Linda Coble ’69

Linda Coble, a 1969 broadcast journalism graduate from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, fought against sexism in the ’70s to become Hawaii’s first female TV news reporter and then first female news anchor. She was inducted into the SOJC’s Hall of Achievement in 2026.

Biography

Linda Coble was born in New York City in 1947 and moved to Portland, Oregon, two years later. Her father left when she was 5, and her mother, a mural artist and interior designer, raised Linda and her sister alone for a decade before remarrying. Coble has said her mother's determination and willingness to challenge the status quo shaped her own path.

After earning a scholarship-funded broadcast journalism degree from the UO School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC), Coble was told by a news director at Portland’s KOIN-TV to "come back when you have more experience and a sex change operation." Devastated, she flew to Hawaii, visited classmates, and knocked on the door of Honolulu's ABC station. There were no women in the newsroom, so she took the only job offered: sweeping film off the floor and running anchormen's suits to the cleaners. It was 1969, the same day astronauts landed on the moon. She worked her way up to reporter, then became Hawaii’s first female news anchor in 1971. In 1972 CBS affiliate KGMB recruited her away.

In 1981, the same Portland news director who had turned her away asked to borrow her for two years, as KOIN still had no female anchor. There, Coble met Kirk Matthews, whose job she had taken, and they fell in love and returned to Hawaii, where they married in 1984. Her career included interviews with U.S. presidents and first ladies; off the air, she championed child abuse prevention and women's rights, and helped found Hawaii's first Big Sisters chapter.

In 1986, Coble moved to radio, co-hosting the top-rated Perry & Price morning show for a decade. She later became the first female president of the Rotary Club of Honolulu and, in 2000, Rotary district governor, traveling the world until Kirk died in 2016. She often repeats John Wooden's advice: Character is what you are; reputation is only what others think you are.