Our History

The Creation of DCTV

“It was back in about 1973-74 when the cable first came through Denville that the Library Director at that time, Nancy Monroe, applied for a government grant which was providing Sony PortaPak cameras and recorders to public institutions for the purpose of Public Access TV. Nancy and her assistant at that time, Anita Freeman (who has been the Director of the Randolph Library for many years) used the Sony PortaPak (1/2 inch reel-to-reel B&W videotape!) to tape kids’ story hour and to do some amateur cooking programs (cooking done at the library!) which were shown on Cable (Morris Cablevision originating out of Morristown) Channel 6 at that time. I moved to town in 1973, and the cable came through my street in 1975. Meanwhile, I was bringing my two little kids to the library for story hour and became fascinated by this newfangled “videotape” thing! Anita suggested that I get involved and the rest is history.            

The government felt that cable TV was no longer just a means of bringing TV programming to people “behind the mountains” (those who could not receive TV signals from broadcast towers) but was also a way to bring the community into people’s homes. Cable companies took their case to court saying that it was not their job to provide this public access, but the Supreme Court ruled that it was and thus, public access television became the law. The cable companies were required to take a small portion of each subscriber’s monthly fee and give it back to the local towns for the purpose of purchasing equipment to produce public access TV. This was called the refranchising fee. Only 3 towns in Morris County took advantage- Denville, followed by Jefferson (with a program called Jefferson Highlights) and then Florham Park (overseen by Dave Ackerman). The schools also produced programming, primarily CCM. A Denville resident named Ethan Shapiro who headed the Media Dept at CCM was asked to volunteer to join the new project (and serve as Director) that Denville was forming to oversee the use of the refranchising fee money. This was the DCTV Committee, and it was comprised of the mayor, a Council rep, Ethan, and a handful of others representing various parts of the community. Eventually the committee hired a Part-Time Director named Randy Feldman who lived in Livingston and had a bit of background in TV production. He held workshops on how to use the cameras and editing decks, as well as producing programs. However, Randy was not a good fit for the project as his primary interest was TV production, not Denville. He left the position, and the Committee then hired Tom Lancaster of Cedar Lake, a media teacher at MKHS, to run the project. But, for a number of reasons, Tom didn’t work out, so in 1978, after being a volunteer with DCTV for about 3 years, I was asked to run the project. I did so until 2000 when my Harvest Festival chairing duties became too much and I elected to step down.”

Written Account by Geoff Millington, Project Director of Denville Community TV from 1978-2000

How We Became Denville Community Media

After a few unsuccessful individuals attempted to run the DCTV program, then Mayor Ted Hussa appointed Ruth Gimble the new DCTV Program Director. Ruth kept the momentum on the program as it moved into a new century. Continuing to tape stories and events that were ongoing throughout our community. About 2009, fellow DCTV member Fritz Mott started a DCTV YouTube page ushering the start of a new era for broadcasting and archiving these video treasures. Shortly afterwards, Fritz would create a Facebook page that would create the larger Denville audience in our community. In spring 2022, long time committee member Dana Foreman returned to the regular DCTV production team. Dana recognized the serious need to improve and expand the production capabilities of DCTV. With his guidance and abilities for management, DCTV would undergo changes to set the project to a higher standard. New branding and name change was in effect as the organization outgrew the DCTV (Denville Community Television) moniker (as there was very little TV left) and became DCM

(Denville Community Media). New video production was added as streaming and improved editing skills that gave DCM productions both a more polished professional appeal. This lead to greater viewership across our social media sites. Shortly thereafter, new volunteers came fourth and were added for the first time in many years. In 2023, DCM received the Organization Of The Year award from the Denville PRIDE (DEFINTION) Committee. In January 2024, Dana expressed the need for DCM to have a location to produce, plan and teach the necessary skills to produce videos for the town.  Soon after meeting with DCM town council liaison, Gary Borweic, a location was found in the Union Hill section of town and the Denville Community Media Union Hill Studio was born. From 2023 to 2025, the volunteer membership has grown from 6 to 16 members. In 2024, new updated camera gear was purchased and training classes for volunteers started in 2025. These same volunteers also contribute to remodeling the Union Hill Studio for upcoming productions soon.