January 18th, 2007 12:00am

No Longer Strapped for Cash, Plum TV Plans to Widen Its Technology Horizon

By RACHEL NAVA ROHR

After receiving a $20 million investment last month from big names in media, fashion, music, sports and finance, local television network Plum TV - which has markets on Martha's Vineyard and in five other high-end beach and ski resort communities - is planning to expand.

In addition to opening new markets in Miami, Fla. and Sun Valley, Ida., the investment will also mean growth at the Martha's Vineyard station in the next several months: more staff and a new Web site with access to all of Plum's video content - as well as some interactive elements - in addition to the basic schedules and information that are on-line now.

"It will no longer be Plum TV, but just Plum, and TV will be a component," said MacDara Bohan, the Dublin-born, 34-year-old general manager and executive producer of the Vineyard station. In the next several months, Mr. Bohan plans to increase the six-person staff, hiring one producer and two to four Web developers. The new site may be up and running by May.

"The Web site will realize Plum as a network - brought together in one place," Mr. Bohan said.

Plum TV's channel on the Vineyard will also change sometime this year from 76 to 22 - an easier channel to stumble upon when channel-surfing and the same channel as Plum TV on Nantucket.

Along with their recent distribution agreements with AOL Video, Google Video, Comcast video on demand and TiVo and plans to develop new cell phone applications, Plum's aggressive business strategies and use of new technologies may be redefining the scope and power of local media.

"I think it's certainly a unique business model," said Plum TV founder and chief executive officer Tom Scott, who is best known for being one of the two "juice guys" who founded Nantucket Nectars. "We probably are the biggest little network in the world - whatever that means."

After Nantucket Nectars sold to Cadbury-Schweppes for about $100 million in 2002, Mr. Scott bought the local Nantucket television station NTV and rebranded it. In the summer of 2004, Plum TV launched in three locations: Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Hamptons. Since then, Plum TV has expanded to the Colorado ski towns of Vail, Aspen and Telluride.

Like the Vineyard, the other five markets are places people are passionate about - and places that can sustain the stations economically. In every market location, Plum TV's best programming broadcasts in the early morning and late afternoon, targeting the wealthy before and after their day at the beach or on the ski slopes - not in the evening after a day at work.

The allure for advertisers is that these viewers - many of whom are high-powered, busy people - are relaxed and receptive. Intermixed with local commercials for The Black Dog, Jardin Mahoney, Hy-Line Cruises and the Edgartown Residence Club on the Vineyard's Plum TV station are national advertisements for Audi, Kate Spade, O Beverage, Visa Signature card and FBR private wealth investment.

And now Plum has attracted a national assortment of investors like Jason Flom, chairman and chief executive officer of Virgin Records U.S.; Tom Freston, former chief executive officer and chairman of Viacom Inc. and a founding member of MTV; Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records (U2, Bob Marley); Robert Kraft, chief executive officer of Kraft Group, which owns the New England Patriots; Robert Pittman, former chief executive officer and president of AOL; Nick Buoniconti of the Pro Football Hall of Fame; fashion designers Andy and Kate Spade; and singer Jimmy Buffett.

But Plum content, which features local goings-on, sports and weather, also appeals to Islanders - particularly in the wintertime. In fact, the cohosts of the MorningNoon&Night show, Guinevere Cramer and John Clese, have found - quite unexpectedly - that they have attained celebrity status on the Island. They are often approached several times a day by strangers who have comments or rebuttals.

"It's remarkable - we did not necessarily set out to create personalities," Mr. Bohan laughed. "We fell upon two people who are naturals." The co-hosts have had chemistry since June 2004, Mr. Bohan said, when they were standouts at the casting call. The only television experience between the two was a cooking show Mr. Clese had done on MVTV. This time of year, the MorningNoon&Night show is live at 8 a.m. on Thursdays and replays twice during the day. Last summer it broadcast four days a week and next summer, Mr. Bohan hopes to broadcast live every morning.

To make way for the Web expansion, all of Plum 's television content will be repackaged for viewing online. New hardware and software will allow Plum create a Web site that tracks content and schedules advertising.

Mr. Bohan talks animatedly about the directions that new media may be taking - he sees the Web trying to harness the entertainment power of television and television trying to harness the utility power of the Web. The public is pushing for the marriage of entertainment and clickability.

"Barriers to communication are being eroded," Mr. Bohan said, noting that five years ago, Plum would have been available only on the Vineyard, but "now we're available in all these different places."

Plum 's new Web site could also include user-generated content - viewers could post their own recipes next to the cooking shows, seasonal visitors could post their family photo albums from the summer and year-rounders could post video diaries of their winter travels.

"Six degrees of separation on the Vineyard is really more like two, so we can really feel a sense of connection with everyone we're interacting with," Mr. Bohan said. "It could be really, really vibrant - a real living kind of organism - a meeting place for the exchange of ideas."

While Mr. Bohan considers new ways to take advantage of up-and-coming technology, Mr. Scott focuses on Plum's content.

"What we really want to do is talk to interesting people with interesting ideas and interesting attitudes on life and hopefully lead that into the minds and spirits of other people," Mr. Scott said. "We want to make positive television which we think will have a positive influence - and I know that may sound corny, but that really is the vision for the company."

The interesting ideas and interesting people change from market to market.

"Each station is successful only if it's able to accurately reflect the community it's in and embrace it and celebrate the people and the values." Mr. Bohan explained. "The model is narrowcasting as opposed to broadcasting."

Although there are shared interests among Plum's three Northeast beach communities - such as reducing traffic, preserving eel grass, buying vegetables from local farms and creating affordable housing - each place also has a character of its own.

Mr. Bohan describes the Vineyard's character as unflashy and predominantly left-wing, with a strong counterculture heritage, absent the see-and-be-seen culture of the Hamptons.

Plum has a harder time booking celebrities on the Vineyard, where most people prefer to stay out of the public eye. "We get a different type of name," Mr. Bohan said. "There's a pop culture A-list, and then there's a different sort of A-list here that's more of a journalist A-list or an author A-list or an activist A-list."

With $20 million in hand, Mr. Scott said he looks forward to focusing on his Plum vision instead of worrying about finances.

"I've spent a lot of years helping build the business, raising the money - that's the hard part," he said. "My mind has shifted so much more to [the content] we make, and how we make it. I'm so glad my brain can be in that space and not in the hell of building a business."