An early grant from the Ford Foundation reinforced Pacifica's dependency on privileged liberals of social status. With connections and corporate philanthropy came obligation, implied or otherwise. McCarthyism shifted Pacifica's priorities from peace radio to free speech radio. Threatened by police action, Pacifica attacked itself from within. Reform efforts threatened to turn an essentially anarchist collective into a managed business.
Members quit, came back to work, and quit again.
While taking the drug cortisone for chronic pain, Lewis first attempted suicide during one of these disputes, and then succeeded in 1957. Then, as now, the station used the misfortune to rally fundraisers. Early Pacifica history includes moments of true courage. In 1962, WBAI was under investigation by the FBI when it broadcast an expose by renegade agents of J. Edgar Hoover's illegal internal surveillance program. When KPFT opened in Houston, the KKK bombed them off the air twice that first year.