Julian Notestine leaves the air after 24 years at KLCK
Lou Marzeles
Editor
There’s an old broadcasting joke that goes, “He’s been on the air so long, his voice disappears when he goes through a tunnel.”
After May 28, Julian Notestine’s voice sadly will no longer disappear when he goes through a tunnel. Twenty-four years after he took to the airwaves over Goldendale on radio station KLCK, Notestine is retiring.
“I’m old enough to retire,” Notestine says. “I don’t think this surprises anyone.”
It also will come as no surprise that thoughts of retiring ramped up for Notestine after the radio station closed its Goldendale office and moved to The Dalles. “I started thinking seriously about it then,” he says, “but I wasn’t able to do it at that time. It’s taken until now for things to come together for me. It’s been routine for as many years as I can remember to get up at 3:30 or four in the morning. The Dalles move made it even earlier.”
On Notestine’s pressing retirement agenda: “Sleeping in. There are a lot of things at home I just want to do, household things, projects that have been going by the wayside. Diana [Notestine’s wife] and I also want to do a bit of traveling here and there, which we couldn’t do while I was working—not enough vacation time.
“For the radio station, they’re moving on. Right now they’re hiring somebody to replace me. They’ve got the ads on the air.”
Another impetus toward retirement, Notestine recalls, was his car accident in the KLCK van on Dec. 31, during an ice storm. “We crashed into the back of a semi,” he says. No one was seriously hurt in the accident. “But you think about the potential of it; it could have been so much worse. I’ve never forgotten that. I still see those semi’s tail lights coming at me. It could have killed me and Kevin [Malcolm], who was with me at the time. So that also influenced me.”
Twenty-four can pack in a lot of radio memories, and Notestine has some that jump right out for him. “My fondest memories are surrounding our live talk show,” he says. “That was fun and felt a part of the community. It felt like people were really listening, like I was contributing something to the community by simply being a kind of pass through for a lot of different kinds of information, some of it not necessarily true, but at least it was information for people to talk about.”
The talk show, which ended when the station left Goldendale, was more than just a potpourri of random information, though. “It was a great place to air opinions on issues of the day,” Notestine says. “You just got a feeling of being in the middle of things, which was great. Part of that good feeling, part of those good memories, was being in an office that people could just walk into off the street and say, ‘I’ve got a lost dog. Can you get it on the air?’ Or, ‘We’ve got a public service announcement we’d like you to start tomorrow if you can. This is really important.’” It helped, of course, that the station was right in town.
Notestine recalls that community interaction with the live show was especially active in the last few years. “People were always coming in,” he says. “We were well known. Those are all fond memories. Different things we’ve done over the years, such as remote broadcast from the Health Fair, from the Klickitat County Fair, and things we did just to be part of being there, there on the scene and being live. That’s had to all change. First of all, there are financial considerations. You just don’t do those things unless you know you’re able to pay for it. Business is business. That’s the way it has to be.”
It’s hard to stay in one place for almost a quarter decade without forming bonds, and Notestine’s run deep. “I love this community,” he says. “I moved here from Alice, Ore. I love the countryside, the familiarity of people. I guess one of the clearest memories I have is when I had a house fire in 1990, and we lost everything. I came back to the radio station the following Monday, and the whole lobby was full of stuff. I’ll never forget that. That gives me a feeling that you’re needed and wanted, and I love that.”
Asked what he’d like to say to readers of The Sentinel, Notestine’s thoughts turn immediately to appreciate for those with whom he’s worked. “I’ve been very fortunate being able to work with Kevin Malcolm over the past 24 years or so,” he says, “and have especially appreciated his talent on the air, his good judgment, sense of humor, and knowledge of music. He’s done his best to keep that Goldendale connection alive, despite the miles between The Dalles studio and our Goldendale home.
I so appreciate Cole Malcolm for hiring me those years ago during the station’s infancy. His engineering talent kept us on the air in spite of all the challenges, and his foresight provided the foundation for the stations future growth. Dan Mancuii’s support over the years in many different ways is appreciated, his help with subsidizing those daily trips to The Dalles and being the kind of boss who fosters a family atmosphere despite the pressures owning a growing business in challenging times.”
Notestine’s last word goes to his listeners, who turned appreciative ears to him for more than two decades. “Thanks to our listeners for being faithful over the years,” he says, “despite some serious ups and downs. I hope you'll hang in there for better things to come. I hope I’ll be hearing from many of you over the years. I will never forget some of those on air conversations.”
Sentinel co-owner glad to be in Goldendale
On April 1, The Sentinel was acquired by new owners. While readers have been generally familiar with editor Lou Marzeles’ name over the last year, co-owner Leslie Geatches is new to the area in every respect.
