37°51′54″N 122°13′16″W / 37.865°N 122.221°W / 37.865; -122.221
108-684: KPFA (94.1 FM ) is a public, listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley , California , broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area . KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on the air April 15, 1949, as the first Pacifica Radio station and remains the flagship station of the Pacifica Radio Network. The station's studios are located in Downtown Berkeley , and
216-637: A black nationalist and Marxist perspective. Marksman was profoundly loved by a broad cross section of the WBAI audience and staff. His shocking and sudden death from a massive heart attack on March 23, 1999, was a wound to the station that lasted for years. Over 3,000 people attended his funeral at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan. Shortly before the death of Samori Marksman and following years of complaints about
324-507: A complex collage of sound effects, music, and opera. The participants included Anaïs Nin , Marian Seldes , Alice Playten , H.M. Koutoukas , Leo Lerman , Michael Wager , Novella Nelson , Osceola Macarthy Adams , Owen Dodson , Wyatt Emory Cooper , Michael Higgins , Anne Fremantle , Peggy Cass , Ruth Ford , Earle Hyman and Daisy Aldan. When William Burroughs returned to the United States from Tangier, Ruas invited him to present
432-907: A listener-supported network of stations. The main KPFA transmitter is a 59 kilowatt class B , though there is a booster KPFA-FM3 in Oakley . KPFB 89.3 is a smaller station, also in Berkeley, that covers areas of Berkeley that are shielded from the main KPFA signal by the Berkeley Hills. It also carries some separate programming specifically for its Berkeley audience. KPFA programs are also rebroadcast by KFCF in Fresno. KZFR in Chico also carries KPFA's programming from 2:00-6:00 a.m. daily. KZSC Santa Cruz simultaneously broadcasts KPFA's Pacifica Evening News on weeknights. In
540-510: A monophonic broadcast, again the most common permitted maximum deviation is ±75 kHz. However, some countries specify a lower value for monophonic broadcasts, such as ±50 kHz. The bandwidth of an FM transmission is given by the Carson bandwidth rule which is the sum of twice the maximum deviation and twice the maximum modulating frequency. For a transmission that includes RDS this would be 2 × 75 kHz + 2 × 60 kHz = 270 kHz . This
648-662: A platform for New York's avant-garde in theater, music, performance, art, and poetry. When the downtown avant-garde operas A Letter for Queen Victoria and Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson opened at the Metropolitan Opera, the station was right there to tape excerpts in rehearsals for broadcast. Ruas initiated The Reading Experiment, a year-long series on Marguerite Young 's epic novel Miss MacIntosh, My Darling . These readings were transformed into performances by Rob Wynne , who scored them with
756-557: A program feed for AM transmitters of AM/FM stations. SCA subcarriers are typically 67 kHz and 92 kHz. Initially the users of SCA services were private analog audio channels which could be used internally or leased, for example Muzak -type services. There were experiments with quadraphonic sound. If a station does not broadcast in stereo, everything from 23 kHz on up can be used for other services. The guard band around 19 kHz (±4 kHz) must still be maintained, so as not to trigger stereo decoders on receivers. If there
864-473: A retrospective of all his works. The series consisted of four programs, beginning with Junkie and followed by The Yage Letters , read by Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz , and, finally, Naked Lunch . Bill Kortum oversaw this series as well as retrospectives of the works of Jerzy Kosinski and Donald Barthelme , co-produced with Judith Sherman, the station's music director. A semester of Allen Ginsberg 's poetry seminar held at
972-531: A station operated by City College of New York (CUNY). Lynne Rosen and John Littig, co-hosts of the monthly show The Pursuit of Happiness , were found dead on June 3, 2013, after committing suicide in their Park Slope home. In June 2013, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting suspended payments to WBAI, citing accounting irregularities and a failure by the station to meet its financial obligations. Layoff notices effective July 15 were subsequently issued to
1080-470: A studio-to-transmitter link system. In April 1935, the AM subcarriers were replaced by FM subcarriers, with much improved results. The first FM subcarrier transmissions emanating from Major Armstrong's experimental station KE2XCC at Alpine, New Jersey occurred in 1948. These transmissions consisted of two-channel audio programs, binaural audio programs and a fax program. The original subcarrier frequency used at KE2XCC
1188-501: A weekly poetry program presenting the works of John Ashbery , W.S. Merwin , Maureen Owen , Charles Reznikoff , Rebecca Wright, Ron Padgett , Carter Ratcliff , John Hollander , Anne Waldman , Helen Adam , Audre Lorde , Michael Brownstein, Mary Ferrari, and Muriel Rukeyser . She also produced specials featuring William Carlos Williams , V. R. Lang, Jack Spicer, Louise Bogan, Paul Metcalf, Jonathan Williams, Harry Mathews, and James Laughlin. On alternate weeks, Oppenheimer presented
SECTION 10
#17328520880191296-525: Is added. VHF radio waves usually do not travel far beyond the visual horizon , so reception distances for FM stations are typically limited to 30–40 miles (50–60 km). They can also be blocked by hills and to a lesser extent by buildings. Individuals with more-sensitive receivers or specialized antenna systems, or who are located in areas with more favorable topography, may be able to receive useful FM broadcast signals at considerably greater distances. The knife edge effect can permit reception where there
1404-422: Is also known as the necessary bandwidth . Random noise has a triangular spectral distribution in an FM system, with the effect that noise occurs predominantly at the higher audio frequencies within the baseband . This can be offset, to a limited extent, by boosting the high frequencies before transmission and reducing them by a corresponding amount in the receiver. Reducing the high audio frequencies in
