A Tribute for Nat Ayer: CCTV Founder + Trailblazer 1949-2022
Nathanial F. Ayer, August 16 1949 - June 7, 2022
The first time I saw Nat Ayer, he was in the balcony of Burlington City Hall videotaping Noam Chomsky. It was 1984. Dan Higgins and I were also there to record the noted linguist and political activist—one of the first public events we covered in the early days of CCTV. How surprised were we! “Who’s that? What’s he doing? How amazing there’s another person with a camera, who thinks Chomsky is interesting to record!”
In fact, Nat’s curiosity led him to find, document and preserve the most interesting people and events happening in and around Burlington at that time. After that night, we quickly joined forces and he coined CCTV’s founding motto: “For inquiring minds.” Nat Ayer was the most inquiring of all.
Each morning Nat scoured the Burlington Free Press for stories that revealed the heart of our community: story tellers, demonstrations, jugglers, quilt festivals, match box races, Bernie Sander’s press conferences. Anything with kids. These were the Burlington heydays. Bernie was mayor and the Progressive revolution underway. Every day was new. Each corner of local government was opening up. Nat was there.
Each day, he’d charge his batteries, load video equipment into the Volvo, position himself for the best possible audio and video (rearranging the room when necessary) and record BRoll to better tell the story for the cable TV audience at home. Nat would go home to hand write the titles at his dining room table and painstakingly “join” together a series of short stories into “Burlington: This is You”—the one hour weekly TV show that grew into a 24 hour TV Channel 17/ Town Meeting TV.
Nat brought devotion, care and artistry to his work. His experience as a joiner (fitting wood together into beautiful furniture) and a Dylan bootlegger (collecting concerts from around the globe) were foundations of his TV making at CCTV.
Nat also realized the importance of what we were doing and had the foresight and discipline to carefully save and document both raw and finished video in his many numbered notebooks, which he bound into carefully typed catalogs containing hundreds of hours of now priceless programs: Burlington: This Is You, Bernie Speaks to the Community, CCTV Goes to Washington, CCTV Goes to Montpelier… his system is the foundation of the archives we maintain today, containing 41,000 programs.
Nat preferred to be behind the camera, but that did not stop him from asking questions and being part of the event. He earned the respect of the Vermont press corps who were generous with their advice and support for CCTV’s fledging efforts. Bernie quickly understood the importance of what we were doing and worked with Nat on Bernie Speaks to the Community for 52 episodes while advising his city department heads to “work with these people!” Through Nat’s sheer determination, CCTV was finally hired to cover the Burlington City Council meetings in the mid-1980’s. Week after week for years, Nat recorded democracy in action. His interest never flagged—he was one of the special breed that loves local government—and a proud Fence Viewer for many years.
There would be no CCTV without Nat—and his family. Linda, his wife, and sons, Toby, Damon and Zimmy, have been here from start. Linda’s generous heart continues to hold us all. She ran countless interviews (she especially liked the demonstrations)—and made our peerless anniversary cakes each year. Toby interned and created our first TV animations. Damon drove tapes to the cable company and helped with our election coverage. They each shared their lives with CCTV and generously shared Nat with us all.
How fortunate that we saw Nat in that City Hall balcony that night. We quickly discovered that we shared a vision to make a new kind of TV that nurtured and added to community life. Together, with so many remarkable fellow travelers, we helped to make a local, non-commercial media system that thrives here, across Vermont. We are a national model. But there would be no CCTV without Nat. He lived the vision. Nat produced the programs, pioneered municipal coverage, created the archives and blazed a trail of immense creativity and production. We have so much to thank him for. We'd be so glad to hear any recollections that you would like to share with us. Please hold him in your heart as we celebrate his legacy.
With much love,
Lauren-Glenn
davitian [at] cctv [dot] org
There will be a gathering of family and friends on
Saturday, July 9th from 5-9 pm at All Souls Gathering, 291 Bostwick Farm Road Shelburne, Vermont
Bring a memory to share, and a dish of your choice for a potluck in honor of Nat
RSVP ayerdamon [at] gmail [dot] com
CCTV is planning a Nat Ayer retrospective in late September, stay tuned for details
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