The new executive director at the Waltham Channel has always loved the city. And her enthusiasm came through during her interviews for the job.
Maria Sheehan, most recently general manager for Westborough TV Inc., was recently chosen in a near unanimous vote by Waltham Community Access Corp., said board president Justin Barrett.
"I've always loved Waltham. When I was in Framingham State College that was the place to go," she said. "One of my best friends went to Bentley and I used to go down to Moody Street ... I've always loved the city. There's so much to do and it's just a great community."
As executive director she will oversee the management of the WCAC-TV facility, staff, and budget. Her main goal will be community outreach and encouraging residents, government officials, nonprofits and businesses in the community to take advantage of the channel.
"I'm just so excited to create TV shows and help people create TV shows about he city," she said. "I'm really excited to promote the channel and hope people see the value it has and come in and use it."
Barrett said the community access board reached an agreement with Sheehan on Wednesday.
"The board here was very, very high on her," Barrett said. "We had a search committee before that. We interviewed four candidates who were all qualified, but she came out on top."
Barrett said the other candidates were all executive directors of cable access channels from Massachusetts and all had at least five years experience.
She takes over Aug. 18 in the position formerly held by Bob Kelly, who accepted a job at NewTV, Newton's public access channel.
Barrett said Sheehan's energy, vision and personality were "very magnetic."
"We're hoping to increase local broadcasting and we're hoping to put more locally produced shows on and also we hope to bring in more volunteers so more people become involved," Barrett said. "She will also be working on an outreach basis to get more people to come in and work on shows."
Sheehan comes to WCAC-TV with 25 years' experience in broadcast media with more than 10 years' experience in public, educational and government access programming. She currently lives in Shrewsbury with her 19-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter.
Before her time in Westborough, Sheehan worked at Shrewsbury Media Connection as the government access coordinator, where she won several local and national awards for shows she produced. Sheehan said she hopes to apply that experience in Waltham.
"Every town has their basic shows they want to do. I would like to build up the government channel. When I was in Shrewsbury, every department had their own show ... I want city hall to have that kind of access to educate people about city government," she said. "I think it's important because I think people want to know where their taxes are going ... there's probably a lot of services the city provides that people aren't aware of."
For more information visit www.wcac.org or call 781-899-8834.
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com
