From spinning classic rock hits to interviewing everyone from former presidents to a porn star, Bill Cooper, former KITI 1420 AM DJ, is now sharing those stories from his decades behind the microphone in his new autobiography — “Tuned In: A life on and off the radio.”
Though he didn’t spend his entire career at KITI, Cooper was one of the founding DJs who first helped get the classic rock radio station on the air back in 1977. He spent a decade on the airwaves in Lewis County.
Cooper will be at the Lewis County Historical Museum on Saturday, Nov. 7, starting at 1 p.m., for a book-signing and meet-and-greet event.
The museum, located at 599 NW Front Way in downtown Chehalis, is also participating in Experience Chehalis’ Harvest Shop Hop that day from noon to 7 p.m., where visitors can take part in a scavenger hunt and get a coupon book filled with holiday deals and discounts at downtown Chehalis businesses.
In his book, Cooper details his time not only at KITI but at the many other radio stations throughout Oregon and Washington state over more than 40 years. During those decades, he interviewed former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, U.S. Sen. Bob Packwood, figure skater Tonya Harding and even Marilyn Ann Taylor, an adult film star better known by her screen name, Marilyn Chambers.
Cooper was tasked with interviewing her after she starred in the Mitchell Brothers’ Behind the Green Door, released in 1972, which along with Andy Warhol’s Blue Movie and Gerard Damiano’s Deep Throat, is considered one of the films that started the “Golden Age of Porn” in the U.S. through the 1970s and early 1980s.
Despite the film being pornographic in nature, Cooper’s bosses at KVI in Seattle tasked Cooper with interviewing Chambers for a weekend news show public affairs piece.
“I couldn’t believe this was public affairs,” Cooper said in a phone call with The Chronicle.
Along with stories from his interviews over the decades, Cooper also shares tales from raising his two daughters with his wife, Rosalind Cooper, who now resides with him in Beaverton, Oregon.
For those who can’t make it to the Lewis County Historical Museum on Saturday, copies will be left for sale, and “Tuned In: A life on and off the radio” can also be purchased on Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/mtau6s89 in both digital and paperback forms.
