Lewis Hill was a pacifist and journalist who believed that commercial broadcasting was inherently compromised by the need to satisfy advertisers and corporate owners. His solution was radical for 1949: a radio station funded entirely by its listeners, free to broadcast whatever its staff and community believed was important. KPFA signed on in Berkeley, offering programming that included classical music, poetry, public affairs discussions, and voices that commercial radio would not air. The model was initially precarious -- Hill struggled to attract enough subscribers to keep the station on the air.

The Pacifica Foundation eventually expanded to five stations: KPFA in Berkeley, KPFK in Los Angeles, WBAI in New York, WPFW in Washington, D.C., and KPFT in Houston. Each station operates independently within the Pacifica framework, developing programming that reflects its local community while sharing a commitment to noncommercial, listener-supported broadcasting. The stations have broadcast landmark programming over the decades, from early coverage of the civil rights movement to broadcasts of the Vietnam War congressional hearings.

Pacifica stations have been at the center of several major First Amendment cases. KPFT in Houston was bombed twice by the Ku Klux Klan in 1970 -- the only radio station in American history to be attacked in this way. WBAI's broadcast of George Carlin's 'Seven Words' routine led to the Supreme Court case FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, which established the government's authority to regulate indecent broadcasts. The foundation's commitment to free speech has made its stations essential, controversial, and perpetually underfunded.