We did KROQ beach remotes weekly for several years, where Joqs would broadcast their radio shows. I probably did the most, and even coming to the same beach several times over the years to give out these towels, they were all unique. Many conversations with listeners and artists. As Jed The Fish, it wore me out, but it was always fun.
When Devo was doing clubs, these posters -- with venue particulars -- were for promoters in each city.
My very first tee shirt. If we wanted our own tee-shirts, the Joqs needed to pay for them. So if you got one, I must like you.
This is the most concrete example of Jed The Fish having an impact on an artist's success. My Catch of the Day feature allowed me to choose one song per day. One Tuesday in 1988 Anthony Smith and Matt Dyke talked their way past reception and brought me Wild Thing. I spent most of my shift talking with them and sent them off expecting to hear the single at 4:40 pm. The phones blew up, and I made the rare decision to play it again the next day. The day after that it was a mid-week add to KROQ (most radio stations do their music meetings on a Tuesday, where they decide what is 'added' to the playlist). By Thursday it was on KIIS-FM. A most memorable instance of watching a piece of vinyl setting the radio waves ablaze in a matter of hours.
Beach remote era KROQ Keychains.
| Album | Everything Album |
| Categories | All, Ephemera |
| Taken | March 5, 2019 |
| Uploaded | March 15, 2019 |
Likely the most embraced version of the KROQ logo, it was co-designed by KROQ Promotions Director Quay Hays.
Fat Boy Slim I only met once, at Organic 96, an event that has evidently dropped off the internet, except for this article: https://www.laweekly.com/music/from-organic-96-to-the-hollywood-bowl-the-la-history-of-underworld-5671139
In the late nineties, I was the only one at KROQ supporting him, so yes, Jed The Fish graciously accepts this award.
I have discarded these awards if they had no meaning for me. This one did, because I feel I have a relationship with the band. Firstly, I loved Butch Vig, and Shirley Manson was an easy person to know. Although she was quite offended ten years later during an Inland Invasion Jed The Fish interview when I forgot the title of her latest single (Bad Boyfriend).
I was Student Body President, 1972 at Casa Grande Union High School, Arizona. The year before, my step-brother Bill Koenig was. Many K-ROQers came from the Copper State, and that's when I became a broadcaster.
Right about the time the world was getting busted for counterfeit shoes, Van's did a promotion with KROQ, and all the Joqs got free shoes. Deese are dem. Cir.1989
Although this is the bitty Fender model -- and I doubt Tom ever played it -- to have this in my studio still making sound is amazing. Sadly, the 'soul power,' written in silver Sharpie, rubs right off with very little effort, you get the idea. Rock's best guitar player of the 90s? Come on! That's why KROQ even bothered to call it 'Roq of the 90's.' I haven't been gentle with it.
There was nothing left to say when your band leader, after 10 years of scoring movies, is calling it quits. No more gold records to be had, hearing going bad, and bandmates so sad, they all autographed this poster from the site of the departure, the once-heralded Universal Amphitheater. Music and movies have never been the same since.
I never saw the Mystic Knights, but Danny Elfman gave me this relic from the 1970s.
The Album Network was a radio industry trade magazine which annually gave radio host awards. This went on until they were purchased by Clear Channel Radio (aka I Heart Radio), evidently because the CC personalities were so bad they weren't winning any awards. At least Clear Channel had the decency to not continue giving out awards -- to themselves -- and the tradition was discontinued.
| Album | Everything Album |
| Categories | All, Ephemera |
| Taken | March 5, 2019 |
| Uploaded | March 15, 2019 |
I bet you have one of these yourself. Really a memory of the passion we have for music.
Way before I was Jed The Fish, my mother remarried and I moved to Arizona. I was an object of ridicule in Laguna Beach, but once I lived in a town of 35,000, I was conferred star status, because I was from LA. I kept explaining I was NOT from LA, I was from Laguna Beach. "Yeah, sure, you're from LA," I heard back. I had some experience doing light shows, so I did one for a high school dance at the first opportunity. The art department liked the concept, and with the guidance of teacher Robbie Robertson and other students, we created one of the first multi-media events. Our only mistake was not making it interactive.
Between Kevin and Bean and Jed The Fish, we had a pretty good award run until Album Network, the trade publication, was bought by Clear Channel. I guess our competition couldn't bear to see us sweeping up awards, so they just bought the magazine. Now they are called I Heart. Do you think I Heart is a good name for a radio group?
This was when David Bowie came by the station in advance of the 'co-headlining' NIN show, and I GOT TO INTERVIEW HIM. Thing is, as anyone will tell you, he is as kind and disarming as could be. It was near Halloween, and I had decorated the Burbank studio with oodles of scary, and one of my props was a battery-operated, undulating heart. He made sure I noticed that he had crammed it in his pants, power on, just as I opened the mic. To say I laughed is an understatement, as I'm sure you recall what I was capable of. This was when we were both in recovery. Meeting him in the Station to Station days might have been different. And yes, I asked him if he had ever been fat.
My first week at KROQ -- before I was even called Jed The Fish -- my favorite band arrived in support of their first album. To meet them was an amazing experience, but to speak with them on the air was a dream come true. I blew the interview, but started a long relationship with the band, which I think made the biggest impact on 80s music. Constantly cited as inspirational by so many bands of the era, DEVO made a crazy instrument like the MiniMoog profoundly essential. And no one will ever play the MiniMoog like Mark Mothersbaugh.
I have discarded these awards if they had no meaning for me. This one did, because I feel I have a relationship with the band. U2 I will always remember because of their Jed The Fish interview for their Pop Mart tour. This award was for the following album.
DMode I began playing on KROQ because the producer was Daniel Miller, of The Normal (TVOD, Warm Leatherette, 1978). Mike Zampelli from Zed Records/LBC brought the single New Life to Pasadena with a dozen or so other records he wanted me to play on the Jed The Fish import show. Not a huge response but the band showed promise. Once Speak and Spell arrived, everyone on KROQ was playing it.
This was the night I was hired at KROQ. It was the first time I had seen the band, and I was sitting in my Ball Road apartment GLOWING because I had finally seen the greatest Rock and Roll band in the world. The phone rings at 1:15 a.m., it's Darrell Wayne asking if I could get to Pasadena by two. "Sure," I said. And later I climbed those back stairs for the first time.
Fat Boy Slim platinum award, detail.
Original artwork from Jed The Fish tee shirt, created on the floor during a KROQ music meeting in the 90s. Features the "Dooley" prototype (spermy guy).
