Bill was originally an East Coast guy. He was born and grew up in New Jersey, and has lived in New York, Maryland and Indiana before moving to Port Townsend in 2014. He’s been on the air at KPTZ doing the Jazz Notes program since 2015. He’s been a fan of jazz since college, starting with players like John Coltrane, The Modern Jazz Quartet, and Chick Corea and expanding his interest from there. His attraction to jazz comes from its spontaneity, its originality, its history of always pushing the boundaries of conventional music a little further, and for its ability to make its performers really listen to each other when they play – almost like having a conversation.

On Jazz Notes Bill plays all the classics like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker to name a few, but he also plays people you might not be so familiar with, like Ike Quebec, Tomasz Stanko, or Michael White. In addition, you’ll hear from today’s stars like Christian McBride, Wadada Leo Smith, and Cecile McLorin Salvant.

So, whether your taste in jazz runs to the “Hot” music of the 1920s, Swing, Bop, Cool Jazz, Fusion or the Avant Garde, tune in to Bill on Jazz Notes Tuesdays from 8 to 10pm. It’s jazz you just won’t hear anywhere else. Email Bill.

Morning on the Salish airs every Tuesday morning from 9:30 to 11am. An actor and performer for many years, Chris Bricker graduated from California State University, San Jose with a B.A. in Theater Arts. After travels around Europe for a year, he did a stint at KTAO FM radio in Los Gatos CA as a show host.

He is a graduate of the Ringling College of Clowns, Class of 1971 and worked with Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus for three years. Later, he traveled throughout Japan, Hawaii, the Virgin Islands and the continental U.S. performing in other circuses as well. Along the way, his musical saw playing came in handy. Chris and both his young sons, Christopher & Noah, teamed with their Dad for domestic engagements with various circus producers. As shipboard performers, he and his son Noah also traveled to Finland, Estonia and Sweden. Chris is a member of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio & Television Artists (SAG-AFTRA), and has worked in film, television and commercials. He is also a saw-playing member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 1000 (acoustic travelling musicians union).

His work experience over the years has also included union representation and organizing. He began his Labor Movement career representing hotel and restaurant workers, and later he was a field organizer for California state workers. He has been the opening act for the Western Workers Festival Concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as for the Great Labor Arts Exchange Concerts in Silver Spring MD. He has also toured with the New Old Time Chautauqua.

Keri French (aka Mermaid Keri) contributes regularly to Morning on the Salish with her sultry Tuesday Tide Report. Email Chris.

From 11am to noon each Saturday, KPTZ airs Sing It, Sister!  Ellen Bonjorno has been a dance & party DJ for over 30 years, and has always enjoyed introducing her audience to music they may never have heard, putting those “new” songs together with classics we all know and love. Inspired years ago by 2 male friends who only listened to music by women in their home every Sunday, she decided to do a program featuring all women’s voices. You’ll hear songs from every genre, from jazz to gospel, bluegrass, disco, folk, rock and reggae and from every era, from the 1920s to today. Thanks for tuning in to Sing It, Sister!

Click here to read the interview with Ellen Bonjorno from the March 16, 2021 KPTZ Spotlight. Email Ellen.

Gail Pruitt and Robin Ditzler take turns on Unlaced Strings which airs Sunday 10am to noon. Says Gail, “It became clear at an early age I wasn’t a child prodigy or genius. And the prognosis hasn’t changed, though I’m still working 50 years later at becoming a child prodigy. My mother did say I showed interest in music at a very early age by humming with the blender, harmonizing with its high wheeze as the eggs and flour were mixed. That’s not music aptitude, that’s just plain weird in my book. What you might want to know about me is I love all music, but especially classical music for its ability to so perfectly express all human experience and emotions, joy, sorrow, angst, love, and all those we can’t identify or don’t know we’re feeling. In putting together a show each week, it’s my goal to find something – whether it be a fiery, complicated piece by Shostakovich or a simple Bach Adagio – that will touch you in ways you don’t expect or reminds you and me about the common, yet distinct journey we’re taking as humans.” Email Gail.

Caleb Peacock, aka Captain Peacock DJs Dance Party in your Living Room Saturday evenings 8-10 p.m. Email Caleb.

Left to Right: Paul Ruben, Mary Robson, Debaran Kelso, Nan Evans (seated)

KPTZ’s Nature Now presents eclectic and authentically local news, insights and observations about the natural world around us. Anything that grabs the attention of the Nature Now team can be heard on these weekly shows: birds and bees, flowers and trees, the weather and the stars – everything from microscopic Salish Sea plankton to ecosystem dynamics in a changing world. Listen at 12:30pm on Wednesdays and repeating Saturdays, as well as most Thursdays at 5:30pm.

