From The Vault

FTV 164 The Final Frontier

admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:17:26 +0000

As the Pacifica Radio Archives presents its 1968 Revolution Rewind series, we have listened to critical events from 40 years ago and the voices of the key figures during that time. This week we listen to two visionary thinkers, both writers of the future who have guided humanity by daring us to exercise our imagination - Ray Bradbury and Gene Roddenberry - as they address the 1968 World Science Fiction Convention held at the Hotel Claremont in Berkeley California.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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Click here to purchase a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

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FTV 163 Pacifica’s Juneteenth Special 2002

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:19:08 +0000

Juneteenth (June 19th) commemorates a significant day in African American history. Juneteenth, also known as African American Emancipation Day, is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. In 2002 the five Pacifica stations preempted regular programming to simulcast a 15-hour special Juneteenth broadcast. In this episode of From the Vault, we feature highlights from that historic day of radio.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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FTV 162 Gay Day Time Capsule

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:39:39 +0000

This week on From The Vault we present an hour of this year’s KPFK Gay Day Time Capsule Broadcast. In this hour, Pacifica Radio Archives Director Brian Deshazor teams with actor and comedian Jason Stewart and KPFK Senior Producer Christine Blosdale to take a hilarious romp through our archival recordings, music, and film clips.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project

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FTV 161 Gay Day 2009 Preview

admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:23:55 +0000

In this episode of From the Vault, we listen to the fight fro gay civil rights from the Stonewall Riots of 1969 to present day. We’ll also have a sneak preview of a special Pacifica Radio Archives project designed to gather the voices of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans gender, and queer communities in all their diversity for a Gay Day broadcast from sunup to sundown on Sunday June 14, 2009 - the first such broadcast in Los Angeles since 1995!

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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FTV 160 Gay Pride Month: Christopher Isherwood

admin — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:12:20 +0000

To celebrate June as Gay Pride Month, we chose Christopher Isherwood as the focus for this episode of From the Vault. Born in England in 1904, Isherwood came to the United States in 1939 and lived in Santa Monica, California from then until his death in 1986. Isherwood’s literary career began in 1928 with the publication of his first novel, All the Conspirators, and he is probably best known for The Berlin Stories, a collection of writing that fictionalized his life in pre-World War II Berlin; this book was later adapted as the stage play I am a Camera and the popular musical Caberet.

In this program, you will hear a number of rare recordings of Christopher Isherwood, including a recording of the play “The Ascent of F-6,” written by Isherwood and W.H. Auden in 1937 (adapted, produced and performed in 1962 at Pacifica station KPFK-Los Angeles by Isherwood and Auden themselves, among others), and an address by Isherwood called “A Personal Statement,” given at the University of California- Berkeley as part of the series The Writer at Mid-Century: The Moral Crisis (1962).

Later we’re joined by Sue Hodson, curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington Library, who discusses the significance of Christopher Isherwood and the recordings held by Pacifica Radio Archives. Hodson joined the Pacifica Radio Archives’ advisory panel in 2003 to help select 50 significant recordings to be preserved under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts; after identifying PRA’s Isherwood material and rare and important, it was saved for the ages by this preservation grant. Later, Pacifica Radio Archives donated duplicates of its restored Isherwood recordings to the Huntington Library’s Christopher Isherwood Exhibit.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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FTV 159 The Gay Movement 1969-1979

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:21:10 +0000

This week on From the Vault, we’ll listen to the dawn of the modern Gay Movement in the decade following the 1969 Stonewall Riots. First is a selection from Pacifica Radio’s 1979 Gay Day broadcast, which begins by revisiting Pacifica’s coverage of the 1969 Stonewall Inn police raids in New York, and the Stonewall Riots that followed. Then in 1978 Harvey Milk became the first openly gay male elected into public office — we’ll hear IMRU Radio’s Greg Gordon interview with the newly-sworn-in member of the city’s Board of Supervisors. Months later, Milk would be a featured speaker at the Gay Day festivities in Los Angeles, dutifully reported by KPFK in Los Angeles. Milk’s election to office and populist style brought new hope to the Gay Rights Movement. However, on November 27, 1978, Milk was shot dead along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone by Dan White, a former San Francisco Supervisor himself. In the trial that followed, White’s lawyers developed the “Twinkies Defense,” by which they claimed White was a victim of diminished capacity caused by the harmful effects of consuming junk food and soda. The jury agreed, and White was acquitted of murder, instead being found guilty on a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. Pacifica Radio’s Fruit Punch Collective was there to record the outrage following verdict, including the demonstrations that erupted in San Francisco, as police officers made their way in to prominently gay Castro District and incited what is now known as the White Night Riots of 1979.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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FTV 158 John Trudell

