Steve Ruiz has been appointed Executive Director of Wareham Community Television.

The Wareham Community Television Board of Directors made the announcement Thursday, after a unanimous vote of the Board at its Nov. 10 meeting.

Ruiz, a Wareham resident, had been serving as Interim Executive Director since April, following the retirement of Jay Heard. He specifically remembers the date, because he “took over on April Fool’s Day,” which he said felt “fitting.”

“Very fitting, and I refer back to it quite often,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz joined WCTV in 2005 as a contractual employee. In 2008, he was hired to the full-time Technical Director position. Previously, Ruiz held positions with community television stations in Falmouth and Bellingham, and was self-employed as a wedding videographer, commercial producer, editor, camera operator, and equipment repairman, following his Army service. He received a certificate from Northeast Broadcasting School in 1993.

Ruiz said he has several plans in store for the station, including expanding community programming. Though he gets to “play with toys” all day long, Ruiz said his favorite part of the job is helping people put on their own shows, because it’s “really fun.”

“I teach people how to do this stuff, which is the best part of it,” Ruiz said. “There’s a sense of satisfaction when you’ve been working with somebody – and age doesn’t matter, because I work with people all the way from seventh grade up into their 80s – and get it done, and they get it on TV for the first time. And it’s like, ‘Cool!’”

Ruiz said most of the community television projects the station has done over the years have been done by the town’s residents. He said he wants to see more community participation, and almost every kind of program is fair game.

Ruiz also plans to hire two new staffers. One, he said, will replace him as Technical Director, while the other will be an Outreach Coordinator, who will work with local nonprofits people in town may not know exist, to “help get their message out there.”

“There’s a lot of them out there that we don’t know who they are,” Ruiz said. “There’s a lot of people in the town that need help … but they don’t know where to go. … I want to make us a way of getting that information out to people.”

Ruiz also said the station will also start showing art photography again throughout the year, starting in 2016.

Wareham Community Television operates public access, government, and education channels on Comcast and Verizon. It is funded by fees paid by cable subscribers and contributions from members. For more information, visit warehamtv.org.