KPTZ has secured a long-term lease for our newly constructed studios at Fort Worden’s Building 305. The new lease, executed with Makers Square Master Tenant LLC under the aegis of the non-profit Fort Worden Foundation, establishes KPTZ as anchor partner in the Fort’s newly developed Makers Square campus.
“We expect that the move to new studios will set in motion a programming renaissance in our community,” said KPTZ Board President Robert Ambrose. “A rebuilt and revitalized KPTZ will feature a significant increase of local program offerings, an expansion of local daily news programming, enhanced live musical and theatrical broadcasts, and augmented studio space for production, broadcast, and journalism training. Plus, it will enhance our emergency broadcast role.”
The KPTZ 2.0 Capital Campaign in 2019 raised the ambitious goal of nearly $1 million to construct state-of-the-art studios at Fort Worden. The station will relocate from the outgrown Mountain View school portable classroom to a larger, better-equipped space at the center of the new Makers Square arts campus. The studios will offer additional square footage, expanded office space, acoustically designed on-air and production studios, a performance broadcast studio, a dedicated news studio, and an environmentally controlled engineering room. The move is scheduled for completion by mid-June 2021.
“We’re thrilled to bring our broadcast operations to the heart the Lifelong Learning Center at Fort Worden,” said Kate Ingram, KPTZ General Manager. “Connecting our highly creative on-air talent and operations staff with the Fort’s distinguished arts and educational partners will create expansive programming opportunities.”
KPTZ serves Washington’s North Olympic Peninsula, offering local information, education, and arts programming to over 50,000 people in its licensed broadcast area and, beyond that, streaming online worldwide to connected listeners via KPTZ.org. After several years of organizing and fundraising by community leaders, KPTZ began broadcasting on May 14, 2011 with continuous 24/7 programming at 91.9 FM. It is fueled by community support and driven by the commitment of its 100+ dedicated volunteers.
Currently the station is closed to the public, in compliance with recommended COVID-19 guidelines. Now that the move is underway, KPTZ plans to reopen doors publicly and to welcome new volunteers, once the new studios and offices are completed. For more information, email contactus@KPTZ.org.
