History of KPFB?

[DavidKaye]

Does anybody know the history of KPFB? All I know is that it was supposedly licensed in February 1954, but various Broadcasting Yearbooks from then and a few years later don't list it at all.

The story, of course, is that KPFB was set up to fill in areas not served by KPFA, but I'm wondering that, given the precarious financial footings of FM radio in the 1950s how Pacifica could have afforded to put KPFB on the air.

Had KPFB been a failed station that was just given to Pacifica as WBAI was? At first I'd thought that KPFA had originated on KPFB's frequency, 89.3, but this wasn't the case -- KPFA has always been on 94.1. Not even the history on the KPFA website says anything about little KPFB's history. They don't even provide a schedule for it, though they do stream KPFB separately from KPFA.

Can anyone provide some answers to the mystery of how/why KPFB came to be and how it got funded originally? Was it a gift?

 

[uncamark]

Does anybody know the history of KPFB? All I know is that it was supposedly licensed in February 1954, but various Broadcasting Yearbooks from then and a few years later don't list it at all.

The story, of course, is that KPFB was set up to fill in areas not served by KPFA, but I'm wondering that, given the precarious financial footings of FM radio in the 1950s how Pacifica could have afforded to put KPFB on the air.

Had KPFB been a failed station that was just given to Pacifica as WBAI was? At first I'd thought that KPFA had originated on KPFB's frequency, 89.3, but this wasn't the case -- KPFA has always been on 94.1. Not even the history on the KPFA website says anything about little KPFB's history. They don't even provide a schedule for it, though they do stream KPFB separately from KPFA.

Can anyone provide some answers to the mystery of how/why KPFB came to be and how it got funded originally? Was it a gift?

The Pacifica Archive has posted a lot of things on archive.org, which include a near-complete collection of the old Folio program guides. If you go through some 1954 Folios on the site, I assume that sooner or later you'll turn up with an announcement of the beginning of KPFB, along with an explanation of why the station was started.

 

[MC]

They used to do City Council, local Berkley stuff on the station.

 

[DavidKaye]

The Pacifica Archive has posted a lot of things on archive.org, which include a near-complete collection of the old Folio program guides. If you go through some 1954 Folios on the site, I assume that sooner or later you'll turn up with an announcement of the beginning of KPFB, along with an explanation of why the station was started.

THANKS! I found the announcement of KPFB, KPFB did indeed go on the air solely to fix the dead spots of KPFA coverage. Here's the text from their Folio announcement. Doesn't sound at all like KPFA, does it? Such flowerly language!


From KPFA Folio 2-7 to 2-20-1954

Back Into the Hills

Growth and development in the world of man's creations isn't any
more symmetrical or predictable than in the world of nature. And F.M.
reception is a notably unsymmetrical creation of human ingenuity. To
expand KPFA's listener range, the station's transmitter was moved from
downtown Berkeley to the top of the Berkeley hills, and in making the
move, we gained new subscribers in Marysville and Monterey, but lost a
good proportion of those subscribers who had originally helped the station
grow—listeners in the Berkeley Hills. Because KPFA's hilltop transmitter
sent radio waves bouncing and echoing down through the hill area, those
original listeners found that KPFA's signal sounded as if somebody was
muttering Urdu at the bottom of a rain barrel.

Permission has now been granted KPFA by the Federal Communications
Commission to operate an auxilliary station—KPFB—which will
broadcast the same programs as KPFA and will beam its low powered
signal from the station's studios in downtown Berkeley directly into the
hill area of Berkeley and El Cerrito. 10,000 families in the area will be
able to receive KPFA's programs at 89.3 megacycles, at the extreme end
of the FM dial, and we hope that many of KPFA's founding subscribers
will welcome the return of KPFA on February 14th. Over 75 listener
parties are already planned for that evening.

There is of course no assurance that KPFA will not be broadcasting
some readings of Urdu poetry in the original sometime hence. But listeners
in the hill area can be assured that it will be good, clear, understandable
Urdu, and may it be enjoyed by all.

 

[fybush]

And ironically, a program of "good, clear, understandable Urdu" would probably draw a larger audience than KPFA/KPFB's current offerings...

 

[1069_KIFR]

Is a KPFC in the making?

 

[radioray80]

Check out the Folios on the site. There's some info that might be pertinent.

 

[DavidKaye]

And ironically, a program of "good, clear, understandable Urdu" would probably draw a larger audience than KPFA/KPFB's current offerings...

It was such a different era and a different treatment of non-comm radio. Imagine: Listener parties -- KPFA had 75 listener parties. I assume these were set up to get people who didn't have FM radios to listen with those who did and then contribute to KPFA.

 

[uncamark]

And ironically, a program of "good, clear, understandable Urdu" would probably draw a larger audience than KPFA/KPFB's current offerings...

It was such a different era and a different treatment of non-comm radio. Imagine: Listener parties -- KPFA had 75 listener parties. I assume these were set up to get people who didn't have FM radios to listen with those who did and then contribute to KPFA.

Two decades later, the KPFA Folios carried advertising, including ads for high-end stereo stores and Mercedes-Benz. But the letters column in a 1977 issue had someone complaining about the "capitalist" ads in the Folio. You could just see the troubles coming.