Jed the Fish, the longtime KROQ DJ whose tastes arrange the station as a significant musical affect within the Eighties and ’90s, died Monday morning. He was 69.
“A legend of the airwaves, Jed was a pioneering voice in alternative radio, a beloved agent of chaos, and the man who made Los Angeles afternoons weirder, louder, and infinitely more interesting,” buddy Paul Sinacore, a casting director, producer and drummer for the band East of Gideon, wrote in a tribute. “Over 34 years on the afternoon drive, he transformed the airwaves into a launchpad for revolutionary new music and culture.”
Jed, whose given identify was Edwin Jed Fish Gould III, died at dwelling in Pasadena beneath hospice care, his shut associates confirmed to The Occasions. The reason for dying was an aggressive type of small-cell lung most cancers that was recognized in early March.
“At 6am on April 14, 2025, the world lost one [of] its most unique and brilliant personalities,” introduced his social media accounts, run for years by buddy Catherine Davis. “Jed the Fish passed peacefully away in his beloved home, and the world will never be the same. RIP Jed, go be with Alice” — his beloved canine.
His laid-back voice — one which was uncommon for radio — and his impeccable style in music virtually outlined Southern California throughout his time on KROQ-FM (106.7). Most significantly, he launched numerous bands to the native viewers, typically earlier than they have been being performed within the locales from which they hailed.
A listing of bands he dropped at the fore reads like a historical past of rock music: Depeche Mode, the Treatment, Duran Duran, the Smiths, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the B-52’s, the Go-Go’s, the Germs, the Pretenders, Devo, Blondie, the Ramones, the Runaways, Oingo Boingo, the Motels, Lacking Individuals, Josie Cotton, the Pandoras, X, Social Distortion, Oasis, Dramarama, No Doubt, Katy Perry, Teenage Fanclub, the Donnas, the Offspring and System of a Down.
His on-air interviews included chats with David Bowie, U2, Elvis Costello, Brian Eno, Sting and the Police.
With “Catch of the Day,” Gould highlighted new music together with his trademark irreverence. The insanity inherent in his broadcast stored followers hooked. Sinacore, who met Gould in 1990 within the inexperienced room on the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, stated the present “wasn’t just a show — it was a happening.”
“He captured the zeitgeist of the alternative era, understanding that music wasn’t just entertainment — it was the heartbeat of a generation. He was at the pulse of the cultural shifts happening around him, bringing listeners the soundtrack to their rebellion, their youth, and their identity,” Sinacore wrote.
“It was L.A.’s incredible good fortune that he was here and that it was then,” longtime buddy Rudy Koerner stated in a telephone interview Monday.
By no means a smoker, Gould had assumed in late January that the irritation he was experiencing was residual to the devastating wildfire earlier that month in Altadena, Koerner stated. When different medical doctors couldn’t discover a easy trigger after ruling out wildfire smoke and an an infection, Dr. Drew Pinsky, additionally a KROQ veteran, recommended that he get scanned in case it was one thing extra critical, Koerner stated. Sadly, it was.
Born July 15, 1955, in Orange County, Gould earned his First Class Radiotelephone Operator License in 1971, when he was 16, and programmed and hosted a radio present for teenagers in rural Arizona. He was in the end fired from the gig as a result of he selected to recite George Carlin’s well-known bit concerning the seven phrases you may’t say on TV, Koerner stated. Seems you couldn’t say them on the radio both.
Koerner and Gould met within the Nineteen Seventies at USC, the place they lived in adjoining dorm rooms and each majored in broadcast journalism. Gould graduated from USC a few years after Koerner did, having taken break day to work at a radio station in Orange County.
He pitched himself as “Jed the Fish” to KROQ in a flyer copied on salmon-pink paper with a grainy picture that himself scantily clad — if clad in any respect — sitting in a wheelchair. There was additionally a small diagram of a fish. “LOOK HEAR! That’s right! JED will perform absolutely FREE! On your station!,” the flyer stated beneath the banner of a KROQ “Summer Fishfry.” “30 hours per week or less 90 day max FUR FREE!”
He acquired the gig.
Again within the Nineteen Seventies, Jed the Fish pitched himself to KROQ on this flyer as a “cheap!” possibility who would “perform absoLUTEly FREE!” on the radio station. He acquired the job.
(Jed the Fish)
As Jed the Fish, he hosted the afternoon drive-time present on KROQ from 1978 to 2012, and his distinctive style in music set the station up as an authority on punk and new wave within the Eighties and alt-rock within the Nineties. Jed influenced KROQ, the station influenced Los Angeles, L.A. influenced California and California influenced the style of the nation, Koerner stated. (“As goes KROQ, so goes the country,” Noodles quipped to The Occasions in 2024.)
“He really had no fear about the types of artists he played,” Koerner stated earlier than relaying a narrative about how Jed determined to play one of many early pressings of Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall” on KROQ one night time and boy, did he get suggestions. “His listeners weren’t used to hearing Michael Jackson tunes” — a minimum of not songs from the grownup Jackson — “and they were like, ‘What the hell?’” However Jed stated, “This is good,” and it was.
“Radio is so ephemeral,” Koerner stated, “reaching no further than the listeners’ memories. And Jed was so into the moment.”
Some promos and drop-ins which are nonetheless in use on KROQ right this moment have been created by Gould within the station’s studio “when Jimmy Carter was president,” he stated. “And they still sound fresh.”
He hosted the syndicated countdown present “Out of Order” from 1994 to 2013. Gould went on from KROQ to work at KCSN-FM (88.5) and KLOS-FM (95.5), then in 2019 joined the “Roq of the 80s” Sunday night time lineup on KROQ’s HD2 station, streamed on-line. He was named Billboard’s trendy rock character of the 12 months in 1997 and 1999 and gained Radio & Information’ native trendy rock character. In 2004, he was named considered one of L.A.’s high radio personalities.
Gould was additionally a drummer — enjoying with System of a Down at considered one of KROQ’s well-known Weenie Roasts — and dabbled in music manufacturing and visible arts. Large, offbeat stone and tiled statues constructed by Gould sit within the gardens, pathways and luxurious landscaping round his dwelling, which went available on the market briefly in 2017. “It’s like something out of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’” the itemizing agent stated on the time. “In the backyard, you really see the personality of the owner.”
Davis stated by telephone Monday that she thought of him her “chosen family” and the uncle to her youngsters. “When he loved, he just loved,” she stated. “He was larger than life.”
Gould got here dwelling from a number of weeks within the hospital the night time earlier than he died, returning to the colourful turn-of-the-century Queen Anne Victorian dwelling he liked. He had up to date the Foster/Blankenhorn home — which he bought in 1994, when it was already 100 years previous — with a soundproofed music studio off