SEQUIM — In a voice warm as butter, “Susie” reminded a world of listeners Tuesday morning: “Only 31 days left until spring.”
Susie Pearce, known on the air just by her first name, is a freshly minted disc jockey at KSQM-FM 91.5, Sequim’s noncommercial radio station that just expanded its potential audience by a few billion.
The station, aka Sequim Community Broadcasting, has since early December offered music from the 1940s through the ’80s, plus public-service announcements, to the Dungeness Valley and points beyond.
Now its programs are available live on the Internet via www.SCBradio.com — and Pearce is pleased, to say the least.
“I waited 50 years to do this,” she said of her volunteer radio-announcer post.
Dream come true
Pearce grew up in Watertown, Conn., listening to FM radio pioneers such as Alan Freed, and dreaming of how she’d feel if freed on the airwaves.
About two months ago, a neighbor told her about KSQM and urged her to join its volunteer corps. So the retired University of Denver project administrator drove down to the West Washington Street studio for training.
“I was so terrified when I started, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth,” Pearce recalled.
Those days are past. Now Pearce, 64, glides, serene as a swan, around the musical spectrum from Linda Ronstadt’s “Heat Wave” to Frank Sinatra’s “I’ve Got a Crush on You” to “Honky Tonk” by Jazz in Blume, the group led by Sequim chanteuse Tracy Blume.
During her 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on-air shift Tuesday, she chatted with a reporter while segueing from song to song, turning casually back to the microphone to give time and temperature readings, weather forecasts and reminders about local events.
One of the things that’s hard to believe about this job, Pearce said, is that it lets her reach her neighbors — and people on the other side of this continent and planet.
“I feel like I’m communicating with my town,” said Pearce, who moved here three years ago from Denver.
And since KSQM became available on the World Wide Web, “We’ve heard from people in London, in Germany, and all over this country.”
That includes her grown children, who’re saying, “Hey, Mom’s on the radio,” in their homes in Wichita, Kan., Denver and Tucson, Ariz.
Keith Burfitt, a founding member of KSQM’s board of directors, said its Web site is being remodeled to allow listeners to more easily interact with the radio station.
Public station
KSQM is running on volunteer and donation power, Burfitt added. Though not a National Public Radio affiliate, the station is public, meaning it does not air traditional commercials, and depends on support from listeners and program underwriters.
KSQM’s volunteer DJs, who staff the station from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., frequently remind listeners that this is community radio, giving give announcements about Sunrise Rotary Club and Special Needs Advocacy Parents events, among other activities.
Burfitt said nonprofit groups may send information for such announcements to KSQM, P.O. Box 723, Sequim, WA 98382, or e-mail news@ksqmfm.com. The station’s phone is 360-681-0000.
Burfitt and KSQM cofounder Rick Perry have both received calls from local residents who can’t find the station on their radio dials.
In some cases, it’s been a matter of attaching an inexpensive FM antenna to the radio set, Burfitt said.
But in others, the North Olympic Peninsula’s terrain is the culprit, since hills and mountains have a way of blocking the FM signal.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
