Queer Radio History: Pacifica Radio

Abstract

Pacifica Radio was the first listener-sponsored non-commercial radio network in the United States to air queer voices beginning with Allen Ginsberg reading his iconic poem, Howl on KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California in 1956. From that broadcast, Pacifica stations KPFK-FM (LA), WBAI-FM (NYC), KPFT-FM (Houston), and WPFW-FM (Washington, D.C.) have consistently given space to the LGBTQI community and perspective over 60 years, creating a vibrant recorded history relatively unknown and vastly under-researched.

What survives of the broadcasts are largely found in the Pacifica Radio Archives (and other repositories) and documented in the printed station program folio guides (1949–2005) and consumer catalogues.

This article explores the importance of Pacifica’s queer sound and print archive and looks to identify what survives and what has been lost. It also highlights the many ways the queer story was expressed; bearing witness to the Gay Liberation movement through reportage, literature, poetry, radio drama, music, interviews, live event coverage, documentaries, docudramas, listener call-ins, and group discussions. The author presents this article to bring awareness to these rare instances and help motivate their preservation and access for extended scholarly use.

Notes

¹ There isn’t a reference in the KPFA folios to a previous broadcast, however it is listed in KPFK’s folio for broadcast on October 22, 1962. I believe the KPFA folio is a typographical error and is meant to be KPFK.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brian DeShazor

Brian DeShazor is an independent radio researcher and founder of the Queer Radio Research Project, Pacifica Radio 1949–1999. An award-winning public radio broadcaster and former director of the Pacifica Radio Archives, 1999–2016, he initiated the preservation and access project at the advent of the digital age. He acquired and managed several grant projects from the NHPRC at the U.S. National Archives, the NEA, the Ford Foundation, the GRAMMY Foundation. He is a member of the Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress. As curator of the Pacifica collection, he produced and hosted over 500 public radio programs on the series, From the Vault Radio and several original programs, some of which won National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) Golden Reel awards, The Quentin Crisp Memorial Program (1999), and John Hersey’s Hiroshima (2004). In 2010 he (and Pacifica Radio Archives) received the NFCB Bader award for his contributions to public broadcasting.