Laurie Roberts was an early champion of the Coffis Brothers, and she provided an absolutely immeasurable contribution to our band’s growth. Her belief in us always made us feel special. A lunch time visit to the sty for a quick on air interview meant the rest of your day would be great. I loved when she was at one of our performances not only because she was a fun hang but also because I knew it meant we would be getting a great introduction on stage that night. She played us on the radio, a lot, and I’ll never forget the first time hearing it, all of us in the van on the way to a gig and getting a shout out over the air from her. An incredible feeling. We were involved in a lot of events she organized, one of the coolest gigs I’ve ever played to this day was when we got to play in the back of a truck going down the Pacific ave mall for the Christmas parade, that was her idea. We became friends. Shared our honest opinions about the music scene and more importantly the Giants. She gave me a job as a DJ at KPIG. This seemed unbelievable and I was certainly unqualified, but she was extremely eager to show me the ropes, and was beyond generous with her time and advice. She was one of the most pro broadcasters ever. A hall-of-famer in fact. Aside from her obvious talent, she was totally passionate about maintaining the integrity of a station with some of the coolest and unique sensibilities of any radio station on the planet, and she helped curate that as much as anyone. She was funny, warm, and a good friend. She will be missed by so many.
- Jamie
Like so many, my introduction to Laurie was through KFOX which was my go-to radio station during a real formative time for me as I started listening to classic rock in high-school. When I started listening to KPIG it just seemed natural that she was a DJ there too. Since some of her KFOX sets were pre-recorded, sometimes you could hear her voice on both stations at the same time if you toggled back-and-forth. She just seemed like the most pro DJ there was. I remember emailing her once after she played a really good set while I was stuck in that afternoon traffic on Soquel Ave, which is really when you need a good DJ the most. Laurie was the first person to play us on-air and over the years played us a lot on KPIG. We did in studio performances on her show dozens of times and were apart of so many concerts she organized. She was a huge supporter of the band. She genuinely cared about us and always looked for opportunities to help us. I last heard from Laurie just a couple weeks ago when she sent Jamie and I an email wishing us luck as we went into the studio to start making a new record. Laurie’s impact on us and the Santa Cruz music community was huge and she will be missed.
- Kellen
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