending on your interests, as well as suggested next steps. Anyone is welcome to attend an Orientation, but to use the facility regularly, you must live, work, study or volunteer at an organization in Davis. 

DMA is delighted to welcome two new members to its board of directors, the volunteer body that provides governance for our non-profit.

In December, we seated Craig Blomberg for a two-year term. Craig is a longtime volunteer with KDRT, and has chaired the all-volunteer KDRT Management Team for the past several years. He spends hours each week updating the logs for the radio station, and selflessly devotes his time to making KDRT a great community resource. A registered nurse, Craig supervises case management at Sutter Davis Hospital. He lives in Davis with his wife, Darien.

In February, we seated Laura Grindstaff for a two-year term. Laura is a professor of Sociology at UC Davis and a faculty affiliate in Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, and Performance Studies. Her research and teaching focus on American media and popular culture and their role in reproducing gender, race, and class inequality. She publishes and lectures on a wide variety of topics ranging from cheerleading to reality television. From 2008-2015, she served as the faculty director of the Davis Feminist Film Festival, a grassroots festival of short films from around the world linking art to social justice issues. Prior to pursuing a career in academia, Grindstaff trained as a journalist at the University of Western Ontario (Canada) in her hometown of London, Ontario.

NEW! Registration Open for Kids’ Camps: Each summer we give over much space and time to helping our younger community members make media. Registration is now open for these always-popular classes. 

Lots of Programming: Please see links in the sidebar for the following recent programs: Presentation & Discussion of the Nishi Gateway Project; PSA Day 2016; 2016 Davis 1,000 Mentors for Youth Kickoff Event; Live in the Loam with Reverend Shawn Amos; plus recent volunteer programming, In the Studio, and more.

KDRT’s volunteers have been busy training new volunteer programmers. Look for a new schedule towards the end of the month. In addition, KDRT folks have been busy for months now setting up a live broadcast from Armadillo Music as part of the plethora of offerings during the 2^nd Friday Art About downtown. Last week's featured our old friends, The West Nile Ramblers. Tip of the hat to local musician Tim Spangler for helping out with these, and of course to the good folks at Armadillo, and the musicians.

The Davis Live Music Collective Presents Rita Hosking: Local favorite, Rita, who released a new album in late 2015 called “Frankie and the No-Go Road.” Catch her Friday, March 18, 7 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Center in Davis, with special guests Silas Lowe and Andy Lentz. 

Fourth Annual Interfaith Climate Conference: “Climate Justice: Rising to the Challenge.” Saturday, March 5, 9:30am–3:30 pm at St. James Catholic Church in Davis.  Hear Keynote Speaker Joan Brown on Caring for Our Common Home followed by a Panel on Reflecting on Successes and Challenges in Climate Change Work with Congressman John Garamendi, Chief Caleen Sisk, and Humberto Camacho.  Choose from practical, advocacy, or reflective workshops.  

One particularly effective and easy way to support DMA is through the donation of a car or boat. CARS (Charitable Adult Rides & Services) processes donations of used vehicles (running or not) with proceeds benefiting KDRT. If you'd like more information, please visit here and be sure to designate KDRT as the beneficiary.

I’m writing on New Year’s Day 2016, and I’m excited to kick off what is sure to be an exciting and challenging year. I’m also beginning to give shape to “A Look Back at 2015,” our annual report video for the year.

In the big picture, changes in technology, continued Big Media mergers and telecom-friendly legislation make the business of being a non-commercial community-media center ever challenging. Yet those same changes render the need for local content, and hands-on digital learning opportunities, ever more critical. DMA is ready for the challenge, and poised to unroll some exciting new services this year.

Thanks to Team Davis & all who attended DMA’s Holiday Annual Open House. The Team Davis Youth sang live on KDRT and were the highlight of our evening. The place was absolutely packed, friendships were renewed and forged, and many new folks came to check out the media center. You can see Eunah Cho’s wonderful photos from the evening here.

DMA is governed by an active and committed group of volunteers. Kate Snow served on the board for the past four years, and as its chair for much of that time. Her second term ended in December and we bid her a fond farewell, as a board member. Her work with the school district, and connections to social justice and immigration work informed DMA’s work in those areas as well. We are grateful for her time and energy shared. Thank you, Kate!

DMA Shorts: Current DMA volunteers and producers are welcome to attend "DMA Shorts" on January 27 at 7pm. DMA Shorts will be a screening of DMA Producers (& friends) short-form completed work, current drafts, or other projects intended to provoke discussion. Look for a registration link on our DMA volunteer email list to guarantee a seat.

PSA Day: DMA knows how difficult it can be to get the word out about your programs and services—and on a budget, no less! Short, pithy, visual, inexpensive, and available online? We can help, via our annual PSA Day. This special production opportunity will help you make a 58-second public service announcement highlighting your organization and how it serves the community.  This year’s event takes place Feb. 10 & 11. Please see here for details and registration.  

KDRT had a great year. KDRT programmers and volunteers provided major support for the Davis Music Festival, organized benefit concerts at Sudwerk and the Davis Odd Fellows, and hosted Professor Jesse Drew and about 30 students from the Technocultural Studies Program at UC Davis every Tuesday morning during fall quarter for another round of Technocult Radio.

DMA Production Manager Jeff Shaw works with local high- school interns each quarter to produce a variety of programming. Recent interns have included Julia and Livia Morris; Aaron Kaplan; Meg Robinson; Emily Merten;  Dylan Taylor; Willian Bezzera, and Kevin Windt. Each receives hands-on production training in digital media, and gains experience in the field recording a variety of school-based productions. Our interns were busy last month recording a variety of band and symphonic productions at the middle and high schools.