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KBCS Reflections on the First Day of Broadcast 50 Years Ago

 
KBCS was started by Bellevue College students who wanted to broadcast music and their ideas.  After their initial request was declined by the college, they held a President’s office sit-in protest. They started with equipment donated by KING FM, and over time, morphed from a student radio club, to a professionally managed community radio station
 
Find out about the  first day of KBCS’s broadcast as a 10 watt  radio station on February 3, 1973.  We interviewed KBCS debut host and radio veteran, Raoul Van Hall who started here as a high school student.
 
Thank you to our listeners, Bellevue College and our community of volunteers, students, journalists and media partners, for without you, we would not be here today celebrating this year.
 
 
Producer: Yuko Kodama
Photo: Raoul Van Hall
 
 
 
Raoul Van Hall
Raoul Van Hall around 1973

Bellevue protest to support Iranian Women

 

Hundreds gathered in Bellevue over the weekend to protest in solidarity with women in Iran.  KBCS was there and gathered voices and sounds from the event.

 

 

Seattle George Floyd Protest

Protests of the police involved killing of George Floyd have swept the country since last week. KBCS’s Gol Hoghooghi went to one of these protests in Seattle on May 30th and brings us the voices and sounds from the event.  She also talks with KBCS’s Yuko Kodama about what she observed and experienced there. (more…)

WTO Protests 20th Anniversary Special

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Organization or WTO ministerial conference in Seattle. The WTO is an international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. Decisions made by unelected trade delegates at this conference impact the worldwide economy, working conditions and the environment. Leading up to the WTO ministerial, hundreds of organizers, farmer, workers, students, and artists from throughout the world planned a massive demonstration to disrupt the negotiations. The protesters opposed what they interpreted as the unregulated power of multinational corporations through free trade agreements Tens of thousands of people used a diversity of tactics in the streets of Seattle throughout the last week of November, 1999, shutting down the event for the week, and sending a message worldwide of their presence.

Listen in on this one-hour KBCS WTO 20th anniversary special.

Producers: Yuko Kodama and Jesse Callahan

Thanks to story contributors, Gol Hoghooghi and Sam Britt.  Special thanks to Jill Friedberg for assistance with the special

Photo: Steve Kaiser

Seattle Seven

 
48 years ago this week, the case of local activists who were given the name, ‘The Seattle Seven’ was declared a mistrial by Federal District Court Judge, George Boldt.  KBCS’s Jim Cantu sat down with one of the defendants, Roger Lippman to learn more
 
Photo: Mike Connolly
Producer: Jim Cantu

Seattle’s Rally in Support of Robert Mueller

Thousands of Seattleites joined a nationwide rally on November 8th, 2018, in support of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Northwest News Network’s Casey Martin reports it comes after President Trump replaced Attorney General Jeff Sessions with a critic of Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign.

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March For Our Lives – Seattle

In the wake of the Parkland school shooting–and more than 190 other school shootings since Columbine–people took to the streets on Saturday to call for gun control.

Seattle high schoolers organized a local event to take place in conjunction with the Washington  D.C. march.

The Seattle march was one of more than 800 held world wide.

KBCS’s Angie Voyles Askham brings you some voices and sounds from the event.

 

The Backbone Campaign: So You Want To Be An Activist?

The Backbone Campaign helps organize social demonstrations and trains global change agents in artful protest, organizing and kayaktivism.

Listen to a series of segments from KBCS Reporter, David Joseph’s visit to the Backbone Campaign’s activist training camp.

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What is Sharia?: Sounds from the Anti-Sharia Protest and its Counter-Protest

The anti-Sharia protest and its counter-protest in downtown Seattle on Saturday was a face-off of a smaller group of anti-Sharia protestors and a colorful and loud, larger group of counter-protesters. Between the two groups was a zone of about 50 feet lined with  rows of  police.  It was a noisy affair with counter-protestors blaring horns and the sound of a train whistle.  Listen to our series on what Sharia is, as shared by the people who attend the protest and counter-protest. (more…)

Immigration And Sea-Tac Airport Protesters

President Trump’s recent executive order, which restricts immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, was met with widespread protest and confusion over the weekend. People who had just arrived in the U.S. were held at airports, and some were sent back out of the country, as Customs and Border Protection, activists, lawyers, and elected officials struggled to interpret the order’s implications. 7th District Representative Pramila Jayapal was working to get people released from Sea-Tac airport. Also at Sea Tac airport Saturday, Seattle city council member and activist Kshama Sawant led close to one thousand people in a protest. They voiced support for arriving immigrants and opposition to the ban. Listen to criticisms of the executive order, and find out what it was like for those who were protesting at Sea-Tac airport.