KPFA
Encyclopedia
KPFA is a listener-funded progressive
talk radio and music radio station
located in Berkeley, California
, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area
. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on-the-air April 15 1949, as the first Pacifica Station. The aims of the station are to promote cultural diversity, promote pluralistic cultural expression, contribute to a lasting understanding between individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colours. It also promotes freedom of the press
and acts as a forum for various viewpoints.
was created by pacifist Lewis Hill
, KPFA became the first station in the Pacifica Radio network and the first listener-supported radio broadcaster in the United States. Previously, non-commercial stations were licensed only to serve educational functions as extensions of high schools, colleges, and universities. This departure into listener-oriented programming brought many detractors as KPFA aired controversial programming. The first interview with anyone from the gay
political movement was broadcast by KPFA, as well as Allen Ginsberg
's ground-breaking poem Howl
in the 1950s. In 1954 the broadcast by a group of marijuana reform advocates extolling the pleasures of cannabis resulted in the tape being impounded by the California Attorney General. In the 1960s KPFA and Pacifica were accused of being controlled by the Communist Party
, and several challenges to its license were waged, none of them successful.
KPFA was the first station to broadcast a radio show specializing in space music
, with the debut of Stephen Hill and Anna Turner
's Music from the Hearts of Space in 1973. Later in 1983, the show was syndicated in the U.S. to NPR stations and also remained at its first home at KPFA.
news magazine, was forcibly removed by police for airing grievances on air over a labor dispute. A broad cross section of protesters joined in direct action
outside of the station in a weeks-long lockout during which station management spent over half a million dollars on security measures.
At one point, listeners created a separate fund to accept listener pledges that would be directed away from the Pacifica Foundation.
In 2007, KPFA derecognized its Unpaid Staff Organization. The staff claimed that Pacifica Radio had been making network more corporate, softening its voice of dissent, and attempting to get rid of some of the volunteers at the station. In 2008, a forcible removal by police of a KPFA volunteer highlighted the concerns between management and volunteer staff.
A member of the KPFA board suggested that it was problematic that there was no grievance procedure for unpaid staff at the station.
In November of 2010, the management of Pacifica laid off most of the staff of the popular KPFA Morning Show. The union representing the paid staff of KPFA claims that the lay offs were done in violation of the union contract. Pacifica management says the lay offs were financially necessary and done according to staff seniority. Pacifica management replaced the paid staff of the Morning Show with an all volunteer crew.
, KPFT
, KPFK
, and WPFW
. Pacifica continues today to be a listener-supported network of stations. The main KPFA transmitter is a 59 kilowatt class B, though there are also two smaller boosters, KPFA-FM2 in Bonny Doon
and KPFA-3 in Oakley
. KPFB 89.3 is a smaller station, also in Berkeley, that covers areas of Berkeley that KPFA can't reach. It also carries some separate programming specifically for its Berkeley audience. KPFA programs are also rebroadcast by KFCF
in Fresno. KZFR
in Chico also carries KPFA's programming from 2:00-6:00 a.m. daily. In the Bay Area, Comcast
carries KPFA's broadcasts on cable channel 967, as part of its digital radio offering. The channel is labelled "Variety/Berkeley".
Progressivism in the United States
Progressivism in the United States is a broadly based reform movement that reached its height early in the 20th century and is generally considered to be middle class and reformist in nature. It arose as a response to the vast changes brought by modernization, such as the growth of large...
talk radio and music radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
located in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on-the-air April 15 1949, as the first Pacifica Station. The aims of the station are to promote cultural diversity, promote pluralistic cultural expression, contribute to a lasting understanding between individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colours. It also promotes freedom of the press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
and acts as a forum for various viewpoints.
History
Launched in 1949, three years after the Pacifica FoundationPacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
was created by pacifist Lewis Hill
Lewis Hill
Lewis Hill was a co-founder of KPFA, the first listener-supported radio station in the United States, and the Pacifica Radio network....
, KPFA became the first station in the Pacifica Radio network and the first listener-supported radio broadcaster in the United States. Previously, non-commercial stations were licensed only to serve educational functions as extensions of high schools, colleges, and universities. This departure into listener-oriented programming brought many detractors as KPFA aired controversial programming. The first interview with anyone from the gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
political movement was broadcast by KPFA, as well as Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
's ground-breaking poem Howl
Howl
"Howl" is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1955 and published as part of his 1956 collection of poetry titled Howl and Other Poems. The poem is considered to be one of the great works of the Beat Generation, along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch...
in the 1950s. In 1954 the broadcast by a group of marijuana reform advocates extolling the pleasures of cannabis resulted in the tape being impounded by the California Attorney General. In the 1960s KPFA and Pacifica were accused of being controlled by the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
, and several challenges to its license were waged, none of them successful.
KPFA was the first station to broadcast a radio show specializing in space music
Space music
Space music, also called spacemusic, is an umbrella term, synonymous with a segment of New Age Music and Ambient Music, used to describe music that evokes a feeling of contemplative spaciousness. Space music can be found within a wide range of genres. It is particularly associated with ambient, New...
