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By Richard S. Towne, KUNM General Manager
In December, we are wishing a fond adios to three towering KUNM staff
members retiring at or near the end of 2018. A fond farewell and deep
appreciation for Jonathan Longcore and Linda Morris as they return to
life beyond working at KUNM. All three have contributed mightily to the
success we know in service to you.
 Jonathan Longcore was a
volunteer at KUNM when we hired our first full-time Network
Administrator’s job opening in July 2007 under the awkward mouthful of
the UNM job description for “Unit Information Systems Support Analyst.”
KUNM was becoming increasingly dependent on computer power to support
service delivery. Back in 2007 our network was a bit more than a decade
old but was built sort of organically, not quite a house of cards but
not far from it. Jonathan Longcore
Under Jonathan’s leadership over the past decade
we have more than doubled our internal digital capacity on top of a
stable and robust network environment. We can work reliably, at the
speed of light, with solutions everywhere. As KUNM listeners migrate to
new digital platforms to enjoy our work, we are right there to meet
them. That’s a nice legacy for Jonathan to leave with us and with you.
Oh, and he got the title of Systems Administrator in 2011.
A
year ago, we hired Jon Feldstein as our Systems Network Analyst. We
bought a new server and groomed out all the cabling (and a bunch of
stuff that needed calibration). After a year working side by side with
Jonathan Longcore, Jon is ready to fly solo. Digital tech has become
such a major force in our service to you that we are truly happy with
the smooth transitions here at KUNM.
Also retiring at the end of
December - Ms. Linda Morris, KUNM’s Senior Fiscal Services Technician. I
am really feeling Linda’s retirement in my heart these days. Linda was
working here when I started at KUNM in 1994 - in fact she has performed
excellent service for over 26 years here. Linda is like my wing pilot
when it comes to accounts payable, payroll, contracts, vendors,
invoicing, budgeting, reconciliation - you know, all of the glamorous
side of public radio.
Linda has been consistent across years of
growth at KUNM. When she started there were 8.5 employees. Now, there
are 20. Our budget back then was about $850,000. Now, it’s more like
$2,400,000. Back then, we had one transmitter and three small repeaters.
Now, we have five transmitters and four small repeaters. All of this
growth, and Linda has managed the expense and payroll expansion of our
organization without needing anyone else to help. That’s is a true
definition of awesome.
I’ve enjoyed working with Linda as UNM
moved away from paper processing to the online world of large
institutional enterprise software suites. “I love it,” she would say
with the grimace we shared when trying to make an online journal entry
or get an invoice paid. I am happy for Linda as she enters the real
world again, this time as a retiree. Her service to KUNM, to you and to
me, has been invaluable. I’ll have word on Linda’s replacement in next
month’s column.
You might also know that KUNM Development
Director Mary Oishi is retiring soon-- around the end of January 2019.
I’ll have more news about Mary in this space next month. 2019? Bring it
on!
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