1512-408: Is amplitude modulated onto a 38 kHz double-sideband suppressed-carrier (DSB-SC) signal, thus occupying 23 kHz to 53 kHz. A 19 kHz ± 2 Hz pilot tone , at exactly half the 38 kHz sub-carrier frequency and with a precise phase relationship to it, as defined by the formula below, is also generated. The pilot is transmitted at 8–10% of overall modulation level and used by
1620-422: Is authorized for "hybrid" mode operation, wherein both the conventional analog FM carrier and digital sideband subcarriers are transmitted. The output power of an FM broadcasting transmitter is one of the parameters that governs how far a transmission will cover. The other important parameters are the height of the transmitting antenna and the antenna gain . Transmitter powers should be carefully chosen so that
1728-581: Is designed to be capable of use alongside ARI despite using identical subcarrier frequencies. In the United States and Canada , digital radio services are deployed within the FM band rather than using Eureka 147 or the Japanese standard ISDB . This in-band on-channel approach, as do all digital radio techniques, makes use of advanced compressed audio . The proprietary iBiquity system, branded as HD Radio ,
1836-480: Is mainly the preserve of talk radio, news, sports, religious programming, ethnic (minority language) broadcasting and some types of minority interest music. This shift has transformed AM into the "alternative band" that FM once was. (Some AM stations have begun to simulcast on, or switch to, FM signals to attract younger listeners and aid reception problems in buildings, during thunderstorms, and near high-voltage wires. Some of these stations now emphasize their presence on
1944-583: Is mostly syndicated to public radio). John Vernile, interim executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, said the station's fund raising and audience had declined in recent years, to the point where the rest of the Pacifica network was subsidizing WBAI's operations on top of servicing its unsustainable debt load. Within hours of the shutdown, WBAI's staffers filed a lawsuit in New York state court challenging
2052-671: Is no direct line of sight between broadcaster and receiver. The reception can vary considerably depending on the position. One example is the Učka mountain range, which makes constant reception of Italian signals from Veneto and Marche possible in a good portion of Rijeka , Croatia, despite the distance being over 200 km (125 miles). Other radio propagation effects such as tropospheric ducting and Sporadic E can occasionally allow distant stations to be intermittently received over very large distances (hundreds of miles), but cannot be relied on for commercial broadcast purposes. Good reception across
2160-487: Is only suitable for text. A few proprietary systems are used for private communications. A variant of RDS is the North American RBDS or "smart radio" system. In Germany the analog ARI system was used prior to RDS to alert motorists that traffic announcements were broadcast (without disturbing other listeners). Plans to use ARI for other European countries led to the development of RDS as a more powerful system. RDS
2268-443: Is open to anyone who does not carry a prohibition and can put up the appropriate licensing and royalty fees. In 2010 around 450 such licences were issued. WBAI WBAI (99.5 FM ) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York . Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning , liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music . The station
SECTION 20
#17328520880192376-613: Is owned by the Pacifica Foundation with studios located in Brooklyn and transmitter located at 4 Times Square . The station began as WABF, which first went on the air in 1941 as W75NY, of Metropolitan Television, Inc. (W75NY indicating an eastern station at 47.5 MHz in New York), and moved to the 99.5 frequency in 1947. In 1955, after two years off the air, it was reborn as WBAI (after then-owners Broadcast Associates, Inc.). WBAI
2484-504: Is performed by a decoder, built into stereo receivers. Again, the decoder can use a switching technique to recover the left and right channels. In addition, for a given RF level at the receiver, the signal-to-noise ratio and multipath distortion for the stereo signal will be worse than for the mono receiver. For this reason many stereo FM receivers include a stereo/mono switch to allow listening in mono when reception conditions are less than ideal, and most car radios are arranged to reduce
2592-554: Is related to the transmitter 's RF power, the antenna gain , and antenna height . Interference from other stations is also a factor in some places. In the U.S, the FCC publishes curves that aid in calculation of this maximum distance as a function of signal strength at the receiving location. Computer modelling is more commonly used for this around the world. Many FM stations, especially those located in severe multipath areas, use extra audio compression /processing to keep essential sound above
2700-626: Is stereo, there will typically be a guard band between the upper limit of the DSBSC stereo signal (53 kHz) and the lower limit of any other subcarrier. Digital data services are also available. A 57 kHz subcarrier ( phase locked to the third harmonic of the stereo pilot tone) is used to carry a low-bandwidth digital Radio Data System signal, providing extra features such as station name, alternative frequency (AF), traffic data for satellite navigation systems and radio text (RT). This narrowband signal runs at only 1,187.5 bits per second , thus
2808-427: Is used. This applies to both mono and stereo transmissions. For stereo, pre-emphasis is applied to the left and right channels before multiplexing . The use of pre-emphasis becomes a problem because many forms of contemporary music contain more high-frequency energy than the musical styles which prevailed at the birth of FM broadcasting. Pre-emphasizing these high-frequency sounds would cause excessive deviation of
2916-639: The Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn. On October 4, 2017, the court rejected WBAI's pleadings as ill-founded and granted the Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT) a summary judgment, in the amount of $ 1.8m plus attorney's fees, for the monies due through the initial filing date of late 2016. ESRT was awarded with an additional $ 600k for the lease through the date of the court's ruling, with obligations of approximately $ 50k+ per month through lease expiration in 2020 also remaining in place. A further settlement