, with the debut of Stephen Hill and Anna Turner
Anna Turner (producer)
Anna Turner was an American producer and administrator. Turner is best known as the original partner of Stephen Hill for launching the space music radio show Hearts of Space: she was its original radio co-producer and early co-host , as well as co-founder and record co-producer of the associated...
's Music from the Hearts of Space in 1973. Later in 1983, the show was syndicated in the U.S. to NPR stations and also remained at its first home at KPFA.
Labor disputes
In 1999 the station was effectively taken over by KPFA's governing Pacifica Foundation, after Dennis Bernstein, the long-established host of the station's FlashpointsFlashpoints (radio program)
Flashpoints is a daily investigative news and public affairs program broadcast weekdays at 5 p.m. PST on Pacifica Radio station KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California...
news magazine, was forcibly removed by police for airing grievances on air over a labor dispute. A broad cross section of protesters joined in direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
outside of the station in a weeks-long lockout during which station management spent over half a million dollars on security measures.
At one point, listeners created a separate fund to accept listener pledges that would be directed away from the Pacifica Foundation.
In 2007, KPFA derecognized its Unpaid Staff Organization. The staff claimed that Pacifica Radio had been making network more corporate, softening its voice of dissent, and attempting to get rid of some of the volunteers at the station. In 2008, a forcible removal by police of a KPFA volunteer highlighted the concerns between management and volunteer staff.
A member of the KPFA board suggested that it was problematic that there was no grievance procedure for unpaid staff at the station.
In November of 2010, the management of Pacifica laid off most of the staff of the popular KPFA Morning Show. The union representing the paid staff of KPFA claims that the lay offs were done in violation of the union contract. Pacifica management says the lay offs were financially necessary and done according to staff seniority. Pacifica management replaced the paid staff of the Morning Show with an all volunteer crew.
Affiliated Stations
KPFA sister stations are WBAIWBAI
WBAI, a part of the Pacifica Radio Network, is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, broadcasting at 99.5 FM in New York City.Its programming is leftist/progressive, and a mixture of political news and opinion from a leftist perspective, tinged with aspects of its complex and varied...
, KPFT
KPFT
KPFT is a listener-sponsored community radio station in Houston, Texas, which went on the air on March 1, 1970 as the fourth station in the Pacifica radio family. Larry Lee sold the idea to Pacifica to establish listener-supported radio in Houston as an alternative to main-stream broadcasting. The...
, KPFK
KPFK
KPFK is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves the Greater Los Angeles Area, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet...
, and WPFW
WPFW
WPFW, an FM station at 89.3 MHz, is the Washington, DC station owned by Pacifica Radio. The station first went on the air in 1977. Aside from syndicated Pacifica programs such as Democracy Now!, much of its programming is locally produced and dedicated to jazz, blues, classic soul music and...
. Pacifica continues today to be a listener-supported network of stations. The main KPFA transmitter is a 59 kilowatt class B, though there are also two smaller boosters, KPFA-FM2 in Bonny Doon
Bonny Doon, California
Bonny Doon is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California. Bonny Doon sits at an elevation of . The 2010 United States census reported Bonny Doon's population was 2,678....
and KPFA-3 in Oakley
Oakley, California
Oakley is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 35,432 at the 2010 U.S. Census. Oakley is part of the East Contra Costa Bicycle Plan, which has existing facilities in Oakley as well as plans for further expansion....
. KPFB 89.3 is a smaller station, also in Berkeley, that covers areas of Berkeley that KPFA can't reach. It also carries some separate programming specifically for its Berkeley audience. KPFA programs are also rebroadcast by KFCF
KFCF
KFCF is a radio station broadcasting a Variety format. Licensed to Fresno, California, USA, the station is currently owned by the Fresno Free College Foundation...
in Fresno. KZFR
KZFR
KZFR 90.1 FM is a non-profit, community radio station located in Chico, California. The idea started out as a translator for KPFA in Berkeley in 1981. But when it began transmitting in July 1990, it was locally originated content. KZFR broadcasts local Internet station Radio Paradise from 12 AM to...
in Chico also carries KPFA's programming from 2:00-6:00 a.m. daily. In the Bay Area, Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
carries KPFA's broadcasts on cable channel 967, as part of its digital radio offering. The channel is labelled "Variety/Berkeley".
See also
Further reading
- Lasar, Matthew (April, 2000) Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network (American Subjects Series). Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-777-4
- Lasar, Matthew (January, 2006) Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War Black Apollo. ISBN 1-900355-45-0
- Walker, JesseJesse WalkerJesse Walker is managing editor of Reason magazine. The University of Michigan alumnus has written the book Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America and maintains a blog called The Perpetual Three-Dot Column...
(June, 2004)"Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America".
External links
- KPFA official site
- whitings-writings.com The Lengthening Shadow: Lewis Hill and the Origins of Listener-Sponsored Radio in America
- w9wi.com List of "grandfathered" FM radio stations in the U.S.
- kpfahistory.info KPFA: A Historical Footnote (Seventy five hours of programs and interviews from the 1960s)