Pacifica National Specials

On April 15th, 1949, Pacifica station KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkeley went on the air, introducing public sponsored community radio to America, and cementing its place in history as the steadfast anchor of the Pacifica Radio Network. Founded by Lewis Hill - a Quaker, World War II conscientious objector, and former commercial radio news broadcaster - Pacifica Radio was a new concept for listeners. It was to be supported solely by listener-sponsors, owing nothing to corporate interests or advertisers, and adhere to a mission of providing an uncensored outlet for creative expression, a forum for unpopular viewpoints, and a safe haven for artistic experiments with the radio medium. The grand experiment continues today, with five ’sister’ stations in San Francisco (KPFA 94.1 FM), Los Angeles (KPFK 90.7 FM), Houston (KPFT 90.1 FM), Washington DC (WPFW 89.3 FM), and New York (WBAI 99.5 FM), plus over 100 affiliate radio stations across the globe. From the storied depths of the Pacifica Radio Archives, which curates over 50,000 recordings representing sixty years of Pacifica’s broadcast history, From the Vault presents an audio celebration of Pacifica’s sixtieth birthday, featuring classic recordings of Dylan Thomas, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Lewis Hill, Alan Watts, Decca Treuhaft, Tennessee Williams, John Trudel, Harvey Milk, Edward Said, and Frank Zappa, and many more.

In September of 2007 the International Forum on Globalization held a Teach in Washington DC on climate change, peak oil and global resource depletion & extinction. Several Panel meetings addressed the many false solutions to the climate crisis that may be accelerating the danger rather than alleviating it. Coal for example is now promoted as a substitute for oil and promises for the capture of the carbon are made that are not yet possible with current technologies and may never be available on a large scale. Dr. Hermann Ott is head of the Berlin office of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. He is the co-author of the book: The Kyoto Protocol International Climate Policy for the 21st Century. From the Appalachian mountains came Mary Anne Hitt. She lives and works at the center of one of the large unreported ecological tragedies of out time. In surface mines, some the size of New York’s Manhattan, whole mountain ranges are blown off to strip mine the coal. Mary Anne Hitt is Executive Director of Appalachian Voices. Go to their web site at and to a sister web site . There you can see aerial photos of the Appalachian mines and photos of the forests, streams and mountains before they were demolished. Mary Anne Hitt and Dr. Hermann Ott were recorded at the Confronting the Global Triple Crisis teach in, organized by the International Forum on Globalization, in Washington DC in September 15, 2007. The teach in was recorded by Conference Recording Services in Berkeley, California.

Aimee Allison and Aaron Glantz, co-anchors; Esther Manilla, producer; Jon Almeleh and Michael Yoshida, engineers; Naji Mujahid, editor; Sasha Lilley, project exec producer and highlights producer.

Aimee Allison and Aaron Glantz, co-anchors; Esther Manilla, producer; Jon Almeleh and Michael Yoshida, engineers; Naji Mujahid, editor; Sasha Lilley, project exec producer and highlights producer.

Aimee Allison and Aaron Glantz, co-anchors; Esther Manilla, producer; Jon Almeleh and Michael Yoshida, engineers; Sasha Lilley, project exec producer; Eric Klein, highlights producer/editor; archival audio from Pacifica Radio Archives.

This week’s From the Vault, hosted by KPFK’s Margaret Prescod, showcases restored recordings of women who have given their voices, time, and energy to civil and human rights — proud women who have stood against racism and sexism, whose battlefield was grounded in America’s civil rights movement. In this episode, we honor Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Lorraine Hansberry by hearing them, remembering them, thanking them for all they have taught us, and acknowledging that their hard work changed not only the United States, but also the world. From deep within the vault, thanks to the Preservation and Access Project, these historic recordings surface once again, and shine with relevance as Pacifica Radio Archives continues its celebration of Black History Month. From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

Part 2 picks up at the Circus 1972 RNC in Miami. KPFK producer Mike Hodel called it "A Passel Of Pomp & A Circus Of Circumstance". Coverage continues through the Shadow Convention in 2000.

In Part 1 we begin with recordings from the 1936 DNC with Franklin D. Roosevelt and feature outstanding material such as Senator John F. Kennedy's 1956 DNC Keynote Address to the Mississippi Freedom Party's effort to challenge the Democrats in 1964 to the now historic chaos of the 1968 DNC in Chicago.

Vandana Shiva had just witnessed the arctic melt on Greenland and speaks eloquently about the destructive forces of globalization that are driving the ecological crisis. She also sheds light on the effects of rapid economic growth in her home country, India. Maude Barlow has completed a new book, entitled: Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water. She explains how we are losing water through pollution, over-pumping and displacement while the demands for water are rising. She names the corporations that are in the process of capturing water sources – the new Blue Gold. Daphne Wysham of the Institute for Policy Studies speaks on the World Bank’s destructive role in driving climate change. She lays out in great detail how the system of carbon trading came about and how the World Bank is funding destructive development in fossil fuels - and she talks about solutions. Contact the IFG at The teach in was recorded by Conference Recording Services in Berkeley, California.

Peter Dale Scott speaks about his new book, The Road to 9-11, Wealth, Empire and the Future of America, at Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s bookstore, City Lights. September 2007.

In this 2007 talk for Antioch College in Seattle Parenti raises the intriguing question of how we arrive at a valid analysis of our social reality – given that so many lies are told to confuse us. In Part one of this talk Parenti speaks about lies, dissent, and how we arrive at the truth of our situation and still retain our sanity. In the second half of his talk Parenti raises the question whether the Iraq war was not a failure but a success for some parts of the empire – and why. Michael Parenti is one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. He is a prolific author and an engaging speaker. After receiving his Ph.D. in political science from Yale he has taught at colleges and universities, in the United States and abroad. He serves on the board of judges for Project Censored and is the author of twenty books. The most recent are: Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader; the eighth edition of his classic: Democracy for the Few; Superpariotism; and The Assassination of Julius Caesar.

KPFA historian Matthew Lasar discusses his latest book, Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War.

On this series premiere of From the Vault, we’re celebrating the 57th anniversary of the legendary community radio network Lewis Hill founded in 1949. But instead of a typical collage of all the great clips from Pacifica’s past, we’re looking specifically at the two people who most defined the network. The first, of course, is Lewis Hill: pacifist, conscientious objector, and Pacifica’s original visionary. The second is Elsa Knight Thompson: one of the first women radio broadcasters, an award-winning journalist, and famed interviewer. These two were the spirit of Pacifica for the Network’s first 20 years. And their spirits still guide Pacifica and all listener-sponsored radio. They shared a common belief - a fundamental belief - that all opinions were entitled to an outlet, that everyone was entitled to a voice. This week, we hear theirs. The second half of this show introduces David Moore, Lewis Hill’s son. David Moore selected one program out of the entire Pacifica Radio Archives’ vault to play raw and unedited, and we’ll hear his comments on why this particular recording is so important to him.