Here at Davis Media Access (DMA), we’ve just said goodbye to a true helper, someone who has fundamentally shaped the course of this organization and by extension, this community, for the past 25 years.
Jeff Shaw departed this month for a new job managing government access television for the City of Piedmont and netted a really short commute from his home in Berkeley. While they say no one is irreplaceable and I believe that to be true, Jeff is much beloved and it’s a tough goodbye.
As production manager for DMA, Jeff was instrumental in helping to build partnerships here in Davis and throughout Yolo County. Thanks in large part to his efforts, our alliances with the Davis Joint Unified School District, City of Davis, Woodland Community College, and dozens of community-based groups throughout Yolo County have blossomed and grown. He's guided dozens of high school and college students through internships.
Most notably, Jeff is the main reason KDRT came into being. In 2000, he approached the leadership of what was then called Davis Community Television to say there was an opportunity to start a low-power FM ( a special class of non-commercial educational radio) station for Davis, and would they consider it. Fast forward four years and a ton of work, and KDRT launched Sept. 24, 2004. In the intervening years, Jeff advised and assisted dozens of others to secure licenses and launch stations.
In this spirit, at a farewell gathering earlier in November, the board, staff and volunteers of DMA and KDRT named the new KDRT studio (in process as part of our remodel) in his name. Yolo County Supervisor Lucas Frerichs attended and presented Jeff with a proclamation for his 25 years working to develop community media in Yolo County (see pic).
We’ve brought on several part-time staff to help us meet our existing commitments through the end of this fiscal year while we work to restructure staffing around changing organizational priorities. I’ll give a quick welcome to James Caballero, Eric Richardson, Avery Thompson and Ned Sykes for the ways they’re stepping up to help during this period.
We can only hope as Jeff leaves that he does so knowing his impact has been mighty, and deeply valued.
Autumn Labbe-Renault, Executive Director
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