Pacifica Foundation is an American nonprofit organization that owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal[1][2] political orientation.

By 1977, the network had added WBAI in New York City, KPFK in Los Angeles, WPFW in Washington, DC, and KPFT in Houston.

Following a listener complaint, Pacifica received a letter of reprimand from the FCC, censuring them for allegedly violating broadcast regulations which prohibited airing indecent material.

This became a landmark moment in the history of free speech, and the case continues to define the power of the government over broadcast material it calls indecent.

There were also accusations that the Board was considering selling both KPFA and WBAI in New York City, which operate on commercial-band FM frequencies (94.1 and 99.5, respectively) worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

[12] This led to years of conflict, including court cases, public demonstrations, firings and strikes of station staff, whose common plight inspired creation of Radio4all.net to preserve what they saw as the original spirit of Pacifica.

The controversy included highly publicized ideologically-charged disputes between grassroots listener organizations and Mary Frances Berry, a former chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who chaired Pacifica's national board at the time.

], the network was still largely disorganized[citation needed], and Pacifica reverted to operating with an interim executive director for most of the year.

She resigned effective September 30, citing "dysfunctional" governance and "shoddy and opaque" business practices that had plunged the organization into a financial crisis.

Aaron appointed Williams acting GM of WBAI in May, and Hicks filed a lawsuit against the foundation alleging that he was dismissed because he is African American and a whistleblower.

The 9% annual rental increases were facilitated by the destruction of the twin towers on September 11, 2001, which dramatically reduced space available for comparable antennas.

[21] On April 6, 2018, The Pacifica Foundation announced the settlement on a series of agreements that release WBAI, the organization's New York radio station, from a court judgment as well as the last two years of its lease at the Empire State Building as of May 31, 2018.

The New York State Supreme Court ruled in November 2019 that the WBAI shutdown by then-executive director John Vernile was executed "ultra vires" (without the proper authority) and ordered the station re-opened.

[citation needed] The Pacifica network, in addition to extensive community-based productions at its various stations around the United States, also featured a daily newscast Free Speech Radio News from 2003-2013.

FSRN was primarily funded by Pacifica, and includes headlines and news features produced by reporters based around the U.S. and in scores of countries around the world.

archival material, making it relevant to contemporary listeners; and Informativo Pacifica, based at KPFK in Los Angeles, a daily Spanish-language newscast that includes reporters from the U.S. and many Latin American countries.

a wide variety of special broadcasts, including live coverage of major U.S. Congressional hearings, national mobilizations against war, and other important events, such as the United States Social Forum.

The archive includes recordings of interviews with John Coltrane, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and Langston Hughes, among many others.