For a compendium of upcoming featured programs, check out Spotlight for June 16-30. Many of our program hosts provide specifics about what’s planned for the second half of June. If you’re not already a Spotlight subscriber, you’re invited to join our Mailing List. See KPTZ’s current Weekly On-Air Schedule and Daily Program Schedule.
(Airdate: June 14, 2022) Maryanne McNellis interviews Amanda Milholland, director of both the Port Townsend and Chimacum Farmers Markets. Amanda’s a local girl with a passion for food. During her time with the Peace Corp in Uganda she learned the value of knowing just where her food was grown. In recent years, more and more people are wanting to know just how their meat, dairy, or produce is grown. The whole “farm to table” movement is based on that premise. Like all businesses, the farmers markets were impacted by the pandemic. But because they are considered “essential businesses” the time when they were actually shut down was fairly brief. Early on, traffic and revenue shrunk to about half of pre-pandemic levels. Food was still sold but popular events like cooking demonstrations and live music were cancelled for much of the first two years of the pandemic. But right now things are looking bright for the 2022 season. The number of vendors is back to pre-pandemic levels. Amanda is excited to report that music, cooking, and even story time for the kids are back this year. It’s the market’s 30th anniversary and everyone wants to celebrate this hometown treasure.
In a move aimed at building upon the reputation KPTZ has earned as a dependable source of first-hand community news, this local noncommercial community radio station has recently chosen station volunteer Jim Burke to fill the newly created position of KPTZ News Producer.
Longtime volunteer KPTZ News Director Steve Evans openly celebrated the hire. “This is a move that has really been too long in coming,” he said. “In my view, the heart of community radio is the way it brings the audience into direct contact with the events and movers and shakers in our region, and although it has been fun being the volunteer leader of volunteer producers in that effort for all this time, we really need a professional staffer for our service to the community to be sustainable and truly reliable.”
At the same time, there will always be an essential place for volunteers to fill out the news and community affairs programming at the station. Evans pointed to the amazing work of volunteers like Charlie Bermant, who in 2018 led the resurrection of daily local newscasts (a service that had died out years earlier), enlisting the help of Lily Haight and Diane Urbani de la Paz. That lineup more recently has evolved to newscasts by Simon Jaynes / Thursday, Casey Dolan / Wednesday, Ann Katzenbach / Friday, and, of course, Jim Burke / Tuesday — not to mention the many other dedicated volunteer producers of KPTZ’s top-notch local community affairs programs such as Compass, Everybody Can, Brewocracy Now, Our Town, Nature Now, Community Tides, Booklovers’ Café, and more.
“What a great time to be joining the news staff at KPTZ,” said Burke of his new job. “As News Producer, I look forward to growing our team of amazing volunteers, expanding our news programming to reflect the hopes and concerns of our vibrant community, and making the move to our new station in Fort Worden’s Makers Square.”
“The hire of Jim Burke assures that KPTZ is on track toward fulfilling a long-held organizational goal, which is to employ a qualified news reporter for us to assure excellent and consistent local news coverage,” said KPTZ General Manager Kate Ingram, who also said the station’s goal is to expand the role to a full time position, once the requisite additional budget funding is secured.
KPTZ’s full program lineup is available at 91.9FM, and for live streaming here on the KPTZ.org website. All of the community affairs programming is also archived on the website as podcasts.
The following is a summary of the presentation during the Public Health briefings at this week’s Board of County Commissioners meeting made by Jefferson and Clallam County Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry. The summary below was provided by and used with the permission of Jefferson County Government.
In her weekly address to Commissioners, County Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry said there is a “plateauing of our cases overall and there isn’t the rise in hospitalizations that’s been seen in other parts of the country.” This low rate is consistent with all of the top four vaccinated counties in the state—that includes Jefferson and Clallam. Dr. Berry said the primary driver of our low hospitalizations is how vaccinated and boosted we are as a community. “If you are not vaccinated, we are still seeing severe disease and we are seeing death,” she said. Our case rates have risen slowly over the past week (to 873/100,000) but indicators point to a slowing of that rise. “I do think we are moving into a different phase of this response, where we will likely still see transmission in our community but we’re less likely to see severe disease,” Dr. Berry noted. “We have the tools we need to prevent severe disease due to COVID-19.” Dr. Berry said to continue to protect yourselves by wearing a mask in indoor settings and getting vaccinated and boosted.
Submit your Public Health questions to Dr. Allison Berry and to Willie Bence by emailing [email protected]. Note: The weekly deadline for these to be submitted is on Fridays at noon, to be answered at the following Monday’s BOCC meeting.
(Airdate: June 13, 2022) Join host Debaran Kelso on a field trip to the sandy shores of Fort Worden! Dr. Fred Sharpe is our guest to speak about dune restoration in this area and in other locations on the Olympic Peninsula (Part 1 of a two part program).
(Airdate: June 13, 2022) Rocky Friedman, who established the Rose Theatre in 1992, and has run it since then, has put the business up for sale. Larry Stein and Ann Katzenbach spoke to Rocky in the Rose Theater about its history, and Rocky’s hopes for finding a new owner to continue this very important Port Townsend institution. Also featured is Renata Friedman, Rocky’s daughter who grew up with the Rose Theater, and continues to help run it from her home in New York.
Now on Mondays from 8 to 9pm, KPTZ presents From the Kitchen Table, hosted by musician Robert Sarazin Blake. Each week Robert invites musical guests from near and far to and share their music from their respective kitchen tables. Hatched during lockdown, the show is based in Bellingham and is taped live through an online video platform. Enjoy an hour of song sharing and conversation from The City of Subdued Excitement! On June 6, Robert is joined by folk balladeer Willi Carlisle and traditional Appalachian vocalist Elizabeth Laprelle. (Thank you to Art Douglas and Classic Jazz, now on hiatus.)
In this episode of Our Working Waterfront, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker, Port of Port Townsend’s Director Eron Berg, and Port Commissioner Pam Petranek explore the Boat Yard and visit with tuna fisherman Paul Svornich and his wife, Lorraine, beneath the stern of their 38 foot sloop named Ocean. As usual, Eron gives us a brief update on the happenings around the Port, and then Project Director and Engineer, Matt Klontz, chimes in with the latest news and projections for the long-awaited north and south Jetty Projects. Paul Svornich tells of his family’s rich Croatian heritage, how he’ll always call Bainbridge Island’s Eagle Harbor his home, how he and Diana Talley built his sloop, and of his adventures with wife Lorraine. Though his daughter, Kashmira has also fished with him in the past, Paul will captain his ship solo these days. Lorraine no longer fishes, and now minds the home front. Paul minds his sails, pampers his small biodiesel-fed engine, and fillets, packages, and freezes his catch onboard. Then brings all of it home to sell to the niche market he’s created for himself over time. In Paul’s own words, he loves dancing with the Sea.
