Yet, beginning in 1975 and through the end of the decade, Chicanas harnessed community radio technologies in new and radical ways. I spin this historical record once more to listen for the tactics and strategies deployed by Chicana radio activists within programming and hiring, while amplifying their role as leaders of Chicana/o-controlled community radio stations. A small yet potent number of Chicanas in technical and leadership roles had a significant impact on the fabric that constitutes community radio broadcasting. Their model of alternative public media included programming for Chicanas and farmworkers, segments of the population that had not been addressed by mass media; a national Spanish-language news network; and the training of other women as producers and technical staff. The effects are lasting to this day, and yet there is little scholarship that documents and analyzes these strategies. I draw from the experiences of Chicanas at two Chicana/o-controlled community radio stations—KBBFFM in Santa Rosa, California, and KDNA in Granger, Washington—as examples of women making community radio in the 1970s to provide insights into the radical ways women were in fact creating cutting-edge programming while learning the technical skills to produce radio broadcasts they desired.
When they called in, they’d tell us they’d had to leave home to use the corner pay phone—God forbid their husbands should overhear them calling in to this programa sin vergüenza—this ‘shameless’ radio program. —María Martin, “Crossing Borders”
