A Note from KPUP Radio to Patagonia

Hi, Friends of KPUP!

We hope that during these last few months, when we’ve all been staying close to home, that you have been enjoying KPUP.  We’ve been working hard lately to diversify our programming to appeal to more locals as well as our global streaming audience.

As you know, KPUP is the only local radio station in Patagonia.  It not only provides the greatest musical experience in Santa Cruz County (in our humble opinion,) but it also provides important services for the surrounding community including:

-Patagonia Fire Department/ Marshall assistance

-Emergency Alert System (EAS) compliance, implementation, and maintenance

-Sole source of local weather reporting

-Road closure notifications

In case you’ve ever wondered how often we add music to our collection, the answer is we’re always getting new music sent to us from sources such as KXCI in Tucson along with various music distribution services around the country that require a fee which the studio pays every year.  This music gets put into rotation for the regular music mix.  And have you noticed how many women musicians we feature?  In fact, about 40% of our recordings are by female artists, which is a higher percentage than is customary in radio today.  We’re very proud of that statistic!  Lately, we’ve added a lot of new “country” tunes and we now have more current “pop” selections to appeal to our younger listeners.  And, on top of that, we have live, in-the-studio shows every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings that play a terrific mix of Rock, Blues, Jazz and an eclectic, yet meaningful, story or two. 

Speaking of younger folks, we hope that you enjoyed our broadcasts, way back in May, featuring our middle school and high school graduates.  I know they loved recounting their favorite memories of the past school years.  We wish all our graduates great success as they advance to high school and beyond! 

As Covid-19 forced local churches to suspend in-person services, KPUP has stepped up to offer an alternative.  For several months now we have been broadcasting worship services from Patagonia Community United Methodist Church (PCUMC) every Sunday at 10am.  KPUP has been happy to provide this to the community at this difficult time.  Here is a portion of the message that Anne Quirin, PCUMC Church Council Chair, wrote to KPUP regarding the church services that the station is providing:

“We want to thank you and all of your colleagues at KPUP for making the air time available for the PCUMC worship service and for assisting us with various operational aspects as we have charted new territory in presenting a worship opportunity not only to the PCUMC congregation but also to the wider KPUP audience in Patagonia and beyond.  We at Patagonia Community UMC look forward to a long and happy relationship with KPUP and send you and everyone at the station our best wishes for continued success!”

Another addition to our Sunday lineup is a classical program from 5-6pm.  When the shutdown necessitated the closure of Christina Wilhelm’s concerts at the Opera House, she decided to put together a recorded classical show on KPUP.  Presently we are offering a Latin classical program with contemporary artists and composers from Spain and Latin America. 

Of course we were very disappointed that we had to cancel our annual Luau Fundraiser this past May.  But we are very excited to be part of the upcoming “Pie-A-Thon” to help raise money for the Community Garden, the Community Art Center, and also KPUP at a triple whammy event!   Folks will be able to virtually bid on pies, by telephone, at the 16th Annual Community Pie Auction on KPUP, 100.5 FM, Saturday Sept. 12 from 10-4.  The local celebrity bakers and the pies will be described on air by none other than Mr. Patagonia, himself, Mr. Lars Marshall!  For those folks who spend time online, KPUP will also be auctioning pies on Facebook beginning the week before, September 5th.  So let’s come together to support our community at this new, exciting fundraising extravaganza!

To sum up, we at the Board of Directors of KPUP-LP feel that our little radio station is, and can be, an integral part of this wonderful community of Patagonia and southern Santa Cruz County.  We are excited to see what the future holds for the radio station in terms of supporting our local schools with on-air performances which we staged in the pre-pandemic past, to providing the best music and entertainment in the Sky-Island region.  Thank you for listening and keep “Rockin the Border!”

KPUP Board of Directors:

Georgette Larrouy

Jeff Latham

Fred Hansen

Mark Nicholson

Bob Ollerton

Emily Riney

Carol Ford

Anu Tarahum