Rochlin, Jay

Part 1 was recorded on May 21st, 2024 in Tucson, AZ. It covers the following themes:  

b. 1950 

  • Family history in Nogales, Arizona, starting with Rochlin’s paternal grandparents. Jewish immigrants to the American Southwest borderlands. Family’s store in Nogales. 

  • Childhood memories of Nogales. Permeability of border. Friends, Anza Drive neighborhood, childhood activities. Rochlin’s father’s mayoral campaign. Cosmopolitanism of Nogales. Economic opportunities. 

  • Journeys to Tucson on Old Nogales Highway during high school. The cultural 1960s as seen from Nogales. Listening to radio stations across the country. 

  • Incentives to not learn Spanish in school. Expectations for college. 

  • Hitchhiking to New York 1968. The Vietnam War and counterculture. Attending Prescott College and working at a radio station. Transfer to Arizona State University and radio work for country and gospel stations in Phoenix. 

  • Move to Tucson in 1971 to work at an easy listening station. Enrolling at the University of Arizona. Taking a job in television in 1972/3 at KGUN. Producing long-format local documentaries. 

  • Radio and TV landscape in early-1970s Tucson. Local TV characters Dr. Scar and Marshall KGUN. 

  • University of Arizona experience. Graduation in 1973. Meeting wife at Caruso’s. 

Part 2 was recorded on May 28th, 2024 in Tucson, Arizona. It covers the following themes: 

  • College socializing. The Maverick Bar. 4th Avenue. Kent State protest. Louie’s Lower Level in the University of Arizona Student Union. 

  • Description of the operation of locally owned radio stations. Live TV. 

  • Working at KGUN in 1970s. 

  • Working at KVOA as assignment editor from 1981-1984. 

  • Job as editor of UA Alumni Magazine from 1984-2004. Changing the Magazine from a newsprint tabloid to color magazine. Technological changes in publishing. Working under different UA presidents. Finding interesting interviewees. 

  • Work as a professor of practice in the Journalism Department between 2004-2013. Developing online publications CATscan and Border Beats. 

  • Changes in the news industry over Rochlin’s career. 

  • Earning an MBA while working at the UA Alumni Magazine. 

  • Earning a Doctorate of Education and exploring the experiences of University of Arizona alums through Critical Race Theory and oral history. 

  • Bicycle culture in Tucson from the 1970s to 2020s. 

 

Aengus Anderson