PORT TOWNSEND — KPTZ 91.9 FM radio supporters hope to be on the air early next year after the organizers of the public radio station were awarded a $150,000 Public Telecommunications and Facilities Program grant.
“It’s a substantial grant,” said Colin Foden, station board member.
“This is a big step. It will go toward construction and equipment. It’s aimed at getting our station on the air.”
Under the federal grant, the noncommercial, educational station will have to come up with a 25 percent match of $50,000 and still must receive about $25,000 from previously made pledges, Foden said.
$64,000 in pledges
KPTZ has raised more than $64,000 in local pledges of support to start up broadcast at 91.5 FM.
The station’s leaders applied for the grant after the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced in April 2008 that $18 million had been appropriated for fiscal year 2009 grants for the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program.
Larry Stein has been named as the station’s program coordinator.
He has worked as a producer at public radio stations in Santa Monica and Seattle for more than 10 years and has also been involved with community nonprofit groups and activities throughout his professional career, Foden said.
A site for the broadcast studio still is in the works, Foden said.
The station’s transmission antennae probably would likely be located on Hastings Avenue to transmit a signal covering much of East Jefferson County, primarily the Quimper Peninsula.
“We have a call out for people to do programming and a training program,” Foden said.
The Federal Communications Commission granted KPTZ a construction permit last year. It is valid for three years.
The FCC also granted a construction permit to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Port Townsend.
The church originally filed for an FCC broadcast license application in 2008 that competed with KPTZ-FM and KSQM-FM in Sequim, another low-band noncommercial educational and entertainment station.
All parties involved worked out broadcast limits that will prevent those signals from crossing.
Radio Port Townsend proposes programs including music, entertainment, news and information. The Sequim station already is broadcasting that programming.
The strongest signal will reach as far as Whidbey Island and the south end of Marrowstone Island, including Chimacum.
Beyond that the signal will be spotty, although there will be pockets of good reception farther south.
The signal is limited to avoid conflict with existing Puget Sound-area radio stations and those in Canada.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
