Language Arts and KFJC - Radio on the Hill
A stop on Foothill College Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.
The buildings numbered 6000 through 6500 hold Language Arts classrooms and the Language Arts and Ethnic Studies division office, plus the office of Palo Alto Middle College High School. KJ's Cafe in the 6000 breezeway is a good place to stop for a snack.
In building 6200 is the studio of KFJC 89.7 FM, the college radio station. It first went on the air on October 20, 1959, from the temporary campus in Mountain View, broadcasting two hours a day of study music and educational programs. When the hilltop campus opened in 1961, the station moved up here and changed to 89.7. Rock music arrived in the mid-1960s, and by 1968 about 100 volunteers kept it running. Today KFJC is a volunteer-run, non-commercial station with a wide-ranging variety format.
Your loop ends here, with the Lower Campus and Lot 8 just downhill. Before you go, look back up at the redwood, timber and shake-roofed buildings you have passed: the campus that won national design awards in the 1960s still serves students every day.
Getting here: From the Japanese Cultural Center, walk east along the Language Arts buildings to the breezeway at building 6000.
Did you know?: KFJC's first broadcasts in 1959 ran only from 5 to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
Photo op: From the breezeway, frame the long row of Language Arts buildings stepping along the hillside.
More on Wikipedia: KFJC · Foothill College
Stops on this tour
- Lower Campus - Where Every Owl Starts
- Smithwick Theatre - A Stage for a Founder
- Campus Center - The Hilltop Crossroads
- Footbridge and Athletics Hill - Two Hilltops
- Semans Library - Books, Tutors and the Quad
- STEM Center - Help with the Hard Problems
- Space Science Center - Planetarium and Telescopes
- Physical Sciences and Engineering Center - A New Quad
- Japanese Cultural Center - Tea and Bamboo
- Language Arts and KFJC - Radio on the Hill