Vidya was a KALX DJ in the early ’80s, known on the air as Audio Vidya.
“KALX is where I met U2. It was March of 1981 and the first U2 album ‘Boy’ had just been released in the US. Of course at KALX, we had been playing the import version of the album for months already and I was a big fan.
Well U2 were scheduled to do an interview at the station. At the time the KALX air studios were located up at the Lawrence Hall of Science, which you had to drive to. And the record promoter who brought them over did not drive a car. So guess who ended up giving them a ride – me!
So there they were, Bono and the Edge, piled in the back seat of my Honda hatchback. Howie Klein was in the front and I drove them up the long and winding road to the KALX air studios in the Lawrence Hall of Science. Robin Schorr was on the air at that time and she interviewed them. Gosh I wish the iPhone had been invented 36 years ago because surely I would have snapped a selfie of myself with Bono and the Edge in my car. But no such luck.
Later that night I went to see U2 play at the Old Waldorf, which was a Bill Graham venue in the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. I was really close to the stage and I remember Bono was dancing around and he tripped and almost fell. They played the entire album, maybe a couple of b-sides and when they ran out of material to play, they did “I Will Follow” again. It’s been many years and I’ve seen many U2 concerts, but, as you can imagine, that one was my favorite.
I’d like to wish KALX a very happy 55th anniversary. Thank you for all the great memories.”
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