One note, one stroke at a time, art grows in Bridgeport

Fresh off its anointment by no less than a writer for The New Yorker magazine as “the greatest radio station in the world,” Bridgeport’s WPKN, 89.5 on your FM dial, on Tuesday completed a nearly-two-yearsin-the-making move from the University of Bridgeport to spanking new studios in the heart of the city’s downtown at 277 Fairfield Ave. in Bijou Square.

The relocation adds another ton or two to the artistic critical mass that’s been growing, in fits and starts, in the center of the city for nearly 20 years, when the scrappy City Lights Art Gallery opened at 37 Markle Court, not much more than an alley in the tumbleweed art desert of Bridgeport.

There are, of course, the mass entertainment venues, the Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater; the adjacent Webster Bank Arena and The Klein. They are large on the landscape and draw their crowds.

But the little places — the galleries, studios and other small working spaces — are life forms that ingrain themselves and can shape the face and nature of a city.

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 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.

If PKN is not the “greatest” radio station in the world, few would argue that it is the most eclectic. I would take a shot at describing “eclectic” except that David Owen, the New Yorker writer who bestowed the benediction, did such a nice job on it in his Aug. 16, 2021, piece:

“Depending on when you tune in, you might hear a Stevie Wonder song performed by an all-women jazz septet, or a dozen different covers of the same Bob Marley song, or twenty minutes of Tuvan throat singing, or a totally addictive cut by the group that the founder of Morphine founded before he founded Morphine.”

And that’s but a sampling of the variety that some 80 programmers bring to the mash of content — from arias to Zydeco and all styles between — that the station airs.

Steve di Costanzo is the station’s general manager. He is an affable, 61-year-old chrome-domed Bridgeport resident and veteran of the publishing business in New York City. He sold a golf trade journal that he published to the PGA and moved on to indulge in his passion for music.

He became enchanted by the station, got involved as a volunteer, a programmer and eventually went on to the board.

Among factors that triggered the move — the station’s been on the UB campus for 63 years — was the desire to be closer to the community the station strives to reflect, di Costanzo said.

“If we want to be a reflection of the community, we have to be where the community is,” he said the other day as we sat in the new space in a sunlit room overlooking Fairfield Avenue.

Speaking of eclectic, as di Costanzo notes, those 80 programmers are about as diverse as it comes: white, Black, gay, bi, trans; connoisseurs of blues, classical, reggae, ska, bluegrass, news, talk, analysis, etc.

In fact, it seems there’s some representation of every substantial segment of the Bridgeport demographic, except, perhaps, the indicted politician.

As always, the man in the middle of the mix is Phil Kuchma, the persuader-in-chief behind the development of Bijou Square.

Kuchma is 72 and is the longest tenured, most consistent force toward downtown development. He’s particularly pleased with the station’s move.

“PKN will have people coming here around the clock, and that’s what a downtown needs,” he said.

It is Kuchma who brought the lovely Bijou Theater back to the little tin-ceilinged gem that it is.

Another arts warrior is Suzanne Kachmar, director of City Lights. Last weekend she oversaw the 2021 version of the Bridgeport Art Trail, which brought an estimated 7,000 people to the thrown-open doors of studios around the city.

This was the event’s 13th year, tangible proof that the city has established its reputation in some circles as an artsy place. It also proves that art will bring people into a city largely perceived from the outside as a place more notorious for political corruption and the struggles of its citizenry than as an artistic oasis.

Around the corner from Bijou Square, is the Read’s Artspace building, a 61-unit artists’ housing complex created in 2004.

It’s a huge success on one hand: The only housing downtown at the time were two senior-citizen complexes, and its conversion of the long-vacant five-story Read’s Department Store building into housing was certainly one of the catalysts that started the apartment surge that continues.

But something of a disappointment on the other: The spillover of an artistic vibe, and a spillover of actual art, just hasn’t happened.

So, the effort to strengthen the city goes on — one brushstroke, one song — one at a time and all together.