Break out the giant scissors, it’s time to cut the ribbon on our new licenses for 89.7FM and 89.5 FM.

Community Radio Station KSQD Announces Signal Expansion to reach Monterey, Carmel, Salinas; Ribbon-Cutting June 21

(Santa Cruz, CA) Community radio station KSQD FM will hold a Ribbon-Cutting ceremony for the newly expanded K-Squid broadcast that will take place in Monterey at Window On The Bay Park, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at 1PM. The non-profit station, known as K-Squid, has successfully purchased two more radio licenses to triple its audience reach for a potential 645,000 listeners from Santa Cruz to Monterey, Carmel, Salinas, and all points in-between. Listeners will now hear KSQD at 89.7 FM, and 89.5 FM, as well as at the original 90.7FM in Santa Cruz.

KSQD (K-Squid), which is run by nonprofit Natural Bridges Media, was founded in 2019 to serve the local community with news, interviews, and music programming relevant to the region. Since the original signal at 90.7 FM did not reach parts of Watsonville and Aptos, as well as Monterey, Carmel, and Salinas, the Board of Directors had been seeking to expand the broadcast region as a goal from the beginning.

The expansion funds were provided by major donors Pat and Rowland Rebele, The Rex Foundation, an anonymous patron, and countless individuals who gave at every level between $10 and $10,000.

Currently, KSQD’s program schedule includes a variety of musical styles, from Classical and Jazz, to Rock, Folk, and Bluegrass. The talk programming is a mix of locally-hosted shows such as Ask Dr. Dawn, the Dream Journal, Be Bold America, What a Week, and Talk of the Bay; with nationally syndicated shows such as Democracy Now!, Thom Hartmann, Laura Flanders, and Counterspin. The mission of Natural Bridges Media/KSQD is to build community through quality broadcasts, podcasts, training programs, and community events. We celebrate the uniqueness of our region through news, arts, and culturally diverse programming.

The station plans to include programs and hosts from the expanded broadcast region of Salinas, Monterey, Carmel, Seaside, Prunedale, and Watsonville. More information on all the shows, forms for making suggestions about new programs, and the live broadcast online, are available at the station website, ksqd.org.The main studio for KSQD is in the County Office of Education building at 399 Encincal Street in Santa Cruz. The new station at 89.7 FM will have its antenna on Fremont Peak and the translator will be on Mt. Toro. K-Squid turned 4 years old on February 15th, 2023.

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