Jed the Fish, the longtime DJ Kroq whose tastes created the station as an important musical affect within the 80s and 90s, died on Monday morning. He was 69 years outdated.
“A legend of the radio waves, Jed was a pioneering voice on various radio, an beloved chaos agent and the person who made the afterliest Los Angeles afternoons, stronger and infinitely extra attention-grabbing”, his buddy Paul Sinacore, a casting director, producer and drummer for the east band of Gideon, wrote in tribute. “Over 34 years on a day journey, he remodeled the radio waves right into a launchpad for brand new revolutionary music and tradition.”
Jed, whose identify was Edwin Jed Fish Gould III, died at dwelling in Pasadena below Hospice care, his shut mates confirmed the Times. The reason behind demise was an aggressive type of small cell lung most cancers which was recognized in early March.
“At 6 on 14 April 2025, the world misplaced one (of) its most original and vivid personalities”, introduced its accounts on social media, managed for years by her buddy Catherine Davis. “Jed the fish has handed peacefully in his beloved home and the world won’t ever be the identical. Rip Jed, go along with Alice” – his beloved canine.
His relaxed-a voice that was uncommon for radio-and his impeccable style in music virtually outlined in southern California throughout his interval on Kroq-Fm (106.7). Above all, he launched numerous bands to the native public, typically earlier than being performed within the golf equipment they greeted.
A List of Bands He Brought to the Fore Reads Like A History of Rock Music: Depeche Mode, The Cure, Duran Duran, The Smiths, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The B-52’s, The Go-Go’s, The Gers, The Pretenders, Devi, Blondie, The Ramones, Runaways, Oingo Boingo, The Motels, The Motels, The Motels, The Motels Missing Persons, Josie Cotton, The Pandoras, X, Social Distortion, Oasis, Dramrama, undoubtedly, Katy Perry, teenager Fanclub, the Donnas, the offspring and the system of a down.
His interviews on the air included chat with David Bowie, U2, Elvis Costello, Brian Eno, Sting and the police.
“I used to be a fan of Jed and his exhibits on @kroq lengthy earlier than assembly him,” wrote Noodles, guitarist and help singer for offspring, Monday On Instagram. “It was the primary DJ to show and play on the radio, which modified the trajectory of our bands in ways in which we’d by no means have thought doable. … his humorousness was loopy in all one of the best methods … Jed is eternally a neighborhood hero that we are going to miss lots. Rip Legend!”
With “Catch of the day”, Gould highlighted new music along with his irreverence. The insanity inherent in his transmission held the hooked followers. Sinacore, who met Gould in 1990 within the Green Room at Whiskey a Go Go in West Hollywood, mentioned the present “It was not only a present – it was taking place”.
“He captured the zeitgeist of the choice period, to know that music was not solely leisure – it was the heartbeat of a era. He was on the heartbeat of the cultural adjustments that occur round him, bringing the listeners the soundtrack to their insurrection, their youth and their identification”, wrote Synacore.
“It was the unbelievable fortune of Los Angeles who was right here and that it was then,” mentioned the longtime buddy Rudy Koerner in a phone interview on Monday.
Never a smoker, Gould had hypothesized on the finish of January that the irritation he was experiencing was residual to the devastating hearth initially of that month in Altadena, mentioned Koerner. When different docs haven’t been capable of finding a easy trigger after excluding the fume of fires and an an infection, dr. Drew Pinsky, even a veteran from Kroq, steered being scanned whether it is one thing extra severe, mentioned Koerner. Unfortunately, it was.
Born on July 15, 1955, in Orange County, Gould obtained his first -class radio and telephole operator license in 1971, when he was 16 years outdated, and scheduled and hosted a radio present for youngsters within the rural areas of Arizona. In the top he was fired from the live performance as a result of he selected to recite the well-known piece of George Carlin on the seven phrases that you simply can not say on TV, mentioned Koerner. It seems which you can’t even inform them on the radio.
