 Hi, I'm Colleen Pike and I've been affiliated with Jefferson Public Radio for probably like 35 years or so, I volunteered on Southern Oregon PBS also for almost as long and my passion has been in broadcasting as soon as I discovered that it was my passion. So when I went back to college I was actually 30 years old and I thought I was, you know, 100 years old and couldn't do it, but I was able to finally go back to college because I'd helped two different husbands finish their careers and their education and it was finally time for me. So I was a business major, very practical, everything was great and I could do it, it was fine. But one day I found, I kind of stumbled downstairs in Central Hall and found this place called KSOR or what's now Jefferson Public Radio. So I just thought, oh my gosh, I want to do radio. I don't want to do business. So I inquired and was able to get in on all the classes they had. I met some wonderful people, Tom Ulbricht, Ron Kramer, John Baxter and I started broadcasting at what is now JPR and I think my first shift was like an early morning Sunday jazz program or something and then I got to host a small show 15 minutes long called About Women. Good morning, welcome to About Women. I'm Colleen Pike, your host and with me this morning is Cib Farrell. Cib, you're the coordinator of the prior learning program for the Southern Oregon State College campus. What's going on over there? What does prior learning mean? And About Women is a show I inherited from my predecessor Joy because at that time when she graduated then it was passed off to another woman to do this interview program and I was brand new to the process and it was kind of fun and kind of amazing and I remember I interviewed people regarding politics and people, you know, attorneys regarding women getting divorced and all those kind of things but one of the things that really fascinated me was interviewing two women probably early 30s that were wing walkers so they would take off in this biplane and then they'd get out of the cockpit and you know do poses on the wings. It just makes me very sick to think of it but such bravery, you know, and they were good at it, they loved their jobs and they were wing walkers so that was kind of cool. So back to getting back to college in the first place I had the opportunity finally to believe in myself enough to say enough is enough, I'll work part-time, I told my husband, now ex-husband, I told him at the time I'll work part-time, I'll do everything I can, make sure dinner was there, clean things up but I really wanted to finish my education so that's what I did. I got back in and I found something that I loved and I continued to do. I'm here after 35 years part-time at JPR still voicing and helping out with fundraising but my passion is to just spread good news, to spread positive energy for people. Personally I'm not a political person, I'm not out there at rallies and doing those kinds of things but I try to do my work quietly inside the shop and put out as much positivity as I can. So in that hosting of About Women it was a 15-minute show and if you do broadcasting at all, 15 minutes is about the equivalent of a minute. So as soon as you've asked three questions you're over time so you're done. So over the years it took me probably until I came to work, I graduated in 1985, I went out in the work world originally as a television reporter, live TV reporter, that didn't work out not because of me but because my husband and this is just so crazy kind of classic is he didn't like being on television so I stopped in order to save my marriage. Seven years later the marriage corroded, I came to work at what was then KSOR turning shortly thereafter into Jefferson Public Radio and just 1991 until present I've been working at JPR and one of the shows that I pitched it was about in 1994 and I called it the Healing Arts and I pitched it to John Baxter and it was kind of like a fresh air hybrid you know my little version of that and that's where I really got my chops in interviewing people and I was able to just interview anybody that would walk by to getting sent books from publicists and getting you know have lost my words but asking to help promote various authors as their books came out and the Healing Arts is what I wanted with that was my father had died a few years prior maybe five years prior of cancer and nobody ever said hey you have cancer you don't have long to live let's see what you want to do how you want to be treated instead and I was the one caregiving for him the last six months he was just sent from test to test to test so I thought you know if we had a form of healing type broadcasting where we can talk about those delicate subjects and maybe someone will get something out of it now I wouldn't ever meet that person you know they just might quietly hear it on the radio and realize they could better themselves in one way or another so I continued with the Healing Arts for a number of years until none other than Jean Houston came in for me to interview her and she said you should talk to my friend Bill and Bill was a man that owned a broadcasting company called Wisdom Radio Wisdom Television and he even launched into Wisdom Internet and I was able to join them and they would reimburse the station for some of my time and continued on with the Healing Arts until a number of years later and then I changed the name of the show to Global Healing and continued on and got the programs through this Wisdom Radio got it syndicated on Sirius Satellite Radio nationally and it was just a proud moment I'd also did some television for them but what happened with the Healing Arts and Global Vision and Global Healing three different names for the same product I was never paid anything to do these shows I did it out of love for the medium and wanting to get the word out to people so when I think about women and how far we've come and what we need I get very passionate about the fact that I was a traditional almost 50s style married woman who when I emancipated myself was able to really fly and grow and do my passion and do my work so I encourage you if you are thinking about making any changes in your life even if they're tough changes go ahead and talk to your friends talk to a counselor talk to your neighbor and just set yourself free.