Geatches is new also to newspapers. Her background includes information technology positions at AT&T and Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer. She spent 14 years in Saudi Arabia with the latter company. After retiring from Saudi Aramco, she ended up in Sedona, Ariz.
“A goal I’d aspired to since I was in my 20s was to retire early,” Geatches recalls. “With week after 50- and 60-hour workweek spent living for the weekends, I was sure if I kept up that pace for another couple of decades, I could finally stop working and live my remaining years off my savings in recreation and relaxation.”
But when that dream of early retirement was finally realized, Geatches found her life looked very different from what she expected. “As the days of leisure stretched into months, I realized that retirement hadn’t really been the goal after all,” she says. “It had been happiness. I wasn’t finding the fulfillment I’d anticipated in mere hobbies, even as benign as they were. I felt called to more internal pursuits and found myself drawn to Sedona, Ariz., and I relocated there in Sept. 2008.”
It was in Sedona that Geatches met Marzeles and his late wife, Shelley. Not long after, the Marzeleses moved to Goldendale. “When Lou and Shelley left Sedona in April 2009 to move to Goldendale, I assumed that was the last I’d see of them,” Geatches recalls. “To soon learn of Shelley’s illness within a week of moving to Goldendale and hearing how swiftly it claimed her physical body was a blow to all those who knew and loved her.”
The experience brought up memories of her own painful loss of her father, a distinguished military officer and teacher, as a teenager. “No matter how many years may pass, you never forget what that loved one meant to you and how deeply you continue to miss their presence,” she says. “Sharing those experiences and examining them from a spiritual perspective deepened the respect and friendship Lou and I had.”
Geatches and Marzeles stayed in touch in the months after. “Watching Lou transcend his grief while working in the community was very moving to me,” she says. “When the opportunity arose for him to buy the paper, the realization came that I could be an investor. At first I discounted this as pie-in-the-sky fantasy. Then, several days later, the image of The Goldendale Sentinel staff, who I’d had the pleasure of meeting, came to mind, with this strong sense that I wouldn’t be investing in a newspaper—I’d be investing in these people, in a community.” It was a transformative moment for her.
Geatches has no problem adjusting to the rural lifestyle of Goldendale. “I’ve also always loved small towns,” she says, “and Goldendale is no exception. I love how people seem to care about one another and the pride they take in their community. I sense a lot of hidden talent and beauty here that feels like it wants to be discovered. It would be a delight for me to take part in that discovery. And for years I’ve believed I would eventually settle down in a place in the hills or mountains covered with pine trees and with low humidity. Coming from the east coast of the U.S., much of it in Florida, this part of the country feels exquisite. And the Ponderosa pines are lovely.”
Asked if she feels ready for the experience of co-owning a newspaper, Geatches says she feels that every step of her life to this point has been preparation for this moment. “I spent years as a project manager in AT&T and used those skills to further develop talents in information technology overseas. While it seems those abilities will also prove useful here, I feel the most important gift of all is learning to believe in people and seeing the essence of what they are. It’s the staff of The Sentinel and its readers that make the paper what it is. It’s my joy and honor to be part of that.”
And what can readers of The Sentinel expect to see from her involvement with it?
“I recently came across one of my favorite quotes, which I now paraphrase,” she responds: “‘Do the best you can, and leave the rest to God.’ I think that’s all anyone can expect of another.”
Fiddlin’ Under the Stars is this weekend
The annual Fiddlin’ Under the Stars Goldendale Bluegrass, Wine, and Arts Festival is this Friday and Saturday, followed by a day of original singer/songwriter music on Sunday.
Admission is $5 per person, with additional fees for RV/trailer camping ($10/night) and tent camping ($5/night). Camping is on a first-come-first-served basis.
Bluegrass bands from around the area will perform Friday and Saturday, including area favorites Fiddlegrass, Small Towne, Coyote Ridge, Bluestone County, and the Puddletown Ramblers. Friday evening is the Band Scramble, in which musicians throw their names into a hat and a band is created randomly by draw; they rehearse that night and perform Saturday morning.
Sunday is singer/songwriter day, with eight acts from the region playing from noon to 4:45 p.m. The complete band schedule can be seen at: www.goldendalechamber.org/calendar.
Wineries represented are: McCormick Family Vineyards, Domaine Pouillon, Cor Cellars, Illusion, Williams Winery, Marshal's Winery, Maryhill Winery, Waving Tree Winery, Canyon's Ridge Winery, and McKinley Springs Winery. |
