LINDA’S TALE

 

I was hired as the front office person at KPRI in the spring of 1969. My first REAL job. I was finishing up my senior year of high school when I got an interview with Jack Barnard, the station manager. I went away thinking there was no way they would hire someone with so little experience, but I really wanted that job. I had been listening to KPRI and wanted to be a part of it. I called Jack a few days later to tell him I thought he should hire me and he did!

 

Arriving at work in the morning, I had to enter through the studio.  Gabriel Wisdom taught me to wait till the red light over the door turned off before entering and eventually he started to announce my arrival over the air christening me “Mama Linda”. I was never one who wanted to be the center of attention, so it was pretty embarrassing, but I eventually started to dig it, especially when people visiting the studio would say “Oh you’re, Mama Linda!”  Ha - my 15 minutes of fame!

 

Those were crazy fun days! Waterbeds were the newest thing and one of our sponsors put one in one of our back rooms. The station always had an assortment of visitors, sometimes including pets. One morning I came to work and the offices were flooded. The story goes that some dogs were playing in the back room and got a little carried away on the waterbed.  I think that was the end of demonstration waterbeds at the station.

 

It wasn’t too unusual to have musicians stop by the station and hang out.  One of my favorites was Jose Feliciano. There was a room between the offices and the studio that had a couch and some chairs – kind of like a living room. He came in one day, sat down and played his guitar and sang for us. What a thrill!

 

Those days at KPRI were such a special time in my life. It was exciting and fun to be a part of it and to be in the company of so many talented people. This website is an amazing tribute to that time and those people. Many thanks to Ron and George for their hard work and dedication to make it a reality.