KALW Day Celebrated

The West Coast’s first FM radio station, 91.7 KALW, commemorated it’s 70th Anniversary at a community hosted celebration at the Mission Campus on September 8, a date recognised by the city as “KALW Day.” 

The celebration also included the first live broadcast from the Mission Campus’s radio facility. “Your Call”, a call-in radio show, used the on-campus opportunity to discuss the importance of community colleges with a variety of student guests.

San Francisco Board of Supervisor, Eric Mar, announced at the event the new partnership between Youth Radio and KALW. Students, volunteers and KALW employees are excited about the partnership opportunities.

“The partnership with Youth Radio is going to be amazing,” said Audrey Diling, volunteer reporter for KALW. “Our main mission is to reach out to young minds, so it is very appropriate to be based on a high school campus.”

In the seventy years of operation, KALW has made ground breaking changes to radio broadcasting.
In 1942, KALW took the lead in female employment. Over ninety women were trained in code work, radio operation and broadcasting.
KALW was the first radio station to introduce NPR In 1972, and shortly thereafter, broadcasts from BBC World Service.

Today the radio station is adapting to modern forms of communication.
“I have been involved with KALW since 2003. During this time we have expanded onto the web through pod casting, and we maintained the same quality programming.” said David Tulippe, part time announcer for KALW.

While the station is transitioning with the rest of the world onto the Internet, Tulippe said there will always be a place for FM radio, regardless of ever-progressing technology.

“For a lot of people who cant afford new technology it has become the main source of information.” Said Tulippe. “It is a huge responsibility for the station to be that source and provide accurate and relevant news.”