National Federation of Community Broadcasters

1
National Federation of Community Broadcasters

• Increasing the power of community radio for 30
  years

2

• Initial contributions asked of NFCBs largest
  stations (with budgets over 10,000) in 1975
  50.00. Flexible dues of 10 to 50 per month,
  dues the 15th of each month.

3

• The first NFCB members meeting was held February
  28 and 29, 1976 at the Bush Center in Cincinnati,
  OH. 27 people attended.

4

• Salaries offered for Station Manager Trainee and
  Chief Engineer Trainee at KBOO in 1976 - 410/mo.

5

• In 1977, angry demonstrators rioted outside WORT
  when the station attempted to put members of the
  American Nazi party on the air as panelists in a
  talk show. The program never took place.

6

• The first NFCB program awards were listed as
  the Top Ten Programs of 1977 in the NFCB
  newsletter. Winners included The Ludlow
  Massacre (John Stark) Rape Symposium (Nan
  Rubin) and The Froon Show (The Straight Poop
  Troupe).

7

• NFCB addresses
• 1716 21st St. NW, Washington, DC (to July, 1977)
• 1216 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, DC (to
  October, 1978)
• 1000 11th St. NW, Washington, DC (to January,
  1981)
• 1314 14th St NW, Washington, DC (to December,
  1989)
• 666 11th St, Washington, DC The Devil
  Building (to June, 1995).
• Building D, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA

8

• Radio Bilingue and Voces Unidas Bilingual
  Broadcasting Foundation (Marc Hand) joined NFCB
  in the March of 1979.

9

• Our only line should be service to all the
  people service that includes the very best of
  news and information, culture and music, and
  which provides for meaningful dialogue and debate
  on those issues on which there are conflicts in
  the community or in the world. Only when people
  have enough information will social change take
  place. Sharon Maeda, Pacifica Foundation,
  Durango, 1981.

10

• After almost 7 years of cablecasting. WEFTs
  first on air broadcast occurred in 1981 24 hours
  later, and unseasonal electrical storm took the
  station off the air, when lightening hit the
  antenna, blowing out a transformer in the
  transmitter.

11

• In 1981, a Cincinnati grand jury indicted NFCB
  member station WAIF and John Zeh, producer of
  lesbian and gay programming, for disseminating
  matter harmful to juveniles, in connection with
  a broadcast the local prosecutor called
  obscene. The charges were eventually dropped.

12

• In the spring of 1982, NFCB unveiled the
  Soundchoice series 4 hours of programming
  distributed monthly to NFCB stations (on reel
  tape). The first featured program was a radio
  adaptation of Laurie Andersons United States.

13

• One half hour after member station KCAW, Sitka AK
  signed on air in February, 1982, the power went
  out all across Sitka. Some attributed the power
  outage to a power drain caused by the stations
  transmitter.

14

• Seven years after the project was proposed at the
  1975 National Alternative Radio Conference, NFCB
  published its audio production training manual,
  AudioCraft, in May 1981.

15

• In 1982, NFCB opened the Community Radio Program
  Awards to all entrants. 120 programs were
  submitted. Winners included Tom Lopez, ZBS
  Media, for an episode of The Taj Express, and
  Elzabeth Perez-Luna for The Young Lords.

16

• NFCB hosted the Working Conference for Minority
  Producers in Public Radio in June, 1980 in
  Boulder, CO. The first conference of its kind,
  presenters included Dr. Bernice Reagon, Isabel
  Alegria, and Peggy Berryhill.

17

• In 1982, NFCB asked CPB to allow stations and
  independent producers to compete for CPB radio
  program funds. The funds had historically been
  limited to NPR producers.

18

• In the summer of 1982, an agent of the Federal
  Protective Service (an agency of the General
  Services Administration) attempted to recruit a
  WRFG reporter to inform on local political
  demonstrations. The agent told the reporter that
  anti-draft demonstrators were communists.

19

• Founded in 1962, community radio station KRAB,
  107.7 FM, Seattle was one of a handful of
  community stations to sign on in the 1960s.
  KRABs frequency was sold to a commercial
  operator in 1984. The KRAB call sign is now
  assigned to a modern rock station in Bakersfield,
  CA, owned by Clear Channel Communications. The
  station promotes itself, in part, by sponsoring
  the Wednesday night Wet T-shirt contest at a
  local bar.

20

• 1983 Average salary for a non-Alaska NFCB
  program director - 11,946.

21

• In 1987, NFCB participant member WWOZ, New
  Orleans was taken off the air when its tower was
  knocked down by a river barge.

22

• 1987 NFCB Program Service merges with the
  Pacifica Radio Archive.

23

• 1988 NFCB participant member KPFT, Houston was
  off the air for more than week after the tower
  was struck by lightning.

24

• 1989 The Lac Courte Orielles Nation declares
  The Year of Radio, in recognition of the work
  of NFCB participant member WOJB.

25

• 1989 NFCB enrolled its first international
  member Plains FM, Christchurch, NZ.

26

• In the summer of 1990, NFCB signed on to the
  first application of Internet for public radio
  Computer conferencing on the Whole Earth
  Lectronic Link - The Well.

27

• On August 10, 1990, participant member station
  WERU elected to go off the air when it was
  reported that the stations signal was hear over a
  hospitals emergency communication system.

28

• After raising more than 2.5 million to fund the
  project, participant member station KPFA
  dedicated its own building October 4, 1991.

29

• Following a year of lobbying by NFCB, the FCC
  rescinded a mandatory 35.00 license application
  fee for noncommercial radio operators.

30

• The 1992 Community Radio conference in Seattle
  featured a bowling tournament. Award winners
  included Bill Wax, Pacifica (best dressed)
  Dottie Talmadge, KVNF (best follow through) and
  Phoebe Nez , KNNB (high score).

31

• NFCBs participant membership grew to 100 after
  delegates approved 11 new members at the 1994
  annual meeting.

32

• With public broadcasting under scrutiny by the
  1995 congress, attendance at the Community Radio
  Conference in Albuquerque jumps more than 20,
  drawing nearly 400 people.

33

• After concluding a joint operating agreement with
  Western Public Radio, NFCB left Washington DC
  after nearly 20 years to establish its
  headquarters in the historic Fort Mason Center in
  San Francisco on July 1, 1995.

34

• NFCB President and CEO Lynn Chadwick received the
  1995 Edward R. Murrow Award, CPBs most
  distinguished award for service to public radio.

35

• August 1995 Salary for a half time program
  director at an NFCB participant station - 7.50
  per hour.

36

• In February 1996, NFCB participant member WBAI,
  New York became the first NFCB station to raise
  over 1 million dollars in a pledge drive.

37

• Stations gathered for the first Grassroots Radio
  Conference in Boulder, CO in July, 1996.

38

• When its licensee, Upsala College, closed after
  more than 150 in operation, NFCB member station
  WFMU became the sole surviving occupant of a
  ghost campus in May, 1995.

39

• NFCB participant member WWOZ became the first
  public radio station to stream its programming in
  real time in April, 1995.

40

• At the 1998 Community Radio Conference, an
  afternoon reception hosted by participant member
  station WVMR featured old time mountain music and
  authentic West Virginia moonshine. (4/98).

41

• 1999 NFCB hosts A Gathering of Youth In Radio.
  The effort would develop into the annual National
  Youth in Radio Training conferences.

42

• In conjunction with the 1999 Community Radio
  Conference, Western Public Radio offered its
  first PC Digital Audio Production Workshop,
  March 22-24.

43

• In a break with other broadcasting organizations,
  including NPR, NFCB filed comments in favor of
  the proposed LPFM services in the fall of 1999.