The computer punch card, now a quaint artifact, was an important symbol of the times in 1964.
In 1964 the IBM Aerospace Headquarters building (pictured below) opened in Los Angeles. Originally built to house IBMs data processing facilities this seven-story office building with its “computer punch card” array of windows conducted the earliest versions of machine computing. It is considered an important part of industrial design history and a landmark of mid-century architecture.
That same year, in the fall of 1964, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement occurred, and the punch card was part of it. The confrontation evolved into a battle over academic freedom and the role of the university in society. Was it a factory designed to produce a managing class and “cogs in the machine”, or was it a marketplace of ideas designed to produce educated citizens?
The University of California used computer punch cards for class registration. FSM protestors turned them into a symbol of the “system” and as a symbol of alienation. The argument found its ultimate expression in the “Operation of the Machine” speech made by FSM leader Mario Savio. You can listen to the speech below. For a fascinating take on the cultural history of the punch card, including its role in the campus protests, read “Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate” included below.
Personal collection of Vietnam era anti-war stickers and buttons. Many of the major events are represented:
– April 15, 1967. Spring Mobe protests in New York City (300,000 meet in Central Park and march to the United Nations) and in San Francisco.
– October 21, 1967. March on the Pentagon. 100,000 are on the National Mall in Washington DC. Norman Mailer’s book The Armies of the Night describes the event.
– October 15, 1969. National “Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam” was a massive demonstration and teach-in across the United States. Over a quarter of million people attended the Moratorium march in Washington, D.C.
– November 14, 1969. National student strike and “March against Death” in front of the White House.
– November 15, 1969. The Mobe’s 2nd Moratorium March mobilizes 500,000 in Wash DC and San Francisco. The news of the My Lai Massacre had broken a few days earlier.
– April 24, 1971. Demonstration on the National Mall draws approximately half a million protestors to D.C. In addition over 100,00 participate in San Francisco, the largest demonstration on the West Coast.
– The large blue button commemorates the peace treaty signed on January 27, 1973. Hoa Binh is Vietnamese for Peace.
– Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential campaign challenged Lyndon B. Johnson on a primarily anti–war platform. Riding a wave of dissatisfaction after the Tet Offensive McCarthy finished in a strong second place in the New Hampshire primary, prompting LBJ to decline a run for re-election.
– Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment during the Watergate scandal. It all began with Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon papers published in 1971. The White House approved the formation of “The Plumbers” to silence Ellsberg. Led by G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, the crime committed was to burglarize Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office to search for damning information to use to discredit him. They found nothing. The bungled operation started Nixon and his cohorts down the slippery slope of crimes that culminated in the botched break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex nine months later.
In the mid-1960s FM radio featured a handful of “progressive” or “freeform” programs that became foundational influences on a growing counter-cultural generation. Coinciding with the youth backlash against the sterile consumerism of the 1950s, against the “plastic people” as the Mothers of Invention coined them, listeners were primarily urban kids, many recently radicalized by the civil rights, free speech and anti-Vietnam war movements, many others were just lovers of provocative thought and music.
In the early days most FM and AM stations were owned by the same broadcasting companies. AM simply duplicated their programming onto the FM band in an effort to broaden audiences. Everything began to change in 1964 when the FCC moved to enact a non-duplication rule in an effort to broaden the chances for under-represented demographics to be served. The rule, emerging in the midst of the civil rights struggles, was at first vigorously opposed by many established AM/FM affiliate stations as an egregious example of government overreach, not to mention the financial costs of hiring new staff and DJs.
Not all stations resisted, WBAI in New York and Pacifica stations in California were early adopters for example, but powerful owners did manage to delay official enactment until January 1, 1967. Once passed the FM Non-Duplication Rule required FM stations to broadcast original content over 50% of their broadcast day. This little remembered event was a key moment in the cultural formation of the 1960s and early 1970s (and my life!). Programmers could no longer take the lazy route of repetitiously spinning Top 40 banality, they were forced to begin experimenting. Many gave disc jockeys more freedom and control over the material on their shows. These new “underground” jockeys began to manipulate their playlists to feature a broad range of genres interspersed with political and cultural discussions, comedy and interviews. The style came to be known as freeform. There was no preset playlist schedule to follow. The only rules were those laid down by the FCC regarding profanity and station identification. With no stylistic boundaries, programming was shaped by the intellectual eclecticism and uniqueness of the individual personalities behind the mic.
The first prototype for what would become freeform radio was Pacifica Radio (KPFA in Berkeley, California) launched in 1949 by a group World War II conscientious objectors. KPFA was dedicated to free artistic expression and countering many of the accepted political norms of the early postwar period. The first so-called freeform radio show was Night Sounds hosted by John Leonard. It was here that beat poets like Ginsberg, Corso, Ferlinghetti and Kerouac were heard for the first time over the airwaves. This was powerful stuff. Other founding fathers included WBAI New York’s Bob Fass, WOR New York’s Murray the K (who called himself the 5th Beatle) and in Los Angeles it was KPFK’s pioneering talk show “Radio Free oZ” hosted by the Firesign Theatre troupe.
But perhaps the most recognized commercial freeform station was San Francisco’s KMPX, with its DJ/program director Tom “Big Daddy” Donahue. His timing was perfect, coming online in the run-up to the summer of love just as the San Francisco sound was beginning to peak. On any evening in San Francisco one could tune in and hear everything from the Stones, Mingus and Miles Davis to Mongolian chants. KMPX-FM and Donahue were the amplifiers that first brought the likes of Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service to the Bay Area and world.
One evening in April 1967, Donahue invited Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia to be guest DJs on KMPX. Listen to the show below. This fascinating time-capsule has Phil and Jerry discussing the Grateful Dead’s brand-new debut album, their upcoming first tour in the east and odd topics such as a top-secret “sound gun.” But the real treat is the exposure of the musical influences that shaped Garcia and Lesh, both very young at the time, culled straight from their own personal record collections! I have visions of them riding the Muni bus from the Haight to downtown, stacks of wax tucked under their arms. Listen and Enjoy…
Shortly after his release from prison in 1990 Nelson Mandela visited Oakland. Mandela came to thank the Bay Area because Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco were among the strongest defenders of ordinances calling for divestment of stocks in American companies doing business in South Africa. The leading voice in that struggle was our congressman Ron Dellums. In 1986 the U.S. House of Representatives passed Dellums’ anti-apartheid legislation, calling for a trade restriction against South Africa and divestment. A primary precondition for lifting the sanctions was the release of all political prisoners. President Reagan vetoed the bill; however, his veto was overridden. I was at the Oakland Coliseum 29 years ago today, June 30, 1990. Mandela also thanked area longshoremen (ILWU) who refused to unload South African goods.
Parallel Narratives 