Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network in American Media History | Independent Broadcasting & Progressive Journalism | Perfect for Media Studies & Historical Research

This book describes the life and times of Lewis Kimball Hill and his efforts at starting the first listener-sponsored radio network, Pacifica. The Pacifica Foundation, the corporate structure of this radio network, survives today with FM radio markets in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York, and with satellite stations located throughout the United States. In the Age of the Internet, all these Pacifica stations may be streamed online.This book is an exhaustive, detailed account of the creation and development of the Pacifica Foundation, and its encounters with the administrative and political conflicts, from the beginning through the early 60s. Lasar's account and writing style are at times dense, sometimes painfully so, and the minutia may not interest the general reader. Lasar's book is still worth the read because, not only does it give the reader the flavor of Berkeley in the 1940's -- which incidently was not the hotbed of political activism present in the 60's -- but Lasar's account is a fascinating social history of America and the Bay Area cultural scene in the pre-WWII, and Cold War years which has rarely been seen in such detail. Among others, Lasar describes the pacificist student movements in the 1930s, the development of FM radio from the beginnings, the administrative history of the FCC, the McCarthy years, encounters with HUAC.The world of radio in the 1940s was not unlike today's. Radio stations were supported by advertising revenues, and the content of the programming was dictated by those advertisers. Hill saw the danger and influence the advertisers presented. From the start, Hill conceived of an alternative radio station based entirely on listener contributions and not from advertising revenues. There were also many aspects of American society which concerned Hill. He decried the increasing isolation of society, with families self-enclosed in their nuclear-family residences in suburbia. The move toward the individual, atomized families destroyed, in Hill's estimation, the collective sense of community and cohesiveness which he perceived had existed and was fast becoming extinct. To revive this sense of community Hill sought to include programming encouraged the community voice of locality in which the station was found and feature a broad array of programs which reflected that community.The purpose of Pacifica was to provide a radio forum where those ideas could be heard. Hill profoundly believed that ideas informed society's actions. Hill, having registered as a Conscientious Objector from his Quaker roots and having witnessed the consequences of the Second World War, with like-minded individuals, conceived and developed the Pacifica Foundation to effect real change and promote peace not war. The "Pacific" in Pacifica reflected the principle supporters, ideological and otherwise, of the foundation: pacifists and other political mavericks. Pacifica was created as an alternative to the other radio stations which dominated the airwaves, then and now. The reason the Pacifica stations chose to broadcast over the FM radio band, then in its nascent stage, is that the commercial stations had saturated the AM markets.His account is at times dry, but becomes more interesting when Lasar describes the early programers such as Alan Watts, William Mandell, Pete Seeger, Pauline Kael, members of the early music scene in the Bay Area, such as Phil Lesh, Jerry Garcia and John Forgerty, all of whom started their professional careers at Pacifica.The book has its limitations. His account ends in the mid 60s, so the notable events at Pacifica which followed are not described, such as the George Carlin "Seven-Words-You-Can't-Say-on-Television" lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court and established the standards for offensive speech, the programmer strikes of the mid 70s, and the corporate struggles in the 90s. Some of these themes were explored in Lasar's companion volume. Congressional pressure, lawsuits and inter-office struggles were present in the years covered by Lasar's book, and are characteristically described with the same meticulous detail that pervades in his book.It is not a hagiography for the foundation, however. The faults and blemishes of Hill and the foundation are presented. The corporate in-fighting, bickering and elitism, are there, so it makes for a balanced read of the station.Lasar's book is well worth the read.