Kuchma, Kachmar: The arts help
No matter how discouraging it can get in Bridgeport — and this being one of those times — there are people who keep pushing ahead, trying to brighten the background and spice up the place.
Two of them are Phil Kuchma, the 70- year- old developer behind the Bijou Square project on Fairfield Avenue in downtown Bridgeport, and Suzanne Kachmar, the longtime director of the City Lights Gallery, a small — but scrappy — gallery that has punched above its weight now for more than 15 years of survival in Bridgeport.
Kuchma’s latest success — and that’s not to say that everything’s been successful — is to bring radio station WPKN from its longtime home on the University of Bridgeport campus to new quarters on Fairfield Avenue in Bijou Square.
Bridgeport has a reputation. Alas, given the recent arrests in City Hall and the police department, it’s not all that surprising that Bridgeport has a reputation as a governmentally corrupt entity.
The reputation plays no small part in the attitudes toward Bridgeport of people from its surrounding communities — not to mention the folks who sit in seats of power in Hartford, from the governor on down — when they consider just what they might want to invest in the city.
Kuchma most recently finally convinced another tough punching, scrappy entity to move into downtown Bridgeport: radio station WPKN, 89.5 on your FM dial, to move into Bijou Square.
Kuchma’s strategy, whether it’s bringing tenants into his residential or commercial spaces, is a clear one: “My entire concept is to bring as many creative people into the city as I can, to make this an interesting place,” he said the other day.
Kuchma said he’s been trying to convince the station to come downtown for several years.
“WPKN is a jewel,” he said. “They have an eclectic mix of people, music, thought and passions.”
PKN, as it’s known to its fans, is named after the Purple Knights, the nom de sports of the University of Bridgeport’s athletic teams. PKN began life in 1963 as part of the university’s operation. In 1989, when the university was spiraling into a financial crisis that was halted by its affiliating with the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the school spun the station off as an independent nonprofit.
Speaking as a fan, the 10,000watt listener- supported station has a lineup of dedicated, knowledgeable programmers offering everything from Carl J. Frano’s presentation of ’ 50s, ’ 60s and doo- wop, the reggae selections of Ebong Udoma, the Asian picks of Joseph Celli, talk, gardening, Native American music and everything in between. The station is a delight.
“They’ll have people coming and going around the clock,” Kuchma said. “But most importantly,” he said. “through the programming and the conversations they have with their audiences, they’ll be able to present a picture of what’s going on. Create some buzz.”
The expectation is that the station’s studios will be operating downtown within a few months.
And speaking of creatives, Kachmar once again is forging ahead with plans for the 12th Annual Bridgeport Arts Trail, this time a COVID- sensitive 10- day online and on- site celebration of the myriad artists that are, in fact, living and working amongst us in the Greater Bridgeport area.
It runs Nov. 5- 15, with an indoor- outdoor kickoff event on Nov. 7 in and around the Reads Art Space building, the Arcade and the adjoining Peacock Alley and parking lot.
“We’re putting our energy into online activities like salsa, storytelling, interviews with artists,” she said.
Kachmar, like Kuchma, believes the arts can be an uplifting rallying point for a beleaguered city.
And let it be noted here that 1 former Bridgeport Mayor Mary Chapar Moran and her husband, Steve, will mark 60 years of marriage on Oct. 23.
Moran, a Republican and the first woman to be Bridgeport mayor, served one term from 1989 to 1991. She defeated Democrat Thomas W. Bucci to win the office, and lost to Democrat Joseph P. Ganim.