Marble Falls August 29th of each year marks the date that KABF 88.3 FM went on the air in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1984 at 100,000-watts of power as the “Voice of the People” and brought noncommercial community radio to the state. The station, its hosts, and listeners try to mark the anniversary in some way every year. As an almost all-volunteer operation, sometime we all get it together for a wingding, and sometimes we don’t and the date is just something we mention on the air. As KABF board chair, Toney Orr, and I often joke, “that’s community radio!” We like to make note of the big numbers though, as they advance on the calendar, even if it might take us a couple of months to make it happen, as it did this time, but forty years is forty years, so we had to make something happen to really mark the occasion, so there we all were in west Little Rock at St. Michaels Episcopal Church on a Saturday afternoon showing our colors.
Hosts, new and old, still on-the-air or remembering their time on the air, came in and out throughout the afternoon, as did some of our great listeners and fans of various genres. In the best tradition of an established community institution, the food was donated by The Root, a hip, healthy cafe down the block, while the cake came from Community Bakery, another neighbor, and more support came from the local American Legion Post, the Arkansas Community Organization, and Local 100, United Labor Unions. Music echoed in every room. We had a live gospel duet, a rocking young local band, and Marquis Hunt jazzing it up on the clarinet with piano backup, while tunes blasted from a computer playlist near the swag table in another room. Like I said, “that’s community radio!”
One of great supporters from the Darragh Foundation and an old friend and comrade dating back to his days with the Arkansas Gazette, Ernie Dumas and his wife Elaine were there. He asked me if there was going to be a program. Well, not really, a bunch of talking heads doesn’t fit our idea of a radio station celebration. Toney at one point thanked the sponsors and had the board members and hosts all stand up and be recognized.
After more music and food, there were more brief remarks. I gave a short history lesson on why ACORN had organized the station initially, beginning in 1978 in the wake of our earlier referendum on Lifeline utility rates with the help of Lorenzo Milam, often called the “father of community radio,” as well as the fight to prevail over the local university NPR station who challenged us at the FCC, until we were finally able to “go live” only days before our construction permit expired in 1984. I also referenced the contributions that Zach Polett had made as an organizer for ACORN, a member of the KABF board, and the rock on which much of our work was built in Arkansas over the years before his passing earlier this year.
Toney brought John Cain up the front for the unveiling of the John Cain – Zach Polett KABF Memorial Plaque, which will be hung in the broadcast studio acknowledging their contributions to our forty years. The plaque also will acknowledge all donors who have given $500 or more to KABF to keep the station on the air and going for another forty years. Their names will be engraved on the plaque as company for John and Zach.
That’s community radio, KABF style, and the beat goes on, so the peoples’ voice can be heard.
