Pacifica Radio will dedicate Tuesday’s broadcasting day to raising funds for its “American Women Making History and Culture, 1963-1982” preservation and access project. Pacifica Radio Archives just received a $128,000 matching grant for the initiative from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives — the largest grant ever made to pubradio for preservation of historic recordings, Pacifica said.
The collection includes recordings from Pacifica stations pertaining to the period known as second-wave feminism. Interviews feature activists Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis; members of Congress Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug; and authors Rita Mae Brown and Anaïs Nin, among many other voices.
“It is gratifying to know these fragile reel-to-reel tapes, silent [for] decades, will be rescued from deterioration and treated with the highest standards our National Archives demands,” said Brian DeShazor, Pacifica Radio Archives director.
The project is expected to take two years to complete and will make the recordings available for free to schools, museums, libraries and other nonprofit educational institutions.
Lets hope Pacifica’s legacy lives on for years!