KPFT

Infobox Radio station
name = KPFT


city = Houston, Texas
area = Greater Houston
branding = "KPFT 90.1"
slogan = "Radio For Peace"
airdate = March 1, 1970
frequency = 90.1 MHz HD Radio90.1 HD-2 BBC World Service/Added Local Programming
format = Public Radio
erp = 100,000 watts
haat = 205 meters
class = C1
facility_id = 51244
callsign_meaning = K PaciFica Texas
owner = Pacifica Radio
webcast = [http://stream.kpft.org/streamkpft.m3u Listen Live]
website = [http://www.kpft.org/ www.kpft.org]
affiliations = Pacifica Radio

KPFT is a listener-sponsored community radio station in Houston, Texas, which went on the air on March 1, 1970 as the fourth station in the Pacifica radio family. Larry Lee sold the idea to Pacifica to establish listener-supported radio in Houston as an alternative to main-stream broadcasting.

KPFT commenced broadcasting on the 90.1 FM frequency with the song "Here Comes the Sun" from the then-brand-new "Abbey Road" album by The Beatles.

Violence against the station

The station's transmitter was bombed and destroyed on May 12, 1970, two months after going on the air. The new station was off the air for three weeks until repairs could be made. Five months later, on October 6, 1970, while the station was broadcasting Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant," the transmitter was bombed yet again and the damage was significantly more extensive. The second bombing took KPFT off the air for three months.

On January 21, 1971, KPFT management invited Guthrie to visit the Houston studios, where he performed "Alice's Restaurant" live as the station commenced transmitting yet again.

After months of inactivity by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police, Pacifica took the initiative to mount a media campaign designed to draw attention to the unsolved case and seek support for pressuring authorities to act. Federal agents ultimately arrested a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Jimmy Dale Hutto, and charged him with the KPFT bombings, as well as with plotting to blow up radio stations KPFA and KPFK. Hutto was convicted and imprisoned in 1971.

In the early morning hours on August 13, 2007, a bullet was fired into the studio, breaking a window and narrowly missing a woman's head. No one was injured. The shooting followed a week-long fundraising drive; since the shooting, one of the windows was covered with the KPFT banner and the front entrance locked. [cite news | publisher = The Houston Chronicle | title = No injuries when bullet busts window at KPFT radio | url = http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5048850.html | last = Moran | first = Kevin | date = August 13, 2007 | accessdate = 2007-08-13 ]

On July 16, 2008, a man demanded access to KPFT's studios. After being rebuffed, he punched out a window pane on the back door with a knife. The man was apprehended without resistance, and promptly arrested. [http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6268002 abc13.com: Knife-wielding man arrested at radio station 7/16/08 ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.kpft.org KPFT website]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf-57Vf-LnQ Rare movie concerning the dynamiting of the KPFT transmitter in 1970]
* [http://www.kpftradio.com/kpftbom.html Video of bombing]
* [http://www.worldinternetnews.net KPFT News Contributor -- Houston Not-For-Profit News]
* [http://www.styluscity.org/KPFT/ KPFT's page on StylusCity]
*FMQ|KPFT
*FML|KPFT
*FMARB|KPFT