3024-580: The Light Programme , Third Programme and Home Service . These three networks used the sub-band 88.0–94.6 MHz. The sub-band 94.6–97.6 MHz was later used for BBC and local commercial services. However, only when commercial broadcasting was introduced to the UK in 1973 did the use of FM pick up in Britain. With the gradual clearance of other users (notably Public Services such as police, fire and ambulance) and
3132-954: The Naropa Institute in Colorado was presented by Ruas, and for many years the station covered the annual New Year's Eve celebratory poetry marathon at St. Mark's Church. The day the Vietnam War ended, poet Muriel Rukeyser came to the station to read her poem on peace. Ruas inaugurated the Audio Experimental Theater, a series presenting the works of avant-garde artists: Meredith Monk , Yvonne Rainer , Ed Bowes , Ed Friedman , Michael Newman with Joan Schwartz and Benjamin Folkman , Vito Acconci , Charles Ludlum , Jacques Levy , Willoughby Sharp , John Cage , Robert Wilson , Philip Glass , Richard Foreman , and Joan Jonas . In drama,
3240-580: The gay political movement was broadcast by KPFA, as well as Allen Ginsberg 's poem Howl in the 1950s. In 1954 the broadcast by a group of marijuana reform advocates extolling the pleasures of cannabis resulted in the tape being impounded by the California Attorney General. In the 1960s KPFA and Pacifica were accused of being controlled by the Communist Party , and several challenges to its license were waged, none of them successful. KPFA
3348-492: The 1970s and 1980s: A commercially unsuccessful noise reduction system used with FM radio in some countries during the late 1970s, Dolby FM was similar to Dolby B but used a modified 25 μs pre-emphasis time constant and a frequency selective companding arrangement to reduce noise. The pre-emphasis change compensates for the excess treble response that otherwise would make listening difficult for those without Dolby decoders. A similar system named High Com FM
KPFA - Misplaced Pages Continue
3456-631: The Bay Area, Comcast carries KPFA's broadcasts on cable channel 967, as part of its digital radio offering. The channel is labelled "Variety/Berkeley". FM Broadcasting FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation ( FM ) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong , wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio . FM broadcasting offers higher fidelity—more accurate reproduction of
3564-538: The Bayreuth Festival the year before, and produced live studio performances of emerging artists in its studios. Interviews with prominent figures in literature and the arts, as well as original dramatic productions and radio adaptations were also regular program offerings. In 1970, Kathy Dobkin, Milton Hoffman, and Francie Camper produced an unprecedented, critically acclaimed 4 1 ⁄ 2 day round-the-clock reading of Tolstoy's War And Peace . The epic novel
3672-638: The FCC announced the reassignment of the FM band to 90 channels from 88–106 MHz (which was soon expanded to 100 channels from 88–108 MHz). This shift, which the AM-broadcaster RCA had pushed for, made all the Armstrong-era FM receivers useless and delayed the expansion of FM. In 1961 WEFM (in the Chicago area) and WGFM (in Schenectady, New York ) were reported as the first stereo stations. By
3780-699: The FCC rules do not allow this mode of stereo operation. In 1969, Louis Dorren invented the Quadraplex system of single station, discrete, compatible four-channel FM broadcasting. There are two additional subcarriers in the Quadraplex system, supplementing the single one used in standard stereo FM. The baseband layout is as follows: The normal stereo signal can be considered as switching between left and right channels at 38 kHz, appropriately band-limited. The quadraphonic signal can be considered as cycling through LF, LR, RF, RR, at 76 kHz. Early efforts to transmit discrete four-channel quadraphonic music required
3888-511: The FCC. The original Dorren Quadraplex System outperformed all the others and was chosen as the national standard for Quadraphonic FM broadcasting in the United States. The first commercial FM station to broadcast quadraphonic program content was WIQB (now called WWWW-FM ) in Ann Arbor / Saline, Michigan under the guidance of Chief Engineer Brian Jeffrey Brown. Various attempts to add analog noise reduction to FM broadcasting were carried out in
3996-451: The FM carrier . Modulation control (limiter) devices are used to prevent this. Systems more modern than FM broadcasting tend to use either programme-dependent variable pre-emphasis; e.g., dbx in the BTSC TV sound system, or none at all. Pre-emphasis and de-emphasis was used in the earliest days of FM broadcasting. According to a BBC report from 1946, 100 μs was originally considered in
4104-511: The FM band.) The medium wave band (known as the AM band because most stations using it employ amplitude modulation) was overcrowded in western Europe, leading to interference problems and, as a result, many MW frequencies are suitable only for speech broadcasting. Belgium , the Netherlands , Denmark and particularly Germany were among the first countries to adopt FM on a widespread scale. Among
4212-917: The FM radio band from 87.5-108.0 MHz to 76.1-108.0 MHz to enable the migration of AM radio stations in Brazilian capitals and large cities. FM broadcasting began in the late 1930s, when it was initiated by a handful of early pioneer experimental stations, including W1XOJ/W43B/WGTR (shut down in 1953) and W1XTG/ WSRS , both transmitting from Paxton, Massachusetts (now listed as Worcester, Massachusetts ); W1XSL/W1XPW/W65H/WDRC-FM/WFMQ/WHCN , Meriden, Connecticut; and W2XMN , KE2XCC , and WFMN , Alpine, New Jersey (owned by Edwin Armstrong himself, closed down upon Armstrong's death in 1954). Also of note were General Electric stations W2XDA Schenectady and W2XOY New Scotland, New York—two experimental FM transmitters on 48.5 MHz—which signed on in 1939. The two began regular programming, as W2XOY, on November 20, 1940. Over
4320-460: The L+R signal so the listener will hear both channels through the single loudspeaker. A stereo receiver will add the difference signal to the sum signal to recover the left channel, and subtract the difference signal from the sum to recover the right channel. The (L+R) signal is limited to 30 Hz to 15 kHz to protect a 19 kHz pilot signal. The (L−R) signal, which is also limited to 15 kHz,
