John Sharify has been named General Manager of Seattle Community Colleges Television, SCCtv. The award winning former KOMO Television news reporter replaces Ross Davis, retiring after creating the station and running it for the past 11 years.
Sharify will oversee SCCtv and its IRIS Education and Rainier Radio entities. The SCCtv group creates and distributes education and community focused programming on two cable channels and streams the content via the Internet. "It's a natural evolution from what I was doing before," says Sharify. "I am looking forward to seeing what can happen in the world of new media and excited to see the role technology will play in education. The possibilities seem endless." Sharify assumed the position in mid-February 2008.
Background
John Sharify comes to SCCtv following nearly 18 years with Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO TV. While Sharify started his reporting career in New York City at WPIX TV 26 years ago, it is at KOMO where he grew as a journalist and delivered his signature stories that fed the soul and lifted the spirit of his viewers. A 31-time Regional Emmy winner and 119-time Emmy-nominated journalist, Sharify won four Emmy Awards for top reporter in the Northwest and six writing Emmys since 2000. Sharify is also the recipient of five National Edward R. Murrow Awards, two of them the National Edward R. Murrow Award in Writing, recognizing him as the top broadcast news writer in the country in 2004 and 2007. Sharify is serving in his second year as President of the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, NATAS. Sharify is a proud graduate of Princeton University. John also has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University.
Ross Davis founded and developed SCCtv, Seattle Community Colleges Television. Davis is a former Emmy award winning commercial broadcaster and business executive, working for King Broadcasting in Seattle and Portland before joining the Seattle Community Colleges in 1998 to complete their $21 million fundraising campaign. He produced the largest Pacific Northwest public affairs broadcast, Northwest CrackDown, simultaneously airing on 29 commercial and public broadcast stations in 5 cities at prime time. Although formally retired, Davis will continue producing some programming for SCCtv while looking forward to devoting more time to his many interests outside of broadcasting.
SCCtv is Seattle Community Colleges television. Located on the campus of North Seattle Community College, SCCtv delivers distance learning and educational television via the web and broadcast on two Seattle area cable channels (Comcast Ch 28/Millineum Ch 19). Its web services are used by 77,000 public schools and over 800 colleges throughout the U.S. SCCtv's production services create innovative video production and programming for a variety of colleges and universities, government agencies, medical institutions and other interests. For more information on SCCtv, visit www.scctv.net.
Information
Please call Production/Operations Manager Tom Butterworth at 206-985-3966 with any questions.