Every member of the Nature Now team is fascinated by the wonders of the natural world around us, is endlessly curious, hungry for new knowledge, and loves to share these passions with KPTZ listeners.

After training as a marine scientist, Nan Evans spent her professional career in natural resource management policy and government affairs for the federal government, the State of Oregon, and The Nature Conservancy.

Debaran Kelso holds a Master’s degree in Ecology. She has worked as a field biologist in various parts of the world, but has made the Olympic Peninsula home for the past 30 years, focusing her study on Northern Spotted Owls.

Mary Robson taught college English on the east coast and then made a life switch to horticulture. She taught at Edmonds Community College, and then for 18 years at Washington State University where she applied her master gardener talents through the cooperative extension service.

When not at KPTZ, you can find team members out in nature with hiking boots or waders, binoculars, cameras, and notebooks. Email the Nature Now team.

Progressive Tracks airs weekly on Sundays from 5-6am and repeats Mondays, 9-10pm. Says DJ Mike, aka Mike Pollack:

Having an older sister (Elvis era) and brother (Beatles era), I started loving music at an early age. But when I first heard Ian Anderson growl those famous lyrics from “Aqualung” (“Snot is running down his nose……greasy fingers….smeary, shabby clothes.”) I knew I’d found MY music – Progressive Rock (or Prog for short). Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and King Crimson all proved highly annoying to my parents – an added bonus! But that was years ago……

So what does my love for 70s Progressive Rock have to do with being a DJ at KPTZ in 2013? Prog is long dead, right?

Wrong! Progressive Rock survived the 80s and 90s as underground music in one form or another, and is experiencing a significant resurgence in this millennium.

So that’s where I come in. I’m your Prog connection to artists like Steven Wilson, The Flower Kings, IO Earth, La Maschera Di Cera, Glass Hammer, District 97, IQ, Astra, Izz, RPWL, and hundreds of others you’ve probably never heard of. It’s different, complex and interesting music…….listen enough and you might find yourself becoming a fellow ProgHead.

Prog is Dead! Long live Prog! On KPTZ…..91.9 FM…..Port Townsend’s Eclectic, Authentic, and now Progressively Rockin’ Community Radio.

P.S. If you know the significance of Heracleum mantegazzianum, you may already be too far down the “Prog Rabbit Hole”!  Email Mike.

Our Town airs alternate Tuesdays and the following Sunday from 12:30-1pm. Host Maryanne McNellis has worked for the Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Business Week Magazine and several other American publications. She lived in Canada for many years and edited The Financial Post, the Canadian equivalent of the Wall Street Journal. In addition, she has taught journalism at universities in both Canada and the USA, including a stint as a Distinguished Professor at the University of Montana.

About OUR TOWN. Have you ever wondered about the people you see every day around Port Townsend? The clerks at Safeway or QFC? The fire fighters or police officers? The barista who serves your favorite coffee just right? KPTZ’s new show “Our Town” profiles some of the fascinating people who live, work and play in Port Townsend. It’s not about the ‘big shots’ – it’s about the real people who make up the texture of the community. Host Maryanne McNellis talks to some of Port Townsend’s finest – from fire fighters to foodies, from artists to animal handlers, and even the occasional bus driver or teenage beauty queen. Listen in and meet someone new. “Our Town” gets you out and about, meeting someone new each time you tune in.

Email Maryanne. Listen to past Our Town shows at KPTZ’s podcast page.

Early Music airs Sundays from 8 to 9am.  Says Don: “Like many of us, I’m pretty eclectic when it comes to music. I dug R&B as a kid. In the 60s; Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, etc. From Folk to Celtic to Lightning Hopkins to Ernest Tubb in the 70s. I heard my first Early Music in the 80’s on KPFA fm, community radio in Berkeley, CA., where I grew up. There were two EM programs then, Mary Berg had Sunday morning and Joseph Spencer had a weeknight program.

“It was Mr. Spencer that turned me on to Jordi Savall and other noted EM musicians…I was hooked! I was a member of the San Francisco Early Music Society for years; J. Spencer was the director back then. He also had the Recordstore/Cafe, “The Musical Offering” in Berkeley.

“I love to sing and got into singing music of the old masters of the Renaissance and Baroque eras with various chorus in the area, including The San Jose Symphony Chorus, Stanford University Chorus, and others in the Bay Area.

“Here in PT, I’m part of Rain Shadow Chorus and sing and play the harmonium in a local Kirtan group.

“Early Music is about simple harmonies, clear, pure lines. Music that entertains the performer and the listener alike. I’m kind of an EM junkie; Oma and I go to Seattle and Victoria among other places today to enjoy this passion.

“Let me know if you have any questions or comments: this is OUR Community Radio Station.” Email Don.