4428-550: The Saturday night Free Music Store program, he was as interested in performance as dedicated to music. He oversaw Meredith Monk 's performance of Quarry , as well as producing Broadway actress Marian Seldes in Portrait of an Unknown Lady: Eleanor Wylie . He produced Performing Poets in Support of WBAI with the country's most notable poets. His best known production was an evening with
KPFA - Misplaced Pages Continue
4536-529: The TRO. In Manhattan Supreme Court, Judge Melissa Crane ordered Pacifica to return control of the station back to WBAI. She upheld the October 20, 2019, board vote to annul the decision to shutter WBAI. A lawyer for Pacifica, Kara Steger, said that the company planned to appeal the ruling. WBAI resumed local programming on November 7. In April 2024, WBAI announced it had again fallen into arrears on tower rental and that
4644-674: The US, but 75 μs subsequently adopted. Long before FM stereo transmission was considered, FM multiplexing of other types of audio-level information was experimented with. Edwin Armstrong, who invented FM, was the first to experiment with multiplexing, at his experimental 41 MHz station W2XDG located on the 85th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City . These FM multiplex transmissions started in November 1934 and consisted of
4752-467: The Vietnam war included the ongoing body count and innumerable anti-war protests. WBAI played a major role in the evolution and development of the counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s. Arlo Guthrie 's " Alice's Restaurant " was first broadcast on Radio Unnameable , Bob Fass ' freeform radio program on WBAI, a program which itself in many ways created, explored, and defined the possibilities of
4860-430: The air," effective Monday. She corrected that and announced the final number was 19 out of the station's 29 employees, about 66%. Andrew Phillips, the former general manager of another of Pacifica's five stations, KPFA in Berkeley, California , was appointed WBAI's interim program director. The New York Times reported that the station owed $ 2 million in broadcast fees to Democracy Now! alone, while cash on hand
4968-409: The arts had weekly coverage. Courtney Callender's Getting Around covered the cultural scene. Moira Hodgson was the dance critic. The visual arts critics were John Perreault , Cindy Nemser , Liza Baer , Joe Giordano, Judith Vivell, Kenneth Koch , and Les Levine . Ruas invited poet Susan Howe and CCNY Literature professor Paul Oppenheimer to produce a weekly poetry program. Howe produced
5076-454: The assigned frequency. There are other unusual and obsolete FM broadcasting standards in some countries, with non-standard spacings of 1, 10, 30, 74, 500, and 300 kHz. To minimise inter-channel interference, stations operating from the same or nearby transmitter sites tend to keep to at least a 500 kHz frequency separation even when closer frequency spacing is technically permitted. The ITU publishes Protection Ratio graphs, which give
5184-511: The background noise for listeners, often at the expense of overall perceived sound quality. In such instances, however, this technique is often surprisingly effective in increasing the station's useful range. The first radio station to broadcast in FM in Brazil was Rádio Imprensa, which began broadcasting in Rio de Janeiro in 1955, on the 102.1 MHz frequency, founded by businesswoman Anna Khoury. Due to
5292-402: The carrier, with its frequency remaining constant. With FM, frequency deviation from the assigned carrier frequency at any instant is directly proportional to the amplitude of the (audio) input signal, determining the instantaneous frequency of the transmitted signal. Because transmitted FM signals use significantly more bandwidth than AM signals, this form of modulation is commonly used with
5400-431: The country is one of the main advantages over DAB/+ radio . This is still less than the range of AM radio waves, which because of their lower frequencies can travel as ground waves or reflect off the ionosphere , so AM radio stations can be received at hundreds (sometimes thousands) of miles. This is a property of the carrier wave's typical frequency (and power), not its mode of modulation. The range of FM transmission
5508-476: The early 90s and in 1994, and was hired again as WBAI's Program Director. During his five-year tenure, WBAI achieved significant progress in listenership and fundraising. Marksman founded Democracy Now! in 1996, the award-winning program now helmed by Amy Goodman. Marksman was deeply-connected to the Caribbean and African diaspora. His own program, "Behind The News", focused on international and national issues from
SECTION 50
#17328520880195616-429: The events in 1977, the station began a shift to a more profound international direction. In 1980, Caribbean immigrant and Marxist activist Samori Marksman was hired as WBAI Program Director and with his ascension, there was more of a focus on international issues and the promotion of people of color to the WBAI staff which caused grumbling among long time white and Jewish progressives who felt they were being pushed out of
5724-546: The events of Hurricane Sandy . The Manhattan offices saw flooding reach the second floor, trapping seven staffers inside, and the telephone systems being disabled. The devastation by Sandy occurred in the midst of fundraising efforts, which ultimately prevented WBAI from acquiring the necessary funds to remain operational. As a result of funding and operational difficulties, WBAI announced in 2013 it would be moving out of those studios to temporary studios of WHCR-FM located in Harlem ,
5832-553: The extension of the FM band to 108.0 MHz between 1980 and 1995, FM expanded rapidly throughout the British Isles and effectively took over from LW and MW as the delivery platform of choice for fixed and portable domestic and vehicle-based receivers. In addition, Ofcom (previously the Radio Authority) in the UK issues on demand Restricted Service Licences on FM and also on AM (MW) for short-term local-coverage broadcasting which
