KPTZ stages on-air fundraisers in March

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It’s crunch time for KPTZ 91.9 FM, as the station continues to raise funds for its planned move to Fort Worden State Park.

Station Manager Kate Ingram reported the fund drive has made significant progress since an anonymous KPTZ DJ donated $100,000 for the Fort Worden move.

Thanks to a $500,000 challenge grant from the Sage Foundation, that $100,000 was double-matched and became $300,000.

Since then, KPTZ has conducted a one-day drive that raised $22,000, which in turn became $66,000 due to that same double-match grant, and collected more than $15,000 in a recent flash drive, which became $45,000.

As it nears the home stretch toward its $986,000 total goal, KPTZ aims to collect as much as it can before the end of March to meet the construction bidding deadlines for Makers Square in Fort Worden.

To that end, the station is conducting a six-hour “Super Saturday Special” fund drive March 23, with the “Beach Rumble” running from 2 to 6 p.m., followed by Buzzy Donahue from 6 to 8 p.m.

“During the Beach Rumble, Ruby Fitch will be playing live music that relates to the community, and talking about what we’ll be doing at the new station that we can’t do here,” Ingram said. “We’ll also have special guest pop-bys.”

Buzzy Donahue will be sitting in for DJ Lizzz with “Music that Sounds Good on a Saturday Night” that evening, with Captain Peacock following from 8 to 10 p.m. with the “Dance Party in Your Living Room.”

The following weekend’s fund drive promises to be even more eclectic, with a seven-hour “Free Friday Festival” March 29, starting with Phil Andrus’ “Tossed Salad”from noon to 5 p.m., followed by Ron McElroy and Pete Raab’s “Free Spin” from 5 to 7 p.m.

Andrus’ tentative lineup is as follows:

• Mary Hilts, Centrum Blues and Red Hot Strings at 12:45 p.m.

• Gary Kanter singing the news at 1 p.m.

• Peter McCracken’s fiddling at 1:45 p.m.

• Al Bergstein with Olympic Peninsula Environmental News at 2 p.m.

• Noah Frisch on the didgeridoo at 2:30 p.m.

• Jim Pivarnik, executive director of the Port of Port Townsend, at 3 p.m.

• The Dudley/Hastings family at 3:30 p.m.

• Readings by Heather Dudley Nollette at 4:30 p.m.

“Free Spin” is set to center around ballads and other songs that tell stories, before McElroy inaugurates his weekly reprise of his previous shows with “ReSpin” from 7 to 8 p.m.

Among the features that Ingram eagerly awaits at the new studio location are both simple measures, such as more effective insulation, in addition to a larger performing studio and more on-air studios.

“We have people broadcasting while other people are trying to record,” Ingram said. “If we’re using two studios at once, it can create a conflict, because our current soundproofing is not enough to keep them from competing with each other.”

KPTZ will also be aided in this regard by its basement location at Building 305.

Dave Robison, executive director of the Fort Worden Public Development Authority, looks forward to seeing KPTZ on site.

“KPTZ’s mission and values align closely with the Fort Worden Lifelong Learning Center, and it gives voice to our arts and culture community,” Robison said. “We are excited about our blossoming partnership.”