Native Media Resource Center / Peggy Berryhill Bay Area Native radio collection, 1974-2001

Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Creators:
Berryhill, Peggy
Abstract:
Audiotape reels, audiocassettes, digital audiotape (DAT), and minidiscs from the Native Media Resource Center and Peggy Berryhill radio broadcasts. Material ranges in date from 1974 to 2001, and includes correspondence and radio program pamphlets
Extent:
43.54 linear feet (625 audiotape reels, 387 audiocassettes, 153 digital audiotapes, 28 minidiscs)
Language:
English and English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Native Media Resource Center / Peggy Berryhill Bay Area Native radio collection, PA Mss 147. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background

Scope and content:

Audiotape recordings of radio broadcasts documenting Native Media Resource Center (NMRC) founder Peggy Berryhill's career as radio producer and host on Pacifica Radio station KPFA-FM Berkeley. Material ranges in date from 1974 to 2001, and includes correspondence and radio program pamphlets.

Individuals, organizations, and topics covered in this collection of radio broadcasts include: Native activists from the American Indian Movement (AIM), John Trudell, musician Charlie Hill, Jerry Kay, Alcatraz panel with Natives from various tribes, American Indians and American History, Gerald Clifford "West of Wall Street," Princess Redwing, Yvonne Wanrow, History of AIM, Tapes from Wounded Knee, "Why Wounded Knee?," William Kunstler, "An Indian's Memories of Feather River Country," Bryan Beavers, Skyhorse Mohauk rally (October 17, 1976), Joy Harjo, CBC AIDS documentary (1985), Margaret Carlson, Floyd Westerman, "Songs and Dances of the Flathead Indians," Candy Hamilton, Simon Ortiz (poems), Cedar Rapids Drum Group, Paul Ortega Live West Dakota, Charlie Thom, Russell Redner, Native Americans for a Clean Environment, Reclaiming the Nations, "Bless me Ultima," Jim Pepper, Dennis Banks, AIM Survival School, Lesbian Mother, SAMS Yaqui Deer Dance, Buffy Saint-Marie, and Native American Pine Ridge.

Biographical / historical:

Peggy Berryhill (Muscogee) is the Founder (1996) and President of the Native Media Resource Center (NMRC), which produces content about Native Americans and promotes racial understanding and cross-cultural harmony. Peggy has been instrumental in organizing Native radio stations and independent producers throughout her career. Berryhill began broadcasting in 1973 at KPFA in Berkeley where she produced "Living on Indian Time," a weekly one-hour program focused on the Native American community (local and national) including news, live interviews, music, field production, and recording events at various venues where Native American activists, authors, poets and musicians were featured. She has been a Program Director at KUNM-FM, KPFA-FM, and KALW-FM, and is the only Native American person to have worked as a full-time producer at National Public Radio (NPR) in the Specialized Audience Programs Department (1978-1979). Berryhill has won numerous awards for her documentary work including the Unity Award and the Cindy, as well as awards from the New York Festival, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and from the Native American Journalists Association. Berryhill continues broadcasting on the station she founded, KGUA-FM. Berryhill's radio work includes "Spirits of the Present: the Legacy from Native America," in collaboration with the Smithsonian Museum of American History, "The California Indian Radio Project," "Club Red" starring Charlie Hill, "Frank Day, Memory and Imagination" for the National Museum of the American Indian, "The Opening Moment," and "Enduring Freedom: Honoring Native Women Veterans."

Founded by Lewis Hill in the 1940s, Pacifica Radio (a division of the Pacifica Foundation) was grounded in Hill's pacifist ideals and devoted itself to upholding the First Amendment through its alternative radio programming. Pacifica's first fledgling station KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California went on the air on April 15, 1949. Unique for its non-commercial structure and its listener sponsored (rather than government supported) financial organization, KPFA established itself as a locale for minority voices during a period of intense scrutiny and unease—the Cold War. KPFA won several distinctions in the early years of its tenure, such as broadcast awards for a feature by Alexander Meiklejohn about the First Amendment, and a Robin Hood series by Chuck Levy and Virginia Maynard, as well as the George Foster Peabody Award for its programs rooted against McCarthyism. Pacifica's strident stance against the accusatory politics of the US Cold War eventually led to an investigation from the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) into its activities. In 1962, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conducted their own investigation into Pacifica for its alleged communist ties, resulting in the withholding of various Pacifica Radio license renewals (these were eventually renewed in 1964).

Acquisition information:
Gift of Peggy Berryhill, 2019.
Arrangement:

The collection has been divided into two series: 1. Audio, 2. Correspondence and program pamphlets.

Physical location:
Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Correspondence and program pamphlets have not been processed. Service copies of audiovisual items may need to be made before viewing or listening. Please consult Special Research Collections staff for further information.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Native Media Resource Center / Peggy Berryhill Bay Area Native radio collection, PA Mss 147. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Location of this collection:
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
Contact:
(805) 893-3062
special@library.ucsb.edu
Website