5940-877: The form. The station covered the 1968 seizure of the Columbia University campus live and uninterrupted. With its signal reaching nearly 70 miles beyond New York City, its reach and influence, both direct and indirect, were significant. Among the station's weekly commentators in the 1960s were author Ayn Rand , British politician/playwright Sir Stephen King-Hall , and author Dennis Wholey . The 1964 Political conventions were "covered" satirically on WBAI by Severn Darden , Elaine May , Burns and Schreiber, David Amram , Julie Harris , Taylor Mead , and members of The Second City improvisational group. The station, under Music Directors John Corigliano , Ann McMillan and, later Eric Salzman , aired an annual 23-hour nonstop presentation of Richard Wagner 's Ring Cycle, as recorded at
6048-505: The high import costs of FM radio receivers, transmissions were carried out in circuit closed to businesses and stores, which played ambient music offered by radio. Until 1976, Rádio Imprensa was the only station operating in FM in Brazil. From the second half of the 1970s onwards, FM radio stations began to become popular in Brazil, causing AM radio to gradually lose popularity. In 2021, the Brazilian Ministry of Communications expanded
6156-467: The higher ( VHF or UHF ) frequencies used by TV , the FM broadcast band , and land mobile radio systems . The maximum frequency deviation of the carrier is usually specified and regulated by the licensing authorities in each country. For a stereo broadcast, the maximum permitted carrier deviation is invariably ±75 kHz, although a little higher is permitted in the United States when SCA systems are used. For
6264-496: The import of vehicles, principally from the United States, with radios that can only tune to these frequencies. In some parts of Europe , Greenland , and Africa , only even multiples are used. In the United Kingdom , both odd and even are used. In Italy , multiples of 50 kHz are used. In most countries the maximum permitted frequency error of the unmodulated carrier is specified, which typically should be within 2 kHz of
6372-517: The late 1960s, FM had been adopted for broadcast of stereo "A.O.R.—' Album Oriented Rock ' Format", but it was not until 1978 that listenership to FM stations exceeded that of AM stations in North America. In most of the 70s FM was seen as highbrow radio associated with educational programming and classical music, which changed during the 1980s and 1990s when Top 40 music stations and later even country music stations largely abandoned AM for FM. Today AM
6480-516: The main channel audio program and three subcarriers : a fax program, a synchronizing signal for the fax program and a telegraph order channel. These original FM multiplex subcarriers were amplitude modulated. Two musical programs, consisting of both the Red and Blue Network program feeds of the NBC Radio Network, were simultaneously transmitted using the same system of subcarrier modulation as part of
6588-564: The main channel signal-to-noise ratio. The GE and Zenith systems, so similar that they were considered theoretically identical, were formally approved by the FCC in April 1961 as the standard stereo FM broadcasting method in the United States and later adopted by most other countries. It is important that stereo broadcasts be compatible with mono receivers. For this reason, the left (L) and right (R) channels are algebraically encoded into sum (L+R) and difference (L−R) signals. A mono receiver will use just
SECTION 60
#17328520880196696-405: The minimum spacing between frequencies based on their relative strengths. Only broadcast stations with large enough geographic separations between their coverage areas can operate on the same or close frequencies. Frequency modulation or FM is a form of modulation which conveys information by varying the frequency of a carrier wave ; the older amplitude modulation or AM varies the amplitude of
6804-536: The next few years this station operated under the call signs W57A, W87A and WGFM, and moved to 99.5 MHz when the FM band was relocated to the 88–108 MHz portion of the radio spectrum. General Electric sold the station in the 1980s. Today this station is WRVE . Other pioneers included W2XQR/W59NY/WQXQ/WQXR-FM , New York; W47NV/WSM-FM Nashville, Tennessee (signed off in 1951); W1XER/W39B/WMNE , with studios in Boston and later Portland, Maine, but whose transmitter
6912-405: The original program sound—than other broadcasting techniques, such as AM broadcasting . It is also less susceptible to common forms of interference , having less static and popping sounds than are often heard on AM. Therefore, FM is used for most broadcasts of music and general audio (in the audio spectrum). FM radio stations use the very high frequency range of radio frequencies . Throughout
7020-433: The originating station. The Crosby system was rejected by the FCC because it was incompatible with existing subsidiary communications authorization (SCA) services which used various subcarrier frequencies including 41 and 67 kHz. Many revenue-starved FM stations used SCAs for "storecasting" and other non-broadcast purposes. The Halstead system was rejected due to lack of high frequency stereo separation and reduction in
7128-616: The outdated and filthy studios at 505 Eighth Avenue in New York, WBAI moved to new studios at 120 Wall Street in the Financial District in Manhattan in June 1998. After the death of Marksman, there was profound uncertainty and an explosion of pent-up feelings and resentments that was suppressed by Marksman and Mario Murillo, the Public Affairs director. Utrice Leid, a popular Caribbean radio host and producer had expected to succeed Marksman but
7236-480: The owner of 4 Times Square was threatening to remove WBAI "at any time" unless the station paid the $ 150,000 in debt it owed to the building. WBAI, which stated that such a move would mean "the end of WBAI" (a statement the general manager insisted was "not hyperbole") immediately launched a pledge drive hoping to raise the funds. Later that month, Pacifica agreed to a consent decree with the FCC over its pledge drive content containing unlawful calls to action, accepting
7344-480: The paid staff of KPFA claims that the lay offs were done in violation of the union contract. Pacifica management says the lay offs were financially necessary and done according to staff seniority. Pacifica management replaced the paid staff of the Morning Show with an all volunteer crew. KPFA's sister stations are WBAI New York, KPFT Houston, KPFK Los Angeles, and WPFW Washington. Pacifica continues today to be
