She was part of KPTZ back before the beginning, and now, as its incoming music director, Ruby Fitch aims to take the public radio station to a new level.

“I was living here when the station first got off the ground,” Fitch said. “There was an article in The Leader about how they were starting up a new radio station, with a number to call if you wanted to help them get started.”

This was before Port Townsend had its own radio station, and Fitch was excited to attend planning meetings and take part in fundraisers to help the station get underway.

“After about two years, we went on the air May 14, 2011, and I was one of the first DJs,” Fitch said.

Fitch’s weekly show, “Beach Rubble,” aired Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon and was designed to live up to KPTZ’s mantra of “authentic, eclectic community radio.”

“I would play vinyl, CDs and digital material,” Fitch said. “I aired new songs, classics, hits and B-sides. We even had live guests play on occasion.”

After about 3 1/2 years, Fitch went on a hiatus from on-air broadcasting, although she continued to volunteer for KPTZ. A move to Portland, Oregon, resulted in a more clear-cut separation from the station for a couple of years until she returned to Port Townsend.

“I came back this Thanksgiving,” said Fitch, who was drawn by the promise of working for her old station again.

The position of music director is new for KPTZ, and if it were a commercial radio station, Fitch acknowledged it would entail “shaping the station’s programming content.”

However, because the unique character of each DJ’s selections is part of what she considers valuable about KPTZ, Fitch said her job would instead be to “maintain and boost our quality” by helping to provide the DJs with more musical resources.

“I’ll be working to get music from the labels, promoters and artists themselves, especially local artists,” Fitch said. “I really want to focus on local and regional music, because that’s such a special part of who we are. A lot of our library is already dominated by local artists, but I want to build that out even more.”

Fitch also looks forward to conducting fundraisers, sponsorships and presentations of shows, including live concerts, and she urged listeners to mark their calendars for the “Love Is Alive” slate of programming on KPTZ this Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.

“Every show is set to feature live local musical guests,” Fitch said. “Paul Rogers, who organizes the Deep Squeeze Accordion Festival, is slated to be part of it, and I’ll be doing ‘Vinyl Dialogues’ from 1 to 3 p.m. with Dick Keenan. We’ll have lots of good banter, and a bunch of goofy, fun, out-of-the-ordinary material.”

Fitch acknowledged the difficulty of determining who exactly comprises the KPTZ audience, which she sees as another reason to make the station’s programming as diverse as possible.

“When you’re in the radio booth, you don’t know who you’re talking to out there, so you always want to bring your best,” Fitch said. “I always enjoy listening to experts on a topic talk about it, and demonstrate their deep understanding of the genre.”

Coming back to KPTZ, Fitch found it operating even more smoothly than when she left it, much of which she attributed to station manager Kate Ingram.

“At a station like this, where some people only put in a few hours a week, not everyone sees everyone else, so Kate serves as our hub of communications,” Fitch said. “She’s a steadying influence who keeps tabs on where everyone is at.”

For her part, Ingram returned the compliment, praising Fitch and the rest of the station’s staff.

“We have an amazing team here,” Ingram said. “I’ve been working in radio my whole adult life. All the other stations I worked at were already there, but KPTZ has been built from the ground up, and it’s a great resource for this community.”

Fitch is not the only employee from KPTZ’s original days to be working at the station now, and Ingram credited those employees with “injecting vitality” into the station. But of Fitch specifically, Ingram said, “She’s a natural fit for what we do here. She gets it. Everybody loves her here, because she gets what radio is and should be.”