Princeton Community TV will move its production and broadcast operation into the former Borough Hall, perhaps by the end of the week.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton Community TV, the public access channel that has been in the old Valley Road School for the past eight years, will move its production and broadcast operation into the former Borough Hall, perhaps by the end of the week.
The station’s board in February accepted an offer from the municipality for the space, as the station has known that its lease to use the school was not going to be renewed. Files have been packed up and the studio was closed anticipating the move across town.
”We’ll see if it works out for us,” said station executive director George McCollough on Friday. “Hopefully, it will. If not, then we’ll try to find another location.”
The station, still waiting for the official green light from the town to make the actual move, is the second entity to relocate from the school to Monument Hall, the former Princeton Borough Hall. Corner House, the counseling service center, began operating there on May 13.
The relocation of the station comes as the future of the school is in flux. The Princeton Board of Education has said that it is making available the portion of the building fronting Witherspoon Street. One possibility is for the municipality to acquire it to expand the firehouse located next door, although a group of residents wants to obtain the building for a community center.
As for Princeton Community TV, Mr. McCollough said he thought the move would have happened by now, but there have been delays. “We’re just waiting on word,” he said. “They still had a couple of things to clean up at Borough Hall. And as soon as they give us the word, we’ll go.”
Though no more shows are being produced, Mr. McCollough said he has enough material stored up to keep fresh programming on the air.
Princeton Community TV is televised on channel 30 on Comcast and channel 45 for Verizon FIOS. In 2012, the station did 460 shows of local programming, not counting government meetings, Mr. McCollough said. The total is more than double what the station did two years ago.
While the station will make Monument Hall its new home, Valley Road School was a sanctuary for some, even if the conditions were not the greatest. In one hallway, overhead lights were not working Friday morning.
”This building’s pretty beat up because it hasn’t been maintained,” Mr. McCollough said. “For as beat up as it is, it has become home for a lot of people.”
”Yeah, it really is,” said Lawrence R. Greenberg, who was working on a project at the station Friday and echoed the sentimental feelings about the building.
In Monument Hall, the station will occupy space in the basement. One project will be trying to turn the former police locker room into a TV studio.
”From a viewer’s perspective,” Mr. McCollough said, “hopefully not much will change.”
The move will mean that the station will need to go off the air for a short period to allow for the conversion, he said. “But you never know,” he said letting out a laugh. “When you unplug something that’s been on for five years, you hope that it goes back on.”