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.