Dennise Kowalczyk (left) and Tara Dublin build KZME’s music library. IMAGE: Leslie Montgomery

For a radio station with huge goals, it sure is difficult to find the KZME office. Tucked in the corner of a modern brick building in Gresham that also houses MetroEast Community Media sits in a lone small, cluttered office. Its walls are mostly bare, and the desk is lined with family pictures and a computer prominently displaying TweetDeck. Against the wall, a bookshelf of CDs by local artists is still a work in progress, as former KNRK 94.7-FM DJ Tara Dublin pulls a copy of folk singer Laura Veirs’ July Flame off the rack.

“What tracks do we have clearance to play?” Dublin asks.

Dublin, who was laid off from her daily gig on Portland’s biggest alternative radio station in May of last year, has ventured out on I-84 today to produce her weekly podcast. But long-term, she’s here to ask the question that many in-the-know local music fans are asking themselves: Does the future of Portland radio reside in Gresham?

Dennise Kowalczyk thinks so. As the director of KZME, Kowalczyk has to be optimistic, but she’s not the only person excited about the burgeoning community station. Since its application for a non-commercial, educational radio station was approved by the Federal Communications Commission in 2008, KZME has been the great big hope for Portland radio: a centralized station dedicated to local music, art, business and culture.

“KZME is going to understand the community in a way corporate radio just doesn’t because corporate radio is always looking at the bottom line,” Kowalczyk says. “We’ve got to pay our bills, obviously, but our interests are based in the people of Portland.”

The only problem is that, as of right now, the people of Portland can’t listen. KZME—which intended to begin broadcasting in 2009—has yet to hit the airwaves because it still doesn’t have the requisite funds to purchase a transmitter, which will be on Mount Hood. It’s close, thanks to a $85,000 federal grant and a major supporter who has given a “substantial donation” (and pledged an additional amount once the station goes on the air), but still hasn’t met its financial goal of $255,000 to begin operating.

But KZME has laid a lot of groundwork in the past two years. It has a home (91.1 FM), a signal that will reach most of the east metro area and a translator that will extend a broadcast range north of the Columbia River, south to West Linn and west of Beaverton. The station has a partnership for a monthly showcase at Mississippi Studios, a dedicated and experienced music director in Dublin, and a simple slogan (“music where you live”).

It also exists in a market that, despite some great community stations and programs, lacks a go-to station for local music. “People have been force-fed this commercial brand of radio for so long they don’t realize it’s not that great,” Dublin says. “It’s like going to McDonald’s every day of your life and then someone takes you to a really nice steakhouse and you go, ‘Oh, this is what food is supposed to taste like.’”

KZME’s plan, as outlined by Dublin and Kowalczyk, is to rely almost exclusively on music penned by local artists. The 46-year-old Kowalczyk—who moved to Portland from the East Coast in 1995 and has been involved in radio ever since, first as a station manager at KBOO and then as an employee of 89.9 KQAC FM—says it will be about a 50/50 split between music by Portland artists and songs by national acts that are playing in town. The duo is banking on the idea that listeners will respond to hearing familiar artists on-air, and that the same people who flock to see live music in person will want to hear those artists on the radio. Kowalczyk is confident the station will start broadcasting within the next year—at least before 2011, when its building permit expires—and that it can survive on the support of volunteers and a community that thirsts for something to the left of the corporate radio dial.

“Having access to the airwaves seems so obvious and natural, especially in a city like Portland,” she says. “The whole point of KZME is to take the world experience and make it small, intimate and personal. We want to have a conversation with our audiences, and I think that’s what community radio is all about.”

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MORE: Visit kzme.fm for info, including how to donate by becoming a charter member. This is the last of WW’s five-part series on the changing face of local radio in Portland. For links, resources, conversations and extra content, go to wweek.com/localradio.