Floppy Days 157 - Interview with David Kay, Kaypro - Part 1

FLOPPY DAYS 157 - Interview with David Kay, KayPro - Part 1

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays

Sponsors:

• 8-Bit Classics 

• Arcade Shopper and https://thekeep.net 

• FutureVision Research 

• Tuc's Workbench 

Hello, and welcome to episode 157 of the Floppy Days Podcast for November, 2025.  I am Randy Kindig, your host. We are currently covering computers introduced in the year 1982 and, to that end, this month I’m beginning a series of podcasts about the Kaypro line of computers.  Kaypro had a rich and varied family of computers; certainly much more so than I ever realized.  In researching Kaypro, I discovered that while Andrew Kay, the founder of the computer company, was no longer around, it turns out his son David, who ran the company for some time, was still around.  I was able to contact David and he graciously agreed to talk with us for the podcast.  Kaypro has a very interesting storyline and I hope you enjoy this.  We talked so long that I decided to break the interview into 2 parts, so you’ll hear part 1 this month, and part 2 next month.  Following that, we’ll delve into episodes covering history, tech specs, etc. on the Kaypro.  All the usual topics.  It looks as though I’ll have 2 episodes covering those topics.

I will have a video for this posted to the Floppy Days Podcast on YouTube.  One note here.  This is one of the last videos where I used a videoconferencing tool that just didn’t do a great job.  It has a tendency to not keep up with video and you may note that the mouth doesn’t stay in sync with the audio sometimes during the interview.  In addition, audio-wise, you may hear some low clicks throughout the interview.  I’ve since switched to Zoom and it seems to do a better job of audio and video quality, albeit more expensive.

You will hear ads from some great vintage computer stores, themselves vintage computer fans, throughout the early part of this podcast.  For all of these storefronts, when you place an order, please mention Floppy Days in the notes or comments of the order.  Doing so will help support the podcast.  Many thanks!!

Please let me know your thoughts. Enjoy!!

What I’ve Been Up To

• Byte 50th Anniversary Event - https://www.facebook.com/events/853596483843378 

New Acquisitions

• A2Pico - https://jcm-1.com/product/a2pico/ 

• PicoMicroMac - https://jcm-1.com/product/picomicromac/ 

Upcoming Shows

• World of Commodore 2025 - December 6-7 - Admiral Inn, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2025/ 

• Vintage Computer Festival Montreal - Jan. 24-25, 2026 - Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC - https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/ 

• Tandy Retro Show 2026 - Jan. 24-25 - virtual - tandyretroshow.com 

• Vintage Electronics Expo - Jan. 31, 2026 - Oakland Expo Center, Waterford, MI -  https://www.thevee.org/ 

• Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 14-15, 2026 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - vcfsocal.com 

• Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - March 20-22 - Wyndham Indianapolis Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/ 

• VCF East - April 17-19 2026 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/ 

• Midwest Gaming Classic - April 24-26 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/ 

• The Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - April 24-25, 2026 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ 

• Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub 

Interview Links

• “The Word Processing Book” by Peter McWilliams - https://amzn.to/3M6zJks 

• Andrew Kay at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Kay

• KayPro at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaypro