The Airwaves Belonged to the People: WBCN and The American Revolution is an award-winning documentary about how a Boston rock radio station became both a participant in and a platform for the anti-war movement, civil rights, LGBTQ and women’s rights, and the explosion of countercultural media in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Now re-released under its expanded title, the film draws on more than 100,000 archival audio and visual items — much of it donated by the WBCN community — weaving firsthand accounts from station staff with rare material featuring Jane Fonda, Abbie Hoffman, Lou Reed, Jerry Garcia, and Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith in their first live radio broadcasts.

The film aired nationally on PBS and received coverage from major publications including the Boston Globe, which called it a film audiences “watch with awe.”

Directed by Peabody Award–winner Bill Lichtenstein, who began working at WBCN at age 14 in 1970.