If you noticed something missing from our FM radio airwaves in the past month, it was the voice of Matt Holzman — a voice described as the heart and soul of KCRW radio.
I met Matt when he was 19 years old. He was down the hallway when I moved into a UCSB dorm on a fall afternoon. Matt and his roommate Rob Babbush seemed years older than me; they were returning for their sophomore year and, in comparison to us froshies surrounded by tearful parents and siblings, they appeared calm and all-knowing.
Matt was a computer science major. Not one person at UCSB would have guessed that he would end up as the soul of public radio. But there were signs of his future: He loved stories. His favorite childhood book was The Twenty-one Balloons by William Pène du Bois about a teacher who found himself on a great adventure.