Open the Vault: Fifty Years of WPFW, In Your Hands
WPFW's staff in 1977, from an early program guide. Top row, left to right: Robert Frazier, Gregory Millard, Denise Oliver, Pamela Peabody, Lenore Jacobs. Bottom row: Sigidi Braudy, Sunny Pietrafesa, Lorne Cress, Paz Cohen, Grace Cavalieri. Have photos like this? Add them to The Vault.
On February 28, 1977, at 8pm, WPFW signed on with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train." Fifty years of music and movement have passed through this station since that night, and a lot of that history isn't sitting in our files. It's in your shoebox. It's on your phone. It's on the cassette you taped off the radio and never threw away.
As we get ready for our 50th anniversary, we're opening The Vault: a place for listeners, volunteers and programmers to share the photos, videos and audio that hold our story.
Why We Keep the Record
Communities like ours have always had to keep our own history. The official record has a way of leaving out the organizers, the neighborhoods, and the musicians who filled DC's clubs and never made the charts. When we don't hold on to our own story, somebody else decides what happened.
Pacifica understood this early. The Pacifica Radio Archives has been saving broadcasts for more than 75 years, and voices you can't hear anywhere else survive there because someone pressed record and then kept the tape.
The Vault is how we do that for WPFW. It's a record of our love, our fight and our community, gathered by the people who lived it.
A Record of Our Love
People grow up with WPFW, and they carry it with them through the hard seasons of their lives.
"I grew up in Shepherd Park and was listening to WPFW since it first went on the air in 1977."
Tim Masters Host of Jazz Masters"I first heard WPFW in 1977. When I heard and read the mission of the station, I was impressed. It has continued to provide an avenue for many communities to share their creative skills and information. It keeps us all connected."
Ellen Carter WPFW programmer since 1986"Native Washingtonian that grew up listening to WPFW. Third-generation jazz fan... Love the music and love connecting with people through it."
Paul Bailey WPFW programmer since 2024"During the height of COVID, my connection to WPFW deepened in a very personal way... The station became a space where I could hear not just music, but a range of perspectives, from programmers and the community, that reflected what I was feeling. It truly helped me process those moments."
Rita Burns WPFW programmer since 2022A Record of Our Fight
WPFW's first Program Director was Denise Oliver-Velez: a Young Lord, a Black Panther, and a visionary whose idea of this station we are still working from. Justice has been half of our name from the start.
Some of the fights happened over the airwaves themselves. In 1999 a young writer named Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a Washington City Paper story about the Soul Controllers, a DJ collective campaigning for years to bring hip-hop to WPFW. The answer came in 2005, when Decipher launched on January 31. Eddie Smith has held that time ever since.
"Even with rap's mainstream growth, greater elements of the music, the movement, and the message still are under-represented, and still deserve a platform on DC's airwaves."Eddie Smith, Decipher
Every one of those fights left something behind: a flyer from a rally, a photo from a march, a tape of the broadcast that told people where to show up.
A Record of Our Community
Sometimes the most important piece of an archive is one person's generosity. In 1981, soon after the great Mary Lou Williams passed, Tim Masters gave WPFW an interview he had recorded with her a few years earlier, and the station put it on the air. That is exactly the kind of treasure we believe is still out there.
"It is a privilege, an honor and good for my peace to be a part of the WPFW mission to serve its community."Candy Shannon, WPFW programmer since 1998
What We're Looking For
- PhotosConcerts, pledge drives, festivals, rallies, community events, and the people behind the mic at our studios over the years.
- VideoPerformances, interviews, marches, parties, and phone clips from last month or thirty years ago.
- AudioBroadcasts you taped off the radio, interviews, live sets, and old cassettes you've had digitized.
- Your storyThe year, the place, who's in it, and what it meant to you. A best guess is fine.
Fifty Years, Your Way
50
years on February 28, 2027
- Your files come privately to WPFW.
- Nothing is posted publicly without your permission.
- You keep ownership of everything you share.
- You choose how you're credited: full name, first name or anonymous.
Uploading takes a few minutes, and it works from your phone.
Add to The VaultHave prints, slides or tapes you can't upload? Email info@wpfw.org and we'll figure it out together.
Tune in to WPFW 89.3 FM or stream at wpfwfm.org, and help us tell fifty years of Jazz and Justice Radio.