Saturday, April 19, 2025
During the eighties and nineties in Los Angeles, my day never truly hit its pinnacle until I heard the maniacal laugh of a radio DJ called Jed the Fish. One of several truly excellent and pioneering DJs at radio station KROQ.
As a group, the DJs at KROQ almost single handedly created the 80s genre of music by playing the punk, new wave and alt rock music that no other radio station would. Bands like Depeche Mode, The Police, U2 and dozens of others including Jed’s favorite Oingo Boingo are household names because of this tiny globally renowned radio station that was run out of cramped digs in Pasadena, California.
I was sad to hear of the passing of Jed the Fish this week. Jed Gould was a mad genius of the airwaves. His Catch of the Day was how you would hear cutting edge tracks. His mispronunciation of Pasadena and his own name—pass-said-una and jedum fishum became part of the lingua franca of Los Angeles social life in those days.
As we bid adios to Jed I’m comforted knowing his voice echoes in the memories of anyone who lived in Los Angeles and the world during “the roq of the eighties and nineties” era.