From the also messy desk of Carolyn Helmke

I just donated $60 to KWMR in honor of Amanda Eichstaedt’s 60th birthday. Please join me and donate $60, $600 or even a cool six million to honor the ultimate sweetheart of local radio. Six million? She is after all, the 2020’s version of the six-million-dollar woman: Smart, foxy, cool, and always a step ahead of the rest of us. (I apologize for the 70’s references to everyone under the age of…60)

You know her as the badass director of KWMR. You might also know her as the proprietress of the Bear Valley Inn. But mostly, I know that you know her as the human caretaker of Waylon, the most interesting dog in the world.

Did you also know that Amanda was a leading advocate of bicycle transportation in the 1990s and early aughts?

I met the former Ms. Jones in the mid-90s when we were both pushing bicycle transportation from our respective homes. I was a typical Berkeley bike riding gadfly and she was the two wheeled toast of Palo Alto. The Bay Area bicycle advocacy world was very small and mostly male. We immediately bonded at a regional meeting, possibly because we sourced from the same playbook:  Be direct, stay focused, and keep reminding the men to stop talking over the women.

After launching a pioneering bike station at the Palo Alto Caltrain Station, Amanda went national as a bike advocate. She served on several boards and carefully and painstakingly explained to cranky old bike advocates why they had to get along and find a way to work together.

Bike advocates love to complain and instead of finding them annoying, Amanda would put them to work. She was so good at listening to their concerns and then finding a volunteer outlet for them. You can see this strategy endures in this very newsletter, with the “Find the typo” contest.

I think it was in 2002 when I got a call from Ken Eichstaedt. I had known him since the early 90s from again, the bike world. I was working at the City of Berkeley and he represented a consulting firm we had hired to build a bike path. Towards the end of the conversation, he said, “By the way, did you know that I am dating Amanda?” I almost jumped out of my chair. I was instantly shocked and stunned and spat out “Why didn’t I think of this? How obvious! I should have fixed you two up a long time ago!”

Well we all know the rest of this story. Ken worked his charms on Amanda, and somehow convinced her to move out to West Marin. It did not take Amanda long to figure out how to run an Inn and she did it with flair and gusto.

Neither Amanda nor Ken deserted me as a friend when they left Silicon Valley. They put me up for a week at the Inn when I was convalescing from cancer treatment in 2006 and Amanda hosted my bachelorette party when I got married in 2018. My friends and I thought the weekend program consisted of hanging out and drinking too much wine. Not good enough for Amanda! She made a life-size scrabble board and we had so much fun playing team scrabble while drinking too much wine and gushing over Waylon.

It’s been inspirational to follow Amanda’s path to manage KWMR, especially during this time in which public broadcasting is under attack. So, if you can, please join me in wishing Amanda a very happy 60th birthday and donate to KWMR.

Link to donate

Carolyn Helmke,

Ketchum Idaho resident, KWMR listener and supporter!

Carolyn Helmke

Big thanks to my pal Carolyn!

Amanda Eichstaedt
KWMR Station Manager,  Executive Director & Development 

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