[History] First female DJ in Macon re-joins WEEN radio

[Blaine Thompson]

http://www.maconcountytimes.com/view/full_story/22954050/article-First-female-DJ-in-Macon-re-joins-WEEN-radio

First female DJ in Macon re-joins WEEN radio
by Tilly Dillehay
Editor

Well, she certainly doesn't have a face for radio. Apparently, for Linda McDonald, it's possible to have a pleasant face and make radio history at the same time.

That's exactly what she's done. McDonald was the first female DJ in Macon County, and probably the only DJ in a hundred miles who was often on the air with a 3-year-old on her lap, helping her work the turntables.

Now, after spending the last twenty years in law enforcement, she's retiring--and walking right back into her old stomping ground. She's just re-joined the WLCT/WEEN radio staff, as PR and Marketing Director and local news lady.

McDonald started at WEEN radio back in 1966.

"There were three radio personalities back then, and it was still an AM radio station," said McDonald. "There was Jack Williams, who now owns a radio station in Gallatin, there was Loryn Atwell, who's since passed away, and there was Wardean Purdue. Bill Speck--he was the owner and general manager. And then there was me, it was a one-girl office back then. I was receptionist, secretary, did the logs, wrote the commercials, accounts payable, all that.

"Bill came in one morning early, like on a Saturday morning. He'd been up real late that night to go to a ball game, and he was exhausted. So he said 'come here', he said 'go in there, here's the mic, this is how you turn it on, here's the turntables, just--do something. I've GOT to go take a nap.' So we had a couch in the lobby, and he went and laid on the couch.

"So back then it was easy; it was turntables, so you knew what you were doing. And you'd turn it on, you'd do the weather, all that. And I was having fun! It was like being at home, you know, playing your music. And then the phone starts ringing and people are calling in, and then it was like 'oh! People are listening!' And then it got scary. But up until somebody called, it was just fun.

"So that's how I got started. That was just a couple months after I started working for the station."

McDonald came to be known as 'Linda Mac' on the air, and although there were several women who were DJs in Macon in the years following, she had the distinction of being the first.

"I had my own little show there for years after," said McDonald. "This is how old the days were, back in the day--I had a recipe show. People from all over the listening area would send in their favorite recipes. And then each day you'd put this instrumental on for background, and you'd read the recipe. And that went on for years. Even after all this time I still have a lot of those recipes, and still use them.

"My kids were kind of raised out there for a lot of years. I was there for several years and then I got married, and we moved away. So several years later, we moved back to Macon County. Well Bill says, 'come back', and I said 'well, I got small kids now'. He said 'bring em'.

"Well my oldest--he's now 43, so that tells you how long ago it was--he was in Kindergarten. So I took my middle son, Dan, he was about 3, and he'd come with me every day. And he'd have his toys in the corner there, and he'd play--he was real quiet. He knew not to make noise. And sometimes he'd sit in my lap. Here's this three year old, and I'd tap his shoulder, and he'd turn the mic on. And I'd read a commercial or whatever, and tap him, and he'd turn it off. So until he was school age, he was out there at WEEN radio.

"Then years later when my girl was born, Bill ended up bringing a playpen out there. And to her, it was just extended family, Bill and his son that worked out there, she just thought the world of them. It was back when things were relaxed, not much stress. It was just fun."

McDonald left the station about twenty years ago, to be a dispatcher for the Macon County Sheriff's Department. She did that for six years, was a Misdemeanor Probation Officer for four years, and then went to the Lafayette Police Department, where she was dispatcher for another ten.

She retired in March of this year, and agreed soon after to go back to the station. "I guess--I started out in radio, so it just seemed fitting to end up in radio," she explained.

McDonald says she plans to focus on the community, and ways that the station can be involved with community events.

She has six grandchildren now, with another on the way. So as you listen for her voice over the airwaves, and watch for her face at the next fundraiser, it would be reasonable to wonder: do you suppose she still reads the news with a child on her lap?