Dunno how I missed Doc's post about the passing of KPIG's "heart, soul, and glue" (as John Sandige put it). While it happened over a week ago, and I knew about Laura Ellen Hopper's death the same day, it's still worth quoting Doc's reaction:
This is such sad news. Laura Ellen, the heart and soul of KPIG and all that came before [~] and comes after [~] has died at 57, just two weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer. She was loved, and she'll be more than missed. Because Ellen kept great radio alive. Thanks to Laura, we can still listen not only to the peerless KPIG, but to the long-gone and always legendary KFAT, plus the still-current Cowboy Cultural Society. Thanks to Laura, the Americana format is alive and well on what's left of American radio [~] not to mention what one KPIGGy once described as "mutant cowboy rock & roll". I hope it can all go on without her. . . [The Doc Searls Weblog] When my son Warren, now a junior at UCSC, went looking for a summer job last year, it was Laura Ellen who hired him, trained him, mentored him, and put him on the air Saturday mornings. When she started feeling unwell a few weeks ago, Warren started doing more programming; after she passed, he took her daughter's Monday evening program, and Laura's "Out to Lunch" program the next day. But there were so many past and current DJs in the station that day, reminiscing and playing songs, that he never really had his hands on the controls. As soon as finals are over, he'll take as many shifts as he can to help keep things going for the Pig. Warren might stay in radio after he graduates, he might not. He's enjoying the ride for now, likes broadcasting, might make a career out of it. If he moves on in the radio business, how much better could it get than for the first line on your resume to be DJ at KPIG, hired and trained by Laura Ellen Hopper? The experience will stay with him for life.
9:10:24 PM 
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