A Home of its Own
Photography: Timothy Thimmes
When KPCW Radio started broadcasting in 1980, Park City listeners quickly became accustomed to founder Blair Feulner’s velvet baritone voice every morning. But it was a good thing they couldn’t see where it was coming from — a tiny hovel shoehorned into the 1939 War Veteran’s Memorial Building on Main Street. Visitors to the studio had to sneak around the pick-up basketball games in the gym, then climb the bleacher stairs and enter the claustrophobic inner sanctum of what used to be a projection booth, renamed the “Broadcast Bunker.”
When the city sold the Memorial Building in 1985, it arranged for the station to move to the basement of City Hall, the former Marsac Elementary School. There it remained for the next 23 years, a patchwork of jury-rigged equipment, a rat’s nest of wiring and a maze of cramped cubicles. But from these humble digs, KPCW churned out the life beat of the town every single day with traffic reports, interviews, lost dog announcements, election results, avalanche conditions, National Public Radio news and every type of music imaginable.
When the city embarked upon a renovation of the Marsac Building last summer, KPCW was suddenly without a home. Feulner started discussions with the city about relocating the station to the second floor of the city’s Swede Alley parking structure addition. The “ground zero” location was ideal for KPCW, often called Park City’s community campfire, and a deal was struck whereby the station would purchase the space from the city and become independent at last. Architect Eric Thompson of FFKR Architects, city project manager Dave Gustafson and KPCW engineer Mario Hieb turned the space into a technologically complex, soundproof environment with the level of precision required for radio broadcasting and the flexibility to record live bands or to accommodate an army of volunteers working the phones during pledge drives. Encased in glass, the corner “sky box” studio is the ultimate catbird seat, looking out on the constant parade along Swede Alley. Calling itself “the Green Media,” the station even has a planted, self-sustaining roof where Old Town butterflies congregate.
Guided by Station Manager Tina Quayle, KPCW miraculously stayed on the air through the entire move in June. The Broadcast Center’s final touch was the addition of illuminated 1940s era “On Air” signs outside the studio doors, signaling that KPCW continues to broadcast live, finally from a home of its own.
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