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:41:58 +0000

In this episode of From the Vault, we profile an John Trudell, an acclaimed poet, recording artist, actor and activist who has been connected with Pacifica Radio since 1969. Pacifica audiences first became familiar with Trudell in his capacity as the communications director of the All Nation’s occupation of Alcatraz Island, where on December 22, 1969, he began hosting regular broadcasts of Radio Free Alcatraz, which were first heard on Pacifica station 94.1 FM in Berkeley, and then broadcast across the Pacifica Radio Network. Trudell would go on to become the Chairman of the American Indian Movement from 1973 - 1979. When a fire of unknown origin killed his wife, three daughters, and mother-in-law in 1979, Trudell turned to poetry to help deal with his grief, and he would eventually begin touring internationally to read poetry and perform music. The Pacifica Radio Archives presents recordings of John Trudell live on Alcatraz Island in 1969, in Long Beach, California in 1992, and on the campus of California State University - Hayward in 1994. Also sampled is audio from a benefit for the Indians on Alcatraz Island recorded at Stanford University on December 12, 1969 featuring Malvina Reynolds and Buffy Sainte-Marie, as well as music from John Trudell’s 2002 release Bone Days.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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FTV 157 The Beats of San Francisco

admin — Fri, 08 May 2009 22:36:58 +0000

This week on From the Vault we take a listen to the last great literary revolution in America by presenting the 1979 program The Beats of San Francisco. Produced in 1979 by KPFA producers Lili Francklyn and Michael Yoshida for KPFA’s 30th Anniversary, the Beats of San Francisco features rare recordings of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lenny Bruce, Kenneth Rexroth and many others that helped shape a generation. From the Vault producer Joanne Griffith then speaks with Beats scholar Nancy Grace, professor of English at the College of Wooster in Wooster Ohio, about the origins and the legacy of the Beat Poets.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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FTV 156 The Ballad of Pete Seeger, Part Two

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:05:57 +0000

Pacifica Radio Archives is proud to present Part Two of The Ballad of Pete Seeger, an original radio documentary celebrating Pete’s life and times, featuring a candid conversation with Tim Robbins, historic audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives, and music. The Ballad of Pete Seeger is a folk perspective on the struggle for equality and justice in the labor, civil rights and peace movements in the 20th century. Part Two focuses on the Pete’s life from 1955 to the present.

Produced and Written by Mark Torres
Executive Produced by Brian DeShazor

Interviews include:
Norman Corwin live on KPFK 90.7 FM, 1968

Mario Cassetta live on KPFK, 1976

Tim Robbins and Pete Seeger, 2006

Live music recordings of Pete Seeger for Pacifica include:

If I Had a Hammer

Last Train to Nuremberg

Oh Had I A Golden Thread

John Henry

Pete singing Woody Guthrie’s Deportee and This Land Was Made For You And Me

Dinky Dai with Mario ‘Boots’ Cassetta

Viva La Quince Brigada with Tao Rodriguez Seeger

Special Thanks to Pete and Toshi Seeger
Jim Musselman of Appleseed Records
Tim Robbins
The staff at Havoc Films
Adi Gevins
Bonnie Simmons
Christopher Sprinkle
Curtis Metcalf
Tim Forrest
The Staff of the Pacifica Radio Archives

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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FTV 155 The Ballad of Pete Seeger, Part One

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:53:05 +0000

Pacifica Radio Archives is proud to present The Ballad of Pete Seeger, an original radio documentary celebrating Pete’s life and times, featuring a candid conversation with Tim Robbins, historic audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives, and music. The Ballad of Pete Seeger is a folk perspective on the struggle for equality and justice in the labor, civil rights and peace movements in the 20th century. Part One focuses on the Pete’s life from 1938 to 1955.

Produced and Written by Mark Torres
Executive Produced by Brian DeShazor

Interviews include:
Norman Corwin live on KPFK 90.7 FM, 1968

Mario Cassetta live on KPFK, 1976

Tim Robbins and Pete Seeger, 2006

Live music recordings of Pete Seeger for Pacifica include:

If I Had a Hammer

Last Train to Nuremberg

Oh Had I A Golden Thread

John Henry

Pete singing Woody Guthrie’s Deportee and This Land Was Made For You And Me

Dinky Dai with Mario ‘Boots’ Cassetta

Viva La Quince Brigada with Tao Rodriguez Seeger

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

LISTEN to this episode.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.