KPFA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| KPFA | |
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| City of license | Berkeley, California |
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| Broadcast area | San Francisco Bay Area |
| Branding | Pacifica Radio |
| Slogan | Listener Supported Pacifica Radio |
| Frequency | 94.1 (MHz) |
| First air date | 1949 |
| Format | Public |
| ERP | 59,000 watts |
| HAAT | 405 meters |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | PaciFicA |
| Owner | Pacifica Foundation |
| Website | www.kpfa.org |
KPFA is a listener funded radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay area on 94.1 FM. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming.
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[edit] History
Launched in 1949, three years after the Pacifica Foundation 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 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 Ann Turner's Music from the Hearts of Space in 1973. Later in 1981, the show was syndicated to NPR stations nationally and also remained at its first home at KPFA.
[edit] Affiliates
KPFA sister stations are WBAI, 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 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 2AM-6AM 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".
[edit] 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, Jesse (June, 2004)"Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America".
[edit] See also
- Aimee Allison
- Charles Amirkhanian
- Erik Bauersfeld
- Larry Bensky
- Dennis Bernstein
- Pratap Chatterjee
- Davey D
- Laurie Garrett
- Adi Gevins
- Sep Ghadishah
- Matt Gonzalez
- Lewis Hill
- Pauline Kael
- William Mandel
- Richard Pryor
- Kenneth Rexroth
- Nicole Sawaya
- Bonnie Simmons
- Susan Stone
- C.S. Soong
- Elsa Knight Thompson
- Alan Watts
[edit] External links
- KPFA official site
- The Lengthening Shadow: Lewis Hill and the Origins of Listener-Sponsored Radio in America
- Query the FCC's FM station database for KPFA
- Radio Locator information on KPFA
- List of "grandfathered" FM radio stations in the U.S.
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