Koerner and Gould met within the 70s on the Us, the place they lived within the rooms of the adjoining dormitory and each graduated in transmission journalism. Gould graduated from the USC a few years after Koerner made, after taking a break to work on a radio station in Orange County.
He launched himself as “Jed the Fish” in Kroq in a flyer copied on salmon paper with a widest photograph that gave the impression to be herself wearing scarcely-a coated-set in a wheelchair. There was additionally a small diagram of a fish. “Look hear! Exactly! Jed will carry out completely free! On your station!” Said the flyer below the banner of a “Summer Fishfry” by Kroq. “30 hours per week or much less 90 days max fur free!”
He received the live performance.
In the 70s, Jed the Fish launched himself to Kroq on this flyer as “low-cost!” Option that “would carry out completely free!” on the radio station. He received the work.
(Jed the fish)
While Jed the Fish hosted the afternoon driving present on Kroq from 1978 to 2012 and his distinctive style in music put the station as authority on punk and new wave within the 80s and Alt-Rock within the 90s. Jed influenced Kroq, the station influenced Los Angeles, California and California influenced the style of the nation, mentioned Koerner. (“As Go Kroq, I do know Goes the Country”, the noodles joked on the time of 2024.)
“He was not likely afraid of the sorts of artists who performed,” Koerner mentioned earlier than transmitting a narrative on how Jed determined to play considered one of Michael Jackson’s first “off the wall” strain on Kroq One Night and Boy, obtained suggestions. “His listeners weren’t used to listening to Michael Jackson’s melodies” – at the least not songs from the grownup Jackson – “and had been they like” what the hell? “” But Jed mentioned: “This is sweet”, and it was.
“The radio is so ephemeral,” mentioned Koerner, “don’t attain past the reminiscences of the listeners. And Jed was so in the mean time.”
Some promotions and drop-ins which are nonetheless in use on Kroq at the moment had been created by Gould within the examine of the station “When Jimmy Carter was president,” he mentioned. “And they nonetheless appear recent.”
He hosted the present of the countdown “out of order” from 1994 to 2013. Gound went to Kroq to work at Kcsn-Fm (88.5) and Klos-Fm (95.5), then in 2019 he joined the “Roq of the 80s” coaching on Sunday night on the HD2 station in Kroq, in on-line streaming. He was appointed Modern Rock Personality of the Year of Billboard in 1997 and 1999 and gained the native trendy rock & Records rock character. In 2004, the most effective radio personalities from Los Angeles was appointed.
Gould was additionally a drummer – enjoying with the system of one of many well-known Weenie roasts of Kroq – and delighted in music manufacturing and visible arts. Huge and strange stone and tiled statues constructed by Gould sit within the gardens, lush paths and landscapes round her dwelling, which went briefly available on the market in 2017. “It is like one thing” Alice in Wonderland “, mentioned the itemizing agent at that second.” In the courtyard, you actually see the proprietor’s character. “
Davis mentioned on the cellphone on Monday that he thought of him his “chosen household” and his uncle for his youngsters. “When he cherished, he cherished solely,” he mentioned. “It was greater than life.”
Gound had returned dwelling for a number of weeks to the hospital within the night earlier than he died, returning to the colourful Victorian home of the Queen Anne of the top of the century he cherished. He had up to date the adoptive/Blankenhorn home – which he purchased in 1994, when he was already 100 years outdated – with a sounding studio soundproofed outdoors the storage.
Koerner mentioned that initially of final week, mates everybody thought that chemotherapy can be the following step for Gould, who had been one of the best man at Koerner’s marriage ceremony. “We nonetheless thought he had choices,” he mentioned. So “went from one factor to a different” and instantly he became a race in opposition to time.
He died virtually precisely at 6 within the morning, mentioned Koerner, which was good, as a result of he was by no means a morning individual.
“He survived a neighborhood of artists, misfit and followers who’ve been modified by the sound of his voice – and by the audacious freedom he represented,” Sinacore wrote. “Jed the fish has not merely performed the blows. It was the interruption, the detour, the spark within the sign.”
