ARCHIVE STORES HISTORY'S VOICES RADIO: 50 YEARS OF NEWSMAKERS' RECORDINGS FROM MLK TO POETRY KEPT IN KPFK LIBRARY.Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer STUDIO CITY -- Housing everything from booming speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. to the Welsh-accented voice of poet Dylan Thomas Noun 1. Dylan Thomas - Welsh poet (1914-1953) Dylan Marlais Thomas, Thomas , the Pacifica Radio Pacifica Radio is a network of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations in the United States that is known for its progressive political orientation. Archive holds more than 50 years of recorded history Recorded history can be defined as history that has been written down or recorded by the use of language, whereas history is a more general term referring simply to information about the past.[1] It starts in the 4th millennium BC, with the invention of writing. in a library the size of a small garage. Tucked away on shelves in a corner at KPFK studios are original recordings made for broadcast by Pacifica's network of five public radio stations. Many have long since become historic. They include the sound of touchstone moments from the civil-rights era, poetry readings, news reports from Vietnam, interviews with major writers and off-the-wall radio plays. Pacifica is working to digitize its more than 55,000 recordings before time wears away the old reel-to-reel tapes. In six years, the organization has digitized fewer than 10,000 of the tapes, but its goal is to transfer all of them. "That's the challenge, to get these things digitized before the magnetic material falls off the tapes or something happens to them," said Mark Torres, operations director and senior producer for the Pacifica Archives. The company raised $167,000 during its annual listener fund drive Nov. 27, and in the six years since it has started digitizing old recordings, it has raised $1 million from listeners. It would cost about $12 million to digitize everything, said Brian DeShazer, director of the archives. Pacifica's recordings go back to 1949, with the creation of KPFA in Berkeley, the first station in a network that got its name from being started by pacifists. KPFA was a leftist left·ism also Left·ism n. 1. The ideology of the political left. 2. Belief in or support of the tenets of the political left. left station that managed to store some of its best recordings. KPFK was created in Los Angeles in 1959, and as other stations joined the network, noteworthy recordings were sent to the station to be duplicated and distributed. That fed a catalogue of recordings that over decades started to become an official archive. Among the gems that have already been digitized is a 1968 speech by Coretta Scott King Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was the wife of the assassinated civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., and a noted civil rights leader, author, singer, and founder and former president of the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. given in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. about three weeks after her husband was assassinated as·sas·si·nate tr.v. as·sas·si·nat·ed, as·sas·si·nat·ing, as·sas·si·nates 1. To murder (a prominent person) by surprise attack, as for political reasons. 2. . She gave the short speech on Vietnam with notes taken from her husband's pocket "upon his death," as she explained it to the rapt audience in Central Park. There are also less solemn recordings. Among the most unusual is a 1974 comedic reading of the Nixon tapes, featuring Cass Elliot of the Mamas & the Papas playing the part of H.R. Haldeman, President Nixon's chief of staff. About 350 of the archive's recordings have been digitized with grants Pacifica received in the past few years, DeShazer said. The Grammy Foundation gave $92,000 over three years. "What's interesting and also gratifying grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. is to know that a radio station actually kept all this material," said Kristen Madsen, senior vice president with the foundation. "We're so used to living in a world where you throw things out as soon as you don't need them, and many radio stations, because of budget, would have recorded over those tapes." The notable recordings also include the sounds of Dylan Thomas and Allen Ginsberg reading their poetry, and interviews with Langston Hughes and James Baldwin. Matthew Lasar is a history professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university, one of the ten campuses of the University of California. , and the author of two books about Pacifica. Lasar said that while the Pacifica network has always had a decidedly leftist bent, it started off being open to conservatives. Caspar Weinberger, who later headed the Department of Defense under President Reagan, was a commentator on one of the stations, Lasar said. But after the Red Scare Throughout much of the twentieth century, the United States worried about Communist activities within its borders. This concern led to sweeping federal action against Aliens and citizens alike during periods known today as Red scares. , many conservative voices left Pacifica, which became more polarized A one-way direction of a signal or the molecules within a material pointing in one direction. , he said. The archives are also mostly made up of voices from the left, but that does not take away the historical significance. alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com 818-546-3304 |
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