Scott P. Arroyo 
BOULDER, Col.—The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) negotiated a donation of W29EN-D, a low-power television (LPTV) station in Beaufort, South Carolina, and announced that it would build the station as a facility ATSC 1.0 and would provide bandwidth to South Carolina ETV (SCETV) for its groundbreaking educational datacast services and other public service content.
The station will provide expanded television service to 280,000 people in the Beaufort and Hilton Head areas of South Carolina.
PMVG, which is a nonprofit business development consortium of 33 public media organizations, has reached an agreement for the donation of W29EN-D from Lowcountry 34 Media, an LPTV owner based in Beaufort, South Carolina. The FCC approved the assignment of the station to PMVG as a new licensee on March 28, 2022. PMVG will move quickly to build this station since, under a limitation in the station’s license, it must begin broadcast service in airwaves by August 2022. , the consortium said.
The FCC has also approved the assignment of LPTV station W35DZ-D in Cookeville, TN to PMVG of Lowcountry34. PMVG will build this station in conjunction with local public television station WCTE.
Once built, the two new stations will bring new broadcast assets with a combined market value of nearly $1 million to PMVG and public television.
“PMVG is delighted to coordinate and complete the donation of these stations to benefit WCTE and SCETV,” said PMVG CEO Marc Hand. “The additional broadcast capacity will allow these two major public television organizations to better serve their communities, an outcome that illustrates our purpose and value as an organization.”
“SCETV is always looking to find ways to best utilize our resources and extend services to our local communities,” said Anthony Padgett, President and CEO of SCETV. “This could potentially be one of those opportunities. The PMVG continues to be an innovative partner for SCETV and public media. We are excited to continue to explore the benefits associated with this license and, where appropriate, seek ways to leverage this opportunity for the benefit of the region and expand our services through data dissemination.
“Our company helps broadcasters get the most out of their licensed assets,” said Jeff Winemiller, owner and CEO of Lowcountry 34 Media. “Our partnership with public television has brought significant resources to the communities of Tennessee, South Carolina and Pennsylvania. We are proud to work with the Public Media Venture Group to advance the important service provided by television networks. public television.
Lowcountry 34 Media LLC is a broadcast engineering company that builds infrastructure to support both LPTV and full-power stations nationwide. Lowcountry 34 Media has 80 LPTV PCs in 27 states.
