"Do We Need Pacifica?"

[uncamark]

Was KPFA the first non-commercial in the Bay Area?

No, not at all. KALW 91.7 was not only the first non-comm FM in the Bay Area, but one of the first in the nation. They're celebrating their 70th year right now! KALW was erected by GE for the 1939-40 Treasure Island world's fair, along with KGEI, a shortwave station. At the end of the fair, GE operated KGEI in Belmont next to KPO (today's KNBR), and gave the FM to the SF Unified School district, which began operations with it in 1941.

Going back into history, the first non-commercial radio station of any kind in the Bay Area would be hard to pinpoint because first you have to define non-commercial, and you have to do a lot of research. If a school is a non-commercial entity, then Doc Herrold's "San Jose Calling" in 1909 (today's KCBS) could qualify, given that he used it as a training ground for his electronics school in San Jose. But not long afterward it became the first commercial broadcast station as they began running ads for music stores and the like.

But there are numerous non-commercial stations going back to the 1920s. Today's KSFO was KTAB, run by the Tenth Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland. Today's KVTO 1400 was once KRE, operated by a Berkeley church (I forget which one). There were also numerous others that have been deleted over the years as well.

One important thing about KPFA is that it is considered the first broadcast outlet that was supported primarily by listener/viewer contributions. Although the listeners group that fought St. Olaf College's sale of WCAL in the Twin Cities to Minnesota Public Radio (and the subsequent format flip from classical to modern-leaning AAA KCMP "The Current") and tried to get the sale voided claimed that WCAL was taking listener donations 20 years before KPFA signed on, KPFA is generally considered as responsible for (or blamed for) the on-air pledge drive method of fundraising that almost every non-com uses today.