7452-576: The performing poets Ed Friedman , Helen Adam and Patti Smith , who performed her first concert. During those years, WBAI became a cultural force as these programs were disseminated nationally through the Pacifica Network. In 1977, there was a major internal crisis at WBAI which resulted in the loss of the physical space of the station. WBAI was located in a former church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. For many years, WBAI had believed it
7560-471: The power of the government over broadcast material it calls indecent. Mickey Waldman and Joe Cuomo covered much of the legal proceedings during this time. In 1974, WBAI program director Marnie Mueller asked Charles Ruas to become director of arts programming. Thus the station, already at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement, the counterculture and anti-war protest, under Ruas also became
7668-551: The reasons for this were: Public service broadcasters in Ireland and Australia were far slower at adopting FM radio than those in either North America or continental Europe . Hans Idzerda operated a broadcasting station, PCGG , at The Hague from 1919 to 1924, which employed narrow-band FM transmissions. In the United Kingdom the BBC conducted tests during the 1940s, then began FM broadcasting in 1955, with three national networks:
7776-451: The receiver also reduces the high-frequency noise. These processes of boosting and then reducing certain frequencies are known as pre-emphasis and de-emphasis , respectively. The amount of pre-emphasis and de-emphasis used is defined by the time constant of a simple RC filter circuit. In most of the world a 50 μs time constant is used. In the Americas and South Korea , 75 μs
7884-515: The receiver to identify a stereo transmission and to regenerate the 38 kHz sub-carrier with the correct phase. The composite stereo multiplex signal contains the Main Channel (L+R), the pilot tone, and the (L−R) difference signal. This composite signal, along with any other sub-carriers, modulates the FM transmitter. The terms composite , multiplex and even MPX are used interchangeably to describe this signal. The instantaneous deviation of
7992-570: The required area is covered without causing interference to other stations further away. Practical transmitter powers range from a few milliwatts to 80 kW. As transmitter powers increase above a few kilowatts, the operating costs become high and only viable for large stations. The efficiency of larger transmitters is now better than 70% (AC power in to RF power out) for FM-only transmission. This compares to 50% before high efficiency switch-mode power supplies and LDMOS amplifiers were used. Efficiency drops dramatically if any digital HD Radio service
8100-400: The resulting signal is that it alternates between left and right at 38 kHz, with the phase determined by the 19 kHz pilot signal. Most stereo encoders use this switching technique to generate the 38 kHz subcarrier, but practical encoder designs need to incorporate circuitry to deal with the switching harmonics. Converting the multiplex signal back into left and right audio signals
8208-441: The rougher edges of existing shows. During his tenure, several producers received accolades for their efforts, including Robert Knight, who won a Polk Award for his show "Contragate", and future program director and Station Manager Valerie Van Isler, who won awards for her role in the film, The Panama Deception . Also, award-winning producer and host Amy Goodman began her career under Scagliotti. Samori Marksman returned to WBAI in
8316-415: The separation as the signal-to-noise ratio worsens, eventually going to mono while still indicating a stereo signal is received. As with monaural transmission, it is normal practice to apply pre-emphasis to the left and right channels before encoding and to apply de-emphasis at the receiver after decoding. In the U.S. around 2010, using single-sideband modulation for the stereo subcarrier was proposed. It
8424-573: The shutdown as illegal. A temporary injunction was granted the afternoon of October 8, 2019 ordering WBAI to resume operations and not dismantle the studio until an October 18 hearing, but by the time the injunction had been issued the studio had already been dismantled, preventing the staff from resuming local operations. An appeals court lifted most of the injunction October 10, only enjoining Pacifica from outright firing WBAI's employees. On Tuesday, October 15, 2019, WBAI's attorney, Arthur Schwartz, stated that Federal Judge Paul A. Engelmayer reactivated
8532-530: The station defended Tennessee Williams against his critics during the last years of his life by covering his Memoirs and broadcasting a production of Two-Character Play . Other dramatists whose works were featured included Jean-Claude van Itallie , Richard Scheckner , Andrei Serban , and Elizabeth Swados . Ruas initiated interview programs featuring nonfiction writers discussing their fields of expertise— Buckminster Fuller , Thor Heyerdahl , Ed Sanders , Jonathan Kozol and Nigel Nicholson . Each of
8640-399: The station broadcast comedian George Carlin 's iconic Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television monologue uncensored. WBAI's broadcast of Seven Words became a landmark moment in the history of free speech . In a 1978 milestone in the station's contentious and unruly history, WBAI lost a 5-to-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision ( FCC v. Pacifica Foundation ) that to this day has defined
8748-463: The station in a weeks-long lockout during which station management spent over half a million dollars on security measures. At one point, listeners created a separate fund to accept listener pledges that would be directed away from the Pacifica Foundation. In 2007, KPFA derecognized its Unpaid Staff Organization. The staff claimed that Pacifica Radio had been making network more corporate, softening its voice of dissent, and attempting to get rid of some of
8856-548: The station is known for airing the pioneering culture jamming sound collage show Over the Edge . Originally hosted by Don Joyce of Negativland , it is the longest-running block of free-form audio collage in radio history. KPFA is also known for Puzzling Evidence, the longest running radio program of the Church of the Subgenius hosted by Doug Wellman and Harry S. Robins . The program
