
KFCF: 30-Years of
Alternative Programming
On
June 9, 1975, the following announcement was
reverberating throughout the Central Valley:
“The signal of Pacifica Radio station, KPFA in
Berkeley, can now be heard in the Central
Valley.” It was a momentous development: a radio
station that was listener-sponsored and not
influenced by corporate advertisers or
government funding. It would be the pioneer,
educational electronic media in the Valley
devoted to alternative programming with a strong
commitment to peace and justice.
KFCF
is owned and operated by the Fresno Free College
Foundation (FFCF), a non-profit corporation that
is governed by a democratically elected Board of
Directors. The Foundation was formed in 1968 by
a group of professors at Fresno State College
(now California State University, Fresno) to
defend the academic freedom of their colleague,
poet Robert Mezey, who had been fired for
exercising his constitutional right of free
speech. This violation of academic freedom was
repeated with other faculty and students. It was
a dark day for the campus as administrators,
faculty, community people, legislators, the
governor and others participated in the “slow
death of Fresno State.”
KFCF
at 88.1FM became a project of the FFCF in 1972.
At that time Alex Vavoulis was its president.
Other Board members were Douglas C. Broten, Les
Kimber, Blanche Nosworthy, William T. Richert,
James M. Smith and Al Villa. It was a group with
the vision to see the importance of KFCF. Since
1975, the station has played an important role
in the local broadcasting scene. Through the
programming originating at Pacifica station KPFA,
Valley people could hear about major historical
events (i.e. the crisis in Haiti), poetry and
prose of creative writers, music from classical
to avant-garde. Some 15 to 20 percent of KFCF’s
programming originates in the Valley and
features and includes public affairs issues such
as agriculture, water resources, air quality,
civil liberties, war and peace, ethnic
diversity, race relations, education, labor and
science, and music. All of these programs are
made possible by dedicated volunteers and by
committed subscribers who pay the cost of
operating the radio station.
KFCF
has become more relevant to the Valley
community, as broadcasting is at a crossroads in
America. One path presents a troubling –even
frightening—path to the future. It is the
increasing concentration of media by
entertainment conglomerates that is shrinking
consumer choices for content and undermining
local access and public service functions of
broadcast outlets. Meanwhile, current government
policy promotes unlimited deregulation of media
ownership while at the same time federal
agencies seek to increase political control over
programming content.
There is the other
path related to an emerging alternative media
movement coincident with advanced in technology.
A great diversity of community and public radio
stations dot the American landscape in towns
large and small, rural and urban, speaking a
variety of languages and producing a dazzling
range of programs. Internet-based web casting
provides radio stations and independent
journalists with a growing venue for
distribution. This can be seen with the ability
to receive KFCF anywhere in the world and in the
many radio and TV stations that now receive the
signal of Amy Goodman’s show, Democracy Now!
Traditional broadcasting is no longer the only
game in town. We are fully in the age of “new
media” and KFCF is already there.
Academic
Freedom, a free and open society, peace, justice
and human dignity are the principles that
spawned the Fresno Free College Foundation and
KFCF. They must be fought for continually in our
communication media, our school campuses and in
the community at large. These principles will
continually be challenged and the Foundation and
KFCF will be there to defend them. When the
Foundation celebrated its 20-years of service to
the Fresno community, The Fresno Bee’s editorial
included the following: “KFCF was the only local
radio outlet to carry the complete congressional
hearings on the arms-for-Iran controversy as
well as the hearings on the Supreme Court
nomination of Robert Bork. . .In it’s 20 years,
the foundation has made an important
contribution to Fresno’s civic, intellectual and
artistic growth.”
Vic Bedoian,
Executive Director of FFCF and KFCF
He can be
reached at 233-2221 and vbedoian@kfcf.org.