The National Telecommunications and Information Administration unveiled the recipients of $11.9 million in Public Telecommunications Facilities Program grants.
The largest grant: $801,345 to Public Television 19 Inc. (KCPT) in Kansas City, Mo., for a production switcher, HD cameras, teleprompter, associated production equipment, ATSC stream analyzer, encoder system, integration, and test and monitoring equipment.
NTIA awarded 31 DTV conversion grants totaling $9.2 million. In addition to KCPT, recipients included stations in large markets such as Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, and St. Louis, and state networks in Arkansas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin.
One of the two DTV grants to WLAE-TV, New Orleans, is to replace production and associated equipment that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Another 12 awards totaling $1.8 million were made to replace urgently needed equipment, including two projects that were awarded on an emergency basis. Mountain Lake Public Television in Plattsburgh, N.Y., was awarded $175,000 to replace a tower destroyed in an ice storm, and South Dakota Public Television was awarded $386,750 to replace damaged guy wires on a 1,700-foot tower.
Two awards were for extension of service. The University of North Carolina received $572,395 to activate WUNW, a digital repeater in Canton, N.C., and The University of Montana received $406,875 towards the construction of a digital television facility to bring the first over-the-air public television service to Great Falls, Mont., and surrounding communities. (The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provided funding for other equipment in the Great Falls project.)
The complete list of television grants is here.
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