From Pacifica.org, from KPFK.org:

“The Pacifica Foundation (now known as Pacifica Foundation Radio) was born in the late 1940’s out of the (now nearly forgotten) peace movement surrounding World War Two. Lewis Hill, a conscientious objector and Washington, D.C. newsman, was fired from his mainstream reporting job when he refused to misrepresent the facts.

This was a time when the idea of a listener-sponsored radio station was a new one which had never been implemented. Many people doubted the viability of a broadcast model which didn’t rely on some kind of corporate or government funding. But the idea was too compelling for Hill and others who agreed with him. Pacifica was born and in 1949 KPFA went on the air from Berkeley, California.

KPFK, in Los Angeles, was the second of what would eventually become five Pacifica Stations to go on the air. It was 1959 and Terry Drinkwater was the first General Manager. Blessed with an enormous transmitter in a prime location, KPFK is the most powerful of the Pacifica stations and indeed is the most powerful public radio station in the Western United States. . .  .

http://www.pacifica.org/about_history.php

• Matthew Lasar, author of Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network (2nd Edition) and Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio’s Civil War
• Jesse Walker, author of Rebels on the Air : An Alternative History of Radio in America
• David Barsamian, author of The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting: Creating Alternative Media
• Laura Flanders, author of Real Majority, Media Minority : The Costs of Sidelining Women in Reporting
• William Mandel, Saying No to Power : Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker
• Steve Post, Playing in the FM Band: A Personal Account of Free Radio”