Punk Rock Radio Stations In The Bay Area

The Bay Area is home to a huge number of musicians, activists, artists and DIY individuals. You can expect a lot of these folks to come together and create some great radio programing and stations. A list of all the great radio stations that are not driven by money would be a much larger project. For now, here is a list of some great punk rock radio and radio programs in the Bay Area.

KALX 90.7FM Berkeley

KALX is the long running UC Berkeley radio station. It first began airing in 1962 and offers a wide variety of music and programing. As a college station, money is not the main purpose of KALX’s existence. The station is run by a small handful of paid employees and over 300 volunteers, including students and community members.

Because there is a wide range of DJs you will find a huge variety of music.

There are definitely punk DJs and punks who volunteer at KALX. A single example is Jesse Luscious of Blatz and and Frisk fame.

Take a look at the current KALX programs and find a show that sounds good to you.

Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1FM

What’s more punk than pirate radio? Berkeley Liberation Radio is a long running pirate radio station in Berkeley. The station is run illegally, but due to strong community support the FCC and police have not shut it down.

Berkeley Liberation Radio is run as a collective and all music genres are welcome on air. The station is a strong proponent of free speech and civil disobedience. This is what an anarchist radio station looks like (though I don’t know how many of the volunteers are actual anarchists.)

Take a look at the program schedule and see if any of the DJ names sounds interesting to you.

KZSU Stanford 90.1FM

Similar to KALX, this is a college radio station. The station is mostly focused on music, but talk programing can also be found here and there. As with most other radio stations listed here, the amount of punk rock you hear will depend on the current DJ. Some DJs clearly have a liking for punk and base their shows around it.

One current show that plays a good amount of punk rock is Brains and eggs with Sully. You can see the upcoming programing here.

Other College And High School Radio Stations

While KALX and KZSU are two of the most well-known Bay Area college radio stations, there are tohers. The Bay Area has a lot of universities and colleges and many of them have a radio station. Some of these stations are web streaming only, but others are on the air. If you live near a university you might be able to find a great punk rock program on one of these.

There’s even a handful of high school radio stations in the Bay Area. Growing up in Concord I had the "punk and ska" show on KVHS (90.5 The Edge.) This show came on every Thursday evening and I listened to it every week.

These types of school-base stations are going to play the kind of music that the students involved are into. There’s a good chance you will be able to find someone who likes punk rock.

Community Radio Stations

The Bay Area is home to a ton of community non-profit radio stations. The most well-known of these is KPFA. If you are unfamiliar with community radio stations, thing of KQED or NPR, but local rather than national. KPFA had a good range of programing, and is a good source of news, but I am unaware of any current punk rock programing.

Other community radio stations sometimes have punk rock programs. KACR 96.1 FM in Alameda recently began broadcasting a show about punk rock history.

A decade ago Western Addition Radio in San Francisco was a micropower radio station that focused largely on punk rock and electronic music. Unfortunately they are no longer broadcasting.

A google search of your neighborhood or city along with the phrase "community radio" should help you find any stations like this that might exist near you.

Often times these community radio stations are set somewhere in the 80s and low 90s of the FM dial.