Joe has been a KALX listener since 1967, when the station was still broadcasting as Radio KAL to UC Berkeley’s dorms.
“Fifty years ago, I transferred from Dartmouth to Cal due to health issues. My parents lived in the Bay Area and they wanted me closer to home. Sometime in late May or early June 1967, I realized that I was going to stop missing Dartmouth and was going to love being at Cal. And it was due, in part, to KALX. Or, as I believe it was called back then, simply KAL.
I could be wrong, but I think KAL didn’t broadcast over the air. It only went to the dorms, which were somehow hardwired to receive it. Anyway, I was living in Priestley Hall (Unit Three?), and one spring afternoon, I was walking down Durant and into the unit that held my dorm and three others.
KAL was playing “Come on Baby Light My Fire” by The Doors, and someone on one of the higher floors put his speakers in the window facing out onto the quad. A second person followed, and then a third and a fourth and a fifth. As I walked into the unit, there must have been 20-30 people blasting that song out of their windows.
I remember thinking it was just about the coolest thing in the world… and I decided that Cal was one very cool place to be.
All due, in part, to what became KALX.”
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