BEVERLY — The city’s local cable television station is heading to downtown Beverly.
BevCam is scheduled to open a new media center next month at 261 Cabot St., the storefront formerly occupied by A New Leaf. The space will be called BevCam Downtown and will have two studios, including a podcast studio in the front window.
“We’re very excited about this,” said Paul Earl, president of BevCam’s board of directors. “I think it’s a great move.”
BevCam, which stands for Beverly Community Access Media, will keep its studio in Beverly High School. But officials are hoping the visibility of a downtown location will increase awareness of the organization.
BevCam, which began in 2006, is known mostly for its coverage of local government meetings and high school sports. Earl said the organization does that very well, but acknowledged that the demographic of its viewers is “very old.”
The station’s social media accounts have seen an uptick in recent months under new staff hired by Executive Director Rob Chapman. The opening of a studio on Cabot Street should expose BevCam to Montserrat College of Art students and other young people who visit the downtown’s coffee shops and shops. The studio will be open later hours in the evenings and on weekends, Earl said.
“Once we get down there and we’re open for business it could help us a lot,” he said.
In addition to a main studio and the podcast studio, the new location will have a common area that can hold up to 50 people for events and meetings; two edit suites; and an office for Chapman.
BevCam launched a fundraising campaign to help pay for the new space. As of Friday, it had raised $5,355 toward its goal of $10,000. The fundraiser is scheduled to run through April 5.
Chapman, who became BevCam’s executive director in 2022, said local access stations in other communities have opened locations in or near their downtowns. Salem, Danvers and Gloucester all have downtown-area studios.
“There is sort of a move in the industry to be more accessible,” he said.
Noting that organizations like BevCam are known as “PEG” channels, for public, education and government, Chapman said BevCam has traditionally done well on the government and education portions.
“It’s building up that ‘P’, getting the public involved,” he said.
Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.