By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, November 26th 2007
Radio history, like so much of our popular culture history, has been
destroyed far more often than it's been preserved.
That makes the Pacifica Radio Archives particularly valuable, and the
five Pacifica stations, including WBAI (99.5 FM), will spend Tuesday
broadcasting a small, rich sample of the 50,000-tape archive.
Yes, since it's Pacifica, it will be history as told by alternative
and sometimes unpopular voices, like the Black Panthers. And yes, the
19-hour broadcast, 4 a.m.-9 p.m., will be yet another in WBAI's
seemingly endless round of fund-raisers, because broadcasting
alternative voices means getting minimal support from traditional sources.
But one of the things that's striking about the sixth annual Archives
special is how many of the voices that seemed radical and even
threatening a few years ago now sound as if they are only asking for
what's fair and just.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela will be heard on this
show, as will Rosa Parks, who sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, and
Gloria Steinem, an early voice for modern feminism.
WBAI also has a strong arts component, and tomorrow's programs
include a special on "The John Coltrane Legacy."
"Nowhere else does this powerful documentation of United States
history, culture and art exist," says Brian DeShazor, director of the
Archives. "It's story telling at its best, which gives us a keen
sense of how we've come to be who we are as a nation."
Specific specials through the day include "The Power of African
Women," "Conscientious Objectors from Vietnam to Iraq," re-enactments
of taped Richard Nixon White House conversations, "The Black Panther
Legacy," "Where Were You in 1968?", "Women of the World Speak Out,"
"Malcolm X," and a "No Nukes" reunion.
Other voices include Angela Davis, Ossie Davis, Rob Reiner, Robert F.
Kennedy, Joni Mitchell, Duke Ellington, Ayn Rand, Allen Ginsberg and
Harry Shearer.
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