TOWN SQUARE TELEVISION
5845 BLAINE AVENUE — INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, MN 55076
PHONE: 651-451-7834  FAX: 651-450-9429  W EB: www.townsquare.tv
MEDIA RELEASE
Contact:
Jodie Miller, Executive Director
651-450-9891 ext. 308
[email protected]
DATE:
November 5, 2014
Inver Grove Heights, MN— Our Town Square Television “family” is grieving the loss
of our friend and colleague Mark DeJoy. Mark should have been sitting in his usual chair
in our studio last night, along with co-hosts Mayor Beth Baumann and Matt Wallace and
roving reporter Shirley Pike, presenting our LIVE local election results to our
community. Sadly, Mark passed away this past weekend. With great difficulty our staff
and volunteers pulled together to put out a program worthy of Mark’s tribute. In the
words of Inver Grove Heights volunteer Mark Bitner, “You [We] did a great job of
bringing our extended "Cable Family" together and helped us deliver a successful
production in Mark's memory.”
Mark will be remembered by our staff, volunteers, board and commission members,
community leaders, residents, and businesses as the face of local news and local
community television in Northern Dakota County. He was an award-winning producer
with multiple national NATOA GPA First Place Awards, Midwest Regional Emmy
Nominations, and many other citations of his talents.
Mark worked as Production Coordinator at Town Square Television since 2001. He also
co-produced a successful aviation program called The Flightline. In his almost-30-year
television career he was equally accomplished both in front of and behind the camera as a
host, reporter, producer, writer, videographer and editor. In recent years he became the
brilliant unofficial tech support expert on all things techy, relating to video file formats,
transfers, conversions, cloud storage, uploads, downloads, and social media.
His primary regular project at Town Square Television was co-producing and hosting the
monthly news magazine program Insight 7 . In addition, he produced and hosted many
video programs and events for Town Square Television and our clients. He was proud of
the hour-long documentary on Romanian immigration to South St. Paul, A Thousand
Dollars and Back, that was viewed by a sell-out crowd at its world premiere showing in
late September. In the words of the project manager and local genealogy expert Vicki
Albu, ”Mark was THE reason our Romanian immigration video turned out to be stellar.
Condolences to his family, friends and coworkers on the loss of one phenomenally
talented, funny and nice guy. He will be missed.”
Mark was known by co-workers and clients for his incredible efficiency and speed on
productions, his high standard of work, and of course, his sharp wit and goofy sense of
humor. He could be serious about meeting deadlines and producing quality shows while
having fun in the workplace and keeping everyone smiling. The quantity and quality of
his workplace pranks were second to none.
Mark will be dearly missed by co-workers who became close friends over his 13 years at
Town Square Television.
Funeral arrangements are pending at White Funeral Home in Burnsville and Peace
Church in Eagan, Peace Church, 2180 Glory Drive, Eagan MN 55122, (651) 454-4542.
----Town Square Television is a non-profit organization producing local television programs
and providing access to video production equipment, studios, training, and cable TV
channel time for community members who wish to televise their own programs. Town
Square Television channels can be viewed by 21,000 cable TV households in Inver
Grove Heights, Lilydale, Mendota, Mendota Heights, South St. Paul, Sunfish Lake, and
West St. Paul. More information is available at www.townsquare.tv, including detailed
weekly schedules for all Channels.