KPFA

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KPFA (94.1 FM) is a radio station in Berkeley, California, USA. 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 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

• Dennis Bernstein
• Laurie Garrett
• William Mandel

[edit] External links

• KPFA official site