[KFCF Friends] Special Programming- Pacifica Archives Wed Nov 19th on KFCF

[subs at kfcf.org]

Half Century of Leading 'Voices of Courage and Dissent' To Air in Marathon
National Broadcast to Benefit the Preservation of the Pacifica Radio
Archives One of the Nation's Oldest and Most Valuable Audio Collections

Historic Rare Recordings to be Aired Wednesday Nov. 19 by All Five Pacifica
Stations and KFCF Fresno

LOS ANGELES (November13)
Playthell Benjamin was astounded to hear a recording of pioneering
sociologist and author W.E.B. Dubois addressing a rally in 1958.
Benjamin, a DuBois scholar for more than 30 years, had never heard DuBois'
voice until the Pacifica Radio Archives sent him a tape
earlier this year. 'It was the most brilliant speech I had ever heard,'
Benjamin said. 'It's so rare. I don't know anyone who had even
heard of this speech before and only one person I know had ever even heard
Dubois' voice.'

An hour devoted to Dubois, the father of the modern Civil Rights Movement,
will kick off a special Pacifica Radio marathon national
broadcast at 7 AM EST (4 AM PST) Wednesday, Nov. 19th. The 15-hour special,
'Voices of Courage and Dissent' will raise funds for the
Pacifica Radio Archive and will pre-empt regular programming on all five
Pacifica Radio stations: KPFK 90.7 FM-Los Angeles, KPFA 94.1
FM-Berkeley, KPFT 90.1 FM-Houston, WBAI 99.5 FM-New York, WPFW-89.3
FM-Washington D.C. and KFCF-FM 88.1 in Fresno Ca.

'The Pacifica Radio Archives, over 47,000 reel to reel analog tapes that are
in danger of deterioration,' said Archives director Brian
DeShazor. 'We are raising funds to save this national treasure and at the
same time are informing listeners about the history otherwise
forgotten or suppressed.'

In preparation for the second on-air marathon, Pacifica Radio Archives
staffers and producers have entered the vault to pour over sounds that
have not been heard in decades. This past week they discovered several
recordings that had not previously been cataloged or identified,
including Poet Allen Ginsberg interviewed at a Earth Day rally in 1970, an
interview with Lena Horne at the Fairmont Hotel in 1966, and
a concert benefiting KPFK by the celebrated South-African singer Miriam
Makeba live from the famed Coconut Grove in 1968.

The broadcast will include rare recordings of speeches and interviews with
some of the most influential and controversial thinkers and
cultural figures of the past 50 years, including Malcolm X, Fannie Lou
Hamer, John Coltrane, Jacques Cousteau, Rachel Carson, Paul Robeson,
Angela Davis, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dylan Thomas, George Carlin, Woody
Guthrie, and Edward Said.

Also included are historical moments that are part of Pacifica Radio's
unique legacy, such as the first American reporting in 1966 from North
Vietnam and a 1962 interview with a former FBI agent offering the first
known expose on the bureau and J. Edgar Hoover ever presented by
American radio or television.

Audio-tapes of Patty Hearst while she was being held by the Symbionese
Liberation Army secretly dropped off at both KPFK and KPFA stations in
1974 and the two KKK bombings of Pacifica's Houston station during their
first year in 1970 are also included. One of highlights of the
day will be a riveting telephone interview with an Iranian revolutionary
holding hostages in the American Embassy in Tehran in
1979. When asked if the hostages will be executed, the Iranian  student
claims they have proof that the hostages are spies, and
Americans should pressure President Carter to return the Shah to Iran.
The State Department called KPFK the next day and warned the manager to
never repeat such a broadcast. On a lighter note (no pun intended)
the broadcast also includes the legendary1954 interview with guests smoking
marijuana live on Pacifica's airways.

Pacifica Radio's founder Lewis Hill's mission was to create a new kind of
radio, supported by listeners, owing nothing to sponsors, providing
an outlet for creative expression, and a safe haven for artistic experiments
with the medium. Launched in 1949 with KPFA-FM in
Berkeley, Calif., the network added stations in Los Angeles, New York,
Houston and Washington, D.C over the next 28 years. Perhaps best known
as a chronicler of social justice movements and cultural change, Pacifica
stations have consistently embraced the performing and
literary arts, and provided a stage to experiment with radio drama, spoken
word, and the radio documentary.

Established in 1971, the Archives began as a repository for programs of
exceptional historic value and those appropriate for rebroadcast by
other stations or use as source material for radio producers, artists and
scholars. Many of these tapes are extremely rare and have seldom
been heard by the general public. The Archives began digitizing recordings
and re-mastering the material in 1999. Since then, Pacifica
has restored hundreds of historical recordings and requires funds to
complete the restoration of thousands more.

For a complete schedule of the Wednesday, Nov. 19th, 'Voices of Courage and
Dissent,' go to http://pacificaradioarchives.org.