8964-617: The station's signal on the air. WBAI began airing a national network feed known as "Pacifica Across America" - a curated collection of original content produced by Pacifica stations KPFA in Berkeley, California , KPFK in Los Angeles, KPFT in Houston and WPFW in Washington, D.C., among other sources (the post-shutdown WBAI schedule included commercial progressive talker Thom Hartmann and Native American free-form series Undercurrents , which
9072-488: The station's staff and management. On August 9, 2013, Pacifica management announced that due to financial problems, WBAI was laying off about two-thirds of its staff, effective August 12, 2013. The entire news department was laid off. Summer Reese, the interim executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, said that after talks with SAG-AFTRA , the union that represents broadcasting talent, "we will be laying off virtually everyone whose voice you recognize on
9180-461: The station. In 1983, Marksman abruptly left for the Caribbean island of Grenada to participate in a new government – a government that was thwarted by the US invasion of Grenada in October 1983. In 1986, gay activist John Scagliotti became program director. He initiated many program changes; still more long-time programmers left the station. Scagliotti tried to professionalize the programming and smooth out
9288-479: The temporary restraining order (TRO), extending it to close of business on the 17th. On October 15, District Judge Engelmayer (Southern District of New York) extended the New York State Supreme Court's TRO from October 18 through the end of the next hearing, which was scheduled for Monday, October 21. Prior to the hearing, the parties were to submit briefs in support or opposition of the extension of
9396-516: The top 25 U.S. radio markets to transmit in Quadraplex. The test results hopefully would prove to the FCC that the system was compatible with existing two-channel stereo transmission and reception and that it did not interfere with adjacent stations. There were several variations on this system submitted by GE, Zenith, RCA, and Denon for testing and consideration during the National Quadraphonic Radio Committee field trials for
9504-423: The transmitter carrier frequency due to the stereo audio and pilot tone (at 10% modulation) is where A and B are the pre-emphasized left and right audio signals and f p {\displaystyle f_{p}} =19 kHz is the frequency of the pilot tone. Slight variations in the peak deviation may occur in the presence of other subcarriers or because of local regulations. Another way to look at
9612-699: The transmitter site is located in the Berkeley Hills . Launched in 1949, three years after the Pacifica Foundation was created by pacifist Lewis Hill , KPFA became the first station in the Pacifica Radio network and the first listener-supported radio broadcaster in the United States. Previously, non-commercial stations were licensed only to serve educational functions as extensions of high schools, colleges, and universities. This departure into listener-oriented programming brought many detractors as KPFA aired controversial programming. The first interview with anyone from
9720-527: The use of two FM stations; one transmitting the front audio channels, the other the rear channels. A breakthrough came in 1970 when KIOI ( K-101 ) in San Francisco successfully transmitted true quadraphonic sound from a single FM station using the Quadraplex system under Special Temporary Authority from the FCC . Following this experiment, a long-term test period was proposed that would permit one FM station in each of
9828-418: The volunteers at the station. In 2008, a forcible removal by police of a KPFA volunteer highlighted the concerns between management and volunteer staff. A member of the KPFA board suggested that it was problematic that there was no grievance procedure for unpaid staff at the station. In November 2010, the management of Pacifica laid off most of the staff of the popular KPFA Morning Show. The union representing
9936-555: The works of Barbara Holland, Ivan Arguelles, Ann Darr, Richard Howard, Karen Swenson, James Emanuel, Siv Cedering Fox, Nelson Canton, Victoria Sullivan, Samuel Menashe, Carol Hebald, Paul Zweig, Gregor Roy and Mary Jane Menuez. He also produced specials on the aesthetics of 20th century poets and the history of the sonnet with contemporary American examples. From 1976 to 1979, poet John Giorno hosted The Poetry Experiment and presented, with Charles Ruas , his eight-part series Dial-A-Poem Poets . When Ira Weitzman became Director of
10044-615: The world, the FM broadcast band falls within the VHF part of the radio spectrum . Usually 87.5 to 108.0 MHz is used, or some portion of it, with few exceptions: The frequency of an FM broadcast station (more strictly its assigned nominal center frequency) is usually a multiple of 100 kHz. In most of South Korea , the Americas , the Philippines , and the Caribbean , only odd multiples are used. Some other countries follow this plan because of
10152-755: Was 27.5 kHz. The IF bandwidth was ±5 kHz, as the only goal at the time was to relay AM radio-quality audio. This transmission system used 75 μs audio pre-emphasis like the main monaural audio and subsequently the multiplexed stereo audio. In the late 1950s, several systems to add stereo to FM radio were considered by the FCC . Included were systems from 14 proponents including Crosby, Halstead, Electrical and Musical Industries, Ltd ( EMI ), Zenith, and General Electric. The individual systems were evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses during field tests in Uniontown, Pennsylvania , using KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh as
10260-518: Was announced on April 6, 2018, releasing WBAI from the court judgment and its obligation to continuing leasing the Empire State tower into 2020. They began broadcasting from 4 Times Square on May 31, 2018. A bailout loan from listeners of sister station KPFK eventually covered the remaining fees on the lease. On Monday, October 7, 2019, the Pacifica Foundation announced they were shutting down WBAI's local operations, leaving only two workers to keep
