Listening and Learning: Pacifica Radio Archives’ “American Women: 1963-1982” Digitization and Access Project

Abstract

In 2016, the Pacifica Radio Archives in Los Angeles completed a two-year project in which more than 2,000 recordings of broadcasts from 1963 to 1982, produced by or about women, were digitized, recataloged, and made freely available for research and production. ¹ This project, titled “American Women Making History and Culture: 1963-1982,” ² demonstrated how women used the progressive, listener-supported Pacifica Radio studios and airwaves, first to communicate obstacles they faced in the 1960s due to their gender and then to spread information about the rising women's movement and, finally, to broadcast whatever they desired. Programs ranged from historical radio dramas to experimental music performance to programs discussing issues of intersectionality (e.g., lesbian women of color facing racism and homophobia within the women's movement). This article discusses women as both curators and creators of radio programming, the challenges of cataloging underrepresented and sometimes invisible creators and subjects, and the finished digitization and access project as an accessible and important collection where women are the subject.