In addition to a new executive director, WCTV will also get a new studio.

The historical building, which stands at 505 Main St., will see 1,850 square feet added to its current structure, creating about a 30-foot-by-40-foot new studio, new executive director Steve Ruiz said.

“It’s almost as big as what we have now,” Ruiz said. “It’s going to be towards the rear of the building, and taking up just a little bit of the parking lot.”

The expansion, which Ruiz said will be completed by next year, comes after a two-year-long search for a new home for the station.

“Nobody wanted to see us move – we’ve been here since 2009,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz said the new space will be used as open studio to, he hopes, house a full band, and an audience.

“Right now, I can stuff a band in the studio we have now, which is about 25 feet-by-15 feet,” Ruiz said. “So you can have a band in there, but you can’t have anybody watching. So, for the purposes of recitals and stuff like that, you would be able to have an audience that is part of the show.”

Ruiz also said the new space will be helpful, in terms of allowing the station’s current and future staff more space. He said the new addition would allow for cubicles in the current building, rather than shared office space, due to the various pieces of large equipment that take up entire rooms of the station.

“Right now, I’ve got three people in this one office,” Ruiz said, gesturing to his current office area. “It gets, like, crazy when everybody’s in.”

Ruiz anticipates hiring at least two more people: a staffer to replace him as technical director, and another to serve as an outreach coordinator, in order to more closely work with the various groups in town.

The new space will also be a major money-saver for the station. Ruiz said it costs a lot to cool down the current building, which he said gets warm, because of the five large machines stored in the building.

“It’ll also just make it quieter, too,” Ruiz said. “Two servers in the other room make that much racket.”

The station, which does community programming and covers various town meetings, events, and the schools, had sought approval from the town’s Historic District Commission to build the addition since July. The society unanimously approved the addition in October.

Because of its location within the town’s historic district, Ruiz said, the station’s building falls within the commission’s jurisdiction.

“It was built in 1903, but it’s not so much the age as it is the position. I live in a house twice as old as this, but because it’s located in the historic district of the town is what gives them oversight,” Ruiz said. “We are right down the street from the Fearing Tavern … Tremont Nail … the Methodist Meeting house, and all the smaller buildings – they are all part of the area.”

Ruiz said the new addition will be paid for entirely by WCTV itself, which is funded by the station’s Comcast and Verizon cable contracts with the town. He said he does not yet know how much the addition will cost.