10368-616: Was atop the highest mountain in the northeast United States, Mount Washington , New Hampshire (shut down in 1948); and W9XAO/W55M/WTMJ-FM Milwaukee, Wisconsin (went off air in 1950). A commercial FM broadcasting band was formally established in the United States as of January 1, 1941, with the first fifteen construction permits announced on October 31, 1940. These stations primarily simulcast their AM sister stations, in addition to broadcasting lush orchestral music for stores and offices, classical music to an upmarket listenership in urban areas, and educational programming. On June 27, 1945
10476-476: Was blamed for the early death of Marksman. In 1994, Van Isler initially refused to hire Marksman, claiming Marksman had a mediocre credit report, then, later in his tenure, refused to give him a salary increase. The autocratic and unpopular Van Isler also vigorously fought former staffers from obtaining unemployment benefits, including Bill Wells, the former WBAI Chief Engineer, who had a disability. In late 2012, WBAI suffered extensive damage to its offices following
10584-612: Was denied the post by then-general manager Valerie Van Isler. This led to an intense battle between various factions inside and outside the station and with The Pacifica Foundation, the non-profit parent company of WBAI. The culmination of this conflict was the "Christmas Coup" in December 2000 when a faction, led by Leid, padlocked the station and took control of the airwaves, starting an on-air and off-air war that lasted for several years. Some senior WBAI staffers, including general manager Van Isler, were fired immediately. Van Isler, in particular,
10692-578: Was exempt from New York City real estate taxes as an "educational" institution, but in March 1977 the City Tax Commission denied that status and WBAI eventually sold the church (which it owned) to pay the back taxes. WBAI signed a new lease for the 19th floor (the former Caedmon Records office/studio) plus one office on another floor of an office building at 505 8th Avenue on the West Side of Manhattan. After
10800-636: Was jailed in protest. The staff, in protest at sweeping proposed changes of another station manager, seized the studio facilities, then located in a deconsecrated church , as well as the transmitter, located at the Empire State Building . During the 1960s, the station hosted numerous anti-establishment causes, including anti-Vietnam war activists , feminists (and live coverage of purported bra-burning demonstrations ), kids lib, early Firesign Theater comedy, and complete-album music overnight. It refused to stop playing Janis Ian 's song about interracial relationships " Society's Child ". Extensive daily coverage of
10908-815: Was just $ 23,000. In March 2014, there were assorted rumors that the station would be sold or leased or moved, in whole or in part (including their equipment and antenna at the Empire State Building ), after contentions and firings both at WBAI and at Pacifica headquarters. On December 17, 2014, the California State Attorney General opened a full and formal investigation into the Pacifica Radio Foundation, owner of WBAI, with respect to its alleged irregularities as to its finances, violations of California law with respect to nonprofit organizations, and violations of its own bylaws. In 2015, WBAI moved to new studios and offices at 388 Atlantic Avenue in
11016-404: Was purchased by philanthropist Louis Schweitzer , who donated it to the Pacifica Foundation in 1960. The station, which had been a commercial enterprise, became non-commercial and listener-supported under Pacifica ownership. The history of WBAI during this period is iconoclastic and contentious. Referred to in a New York Times Magazine piece as "an anarchist's circus," one station manager
11124-505: Was read cover to cover by more than 200 people—including a large number of international celebrities from various fields. Newsweek called this broadcast "one of the more mind-blowing 'firsts' in the history of the media". The complete reading (over 200 audio tapes) was the first Pacifica program to be selected for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Museum of Broadcasting in NYC. In 1973,
11232-565: Was seen as another service which licensees could use to create additional income. Use of SCAs was particularly popular in the US, but much less so elsewhere. Uses for such subcarriers include radio reading services for the blind , which became common and remain so, private data transmission services (for example sending stock market information to stockbrokers or stolen credit card number denial lists to stores, ) subscription commercial-free background music services for shops, paging ("beeper") services, alternative-language programming, and providing
11340-639: Was tested in Germany between July 1979 and December 1981 by IRT . It was based on the Telefunken High ;Com broadband compander system, but was never introduced commercially in FM broadcasting. Yet another system was the CX -based noise reduction system FMX implemented in some radio broadcasting stations in the United States in the 1980s. FM broadcasting has included subsidiary communications authorization (SCA) services capability since its inception, as it
11448-547: Was the first station to broadcast a radio show specializing in space music , with the debut of Stephen Hill and Anna Turner 's Music from the Hearts of Space in 1973. Ten years later, the show – now known by the shorter title Hearts of Space – was syndicated in the U.S. to NPR stations, while remaining at its first home at KPFA. In the 1970s and 1980s, it broadcast a weekly long-running radio program called Fruit Punch for gay and lesbian listeners. Since 1981,
11556-502: Was the inspiration for the Talking Heads song of the same name from the band’s film True Stories . In 1999 the station was effectively taken over by KPFA's governing Pacifica Foundation, after Dennis Bernstein, the long-established host of the station's Flashpoints news magazine, was forcibly removed by police for airing grievances on air over a labor dispute. A broad cross section of protesters joined in direct action outside of
11664-424: Was theorized to be more spectrum-efficient and to produce a 4 dB s/n improvement at the receiver, and it was claimed that multipath distortion would be reduced as well. A handful of radio stations around the country broadcast stereo in this way, under FCC experimental authority. It may not be compatible with very old receivers, but it is claimed that no difference can be heard with most newer receivers. At present,
#18981