Courtesy of Community Media Access Partnership:
For the first time in nearly a decade, an original production of the Gilroy-based Community Media Access Partnership — CMAP TV — is in contention for awards recognition.
The Western Access Video Excellence Awards or WAVE Awards celebrates the thriving community television landscape and its many stations and individual producers.
CMAPs original production “How To Recover From A Mass Shooting — Inside Gilroy with Andrea Moran Brown” is one of three finalists in the Professional category for Best Talk Show. The winners will be revealed at the annual awards ceremony, taking place on Thursday, Feb. 20 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Monterey.
“Our community suffered a great blow when this cherished event was marred by this senseless violence,” said Charles Douglas, Television Operations Manager for CMAP.
Douglas, who directed this episode, is grateful to his colleagues at the Alliance for Community Media – West Region for the recognition. He pointed to the inspiration of Becca King Reed, the creator of the television series, for inviting local counselor Andrea Moran Brown on in the aftermath of the mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Reed concluded her tenure as Executive Director of CMAP TV at the end of 2019, though she continues to work in the field as Executive Director of CTV Santa Cruz.
“CMAP played one small role in an all around effort to mend the trauma surrounding this incident, an effort which continues as we come to understand the importance of addressing mental health needs in our wider world,” Douglas said.
In the days following the July 28, 2019 shooting where three died and 17 were wounded, CMAP also coordinated a Community Resources page to gather together the numerous efforts by law enforcement, non-profit and other agencies. The downtown Gilroy headquarters of CMAP, known as the Greenhouse, was also the site of a community vigil on August 1 which CMAP TV cablecast and streamed live.
The WAVE Awards will be announced at the conclusion of the three-day annual conference of the Alliance for Community Media – West Region, which for the first time is being held on the Central Coast.
CMAP was last honored in 2012, when Carol Peters won her WAVE award for her show, “Carol on Creativity,” which still airs on CMAP TV. CMAP youth media creators also were recognized for programs on teen pregnancy prevention and dating violence that year.
The Western Region Video Excellence Awards were created in 1988 to recognize and promote the best in local community programming produced in the Western Region of the Alliance for Community Media. Entries top 500 each year and more than fifty awards are presented to professional and non-professional community video producers from all over the western region including Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada and New Mexico.
