Victor Pisano, the managing director of Bryan County Television, hopes the planned public access station will begin airing programs by July 1.

He and other members of the station’s ad hoc committee on Tuesday celebrated an agreement with Bryan County that Pisano says permits BCTV to represent the county in the broadcast of public access programming.

The agreement means “the county has no objection to the committee starting a public access channel or working with Comcast to set one up, but the county will not assume any management or costs of running it,” County Administrator Phil Jones said Thursday.

Plans call for the station’s programming to be available to any Comcast cable subscriber in the county. The nonprofit BCTV will be based on the motto “home matters,” and the ad hoc committee wants to operate three channels, focusing on public access, educational and government programming.

Pisano, a Ford Plantation resident, said the exact number of BCTV channels, and where they would fit in the Comcast channel lineup, could be determined in the coming days.

Public access shows on BCTV would allow any county resident to produce and air their own shows.

“You can have your own TV program, like a fisherman who wants his own fishing program, or your own talk show, as long as it’s relevant to local issues,” Pisano said Thursday.

For more, pick up a copy of the March 23 edition of the News.