Pacifica Radio and Community Broadcasting

Abstract

The Pacifica Radio Network has served as a template for community broadcasting, introducing listener-sponsorship, the program guide, and key fund-raising techniques. This article offers a critical reading of the Pacifica Foundation's history, based on the social theory of Max Weber and Anthony Giddens. Over the last half-century, crises at the Pacifica Radio Network—a progenitor of community broadcasting—have been reported around the world. What are the root causes of these tensions: and what do they tell us about the production and distribution of radical, community-oriented media?