Highbrow's Delight

Probably nowhere west of the BBC's Third Program could the twist of a radio dial bring such a flood of culture and sophisticated political variety. One day on San Francisco's KPFA-FM there was a book review by Bohemian Poet Kenneth Rexroth; the next, a talk by Art Critic Hubert Crehan on "The 'Scandalous' Art of D.H. Lawrence''; the day after, a performance of Paul Claudel's Christophe Colomb in French, with Jean-Louis Barrault, and for the kiddies a dramatization of The Wind in the Willows. Listeners could tune in talks by a pacifist, a spokesman for the Socialist Workers Party, the conservatives' conservative Russell Kirk, and a psychiatrist who testified at the trial of Leopold and Loeb in 1924. In between, music poured forth steadily--much of it by string quartets and seldom-heard modern composers. There were no commercials. All in all, it was a typical week in the life of the radio station that has become the highbrow's delight.

Angels Anonymous. The idea for KPFA began in 1946 when the late Louis Hill, fed up with imitative commercial broadcasting, quit his job as White House and Senate correspondent for WINX in Washington. D.C. After settling down in San Francisco, he collected a group of friends, started raising money for a station that would be supported not by commercials but by listener subscription. By 1949 Hill had enough money to set up a studio near the Berkeley campus of the University of California, but after 15 months on the air he had so few subscribers that he had to close down. Berkeley citizens called a mass meeting, raised $2,300 on the spot, and enlisted 250 volunteer fund raisers. A radio manufacturer donated a $12,000 transmitter, listeners donated $30,000. the Fund for Adult Education plunked down $150,000 and KPFA was in business again.

Today the station operates (at 94.1 me) on a $100,000 annual budget, raised from its 6,000 subscribers and from scores of angels--some of them anonymous--across the U.S. who may not be able to tune in but feel in tune with the idea. Lecturers and performers get no pay; musicians play for a minimum of $8 a show. The station has a deal with both BBC and CBC to rebroadcast whatever it likes, borrows all the records it can use from local music shops.

Bach to Balinese. It plays anything from Bach to esoteric jazz. There have been concerts on the Royal Watusi drums, and by the Balinese Gamelan Orchestra. Drama ranges from Eumenides to Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, poetry readings from Robert Frost to Allen (Howl) Ginsberg, lecturers from former Amherst President Alexander Meiklejohn to Alan Watts, expert on Zen Buddhism. Once a week Russian Specialist William Mandel reports for 15 minutes on what Russians are being told by their newspapers and magazines. No cause is too controversial to get a hearing. Example: KPFA gave air time to Congressman Robert Condon to defend himself against charges of being a security risk. "No point of view is excluded," says one station official, "so long as it is presented with conviction and with respect for the responsibilities of freedom."

This month KPFA got FCC's approval of its plan to spread its Devonshire cream to an outlet in Los Angeles, hopes that some day its experiment in listener-supported radio will become a national trend. Says Director Harold Winkler, one-time professor of government at Harvard, who took over after the death of Founder Hill last July: "Our role is that of the educator in the great tradition of Paideia --the unity of civilization, culture, tradition, literature, art and education, with a background of joy and wit."

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