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Tony Shawcross is the founder and director of Denver Open Media. (photo provided by Denver Open Media)

The City of Denver has positioned itself to cut ties with Open Media Foundation, the nonprofit that has operated local public-access television for twelve years.

The longstanding contract between the city and the operator, which runs the cable channels and a radio station under the name Denver Open Media, will expire on December 18, and city officials are creating what they describe as a community-oriented model of public access, replacing Open Media Foundation — which has forged deep ties to arts, government, media and music organizations throughout the city and has built a thriving media center in a rented facility — with a “Community Media Access Coordinator.”

The city will fill the position in the next few months and plans to relocate equipment from Open Media Foundation’s current studios at 700 Kalamath Street to a new studio, possibly in the City and County Building, where the new hire will be allowed to work.

These changes will give Denver Media Services, the city agency that oversees public, educational and government channels in Denver, greater control over cable access, the city maintains.

The hire will manage and guide community content creators, develop operational policies for the channels, oversee a community media access center that the city plans to open at 21st and Arapahoe in the next few years, maintain equipment, manage archives, prepare and submit reports to the city, fundraise, run an internship program and create a media education training program.

“As a full-time, committed position of 40 hours per week with an anticipated term of five years, the Community Media Access Coordinator (the Coordinator) will establish a community-oriented model to offer programs that empower individuals and nonprofit organizations to create video and media projects that speak to the local community, facilitate community partnerships, and diversify the media landscape,” the position description states.

After Denver Open Media community members took umbrage with the job description’s language, the city decided to allow organizations to apply with their own proposals, mapping out the future of Denver Open Media, as long as one person would be responsible for the work. The deadline for proposals is [today, October 19], and several candidates, including Open Media Foundation and its cable-access wing, Denver Open Media, plan to apply. And Open Media Foundation is still a viable candidate, depending on what the group proposes, says Julie Martinez, director of Denver Media Services.

Whatever happens, Martinez says, Denver’s public-access channels won’t go dark after the city ends its current contract with Open Media Foundation.

Denver Media Services’ move to bring the management of cable access in-house troubles Open Media Foundation founder and director Tony Shawcross, his staff and the community media producers who have been making content at Denver Open Media. They have written letters, called the mayor and city council, and have tried to convince Martinez and other city brass in public meetings to let Denver Open Media continue its work. And they’ve pleaded with the city to back off of its plan to transfer the work fulfilled by an agency onto one person and move the studio at 700 Kalamath Street into a city building. They worry that vital educational and production resources from Open Media Foundation will be lost in the transition.

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Read the rest of the very informative article at the link below:

Correction: This story misidentified the address for the site of the future community media center.

By Kyle Harris
Kyle Harris quit making documentaries and started writing when he realized that he could tell hundreds of stories in the same amount of time it takes to make one movie. Now, hooked on the written word, he’s Westword’s Culture Editor and writes about music and the arts.

https://www.westword.com/news/denver-may-terminate-cable-access-contract-with-open-media-foundation-10916811

[Thank you to Alex Teitz, http://www.femmusic.com, for contributing this article.]

Photo: Tony Shawcross is the founder and director of Denver Open Media. (photo provided by Denver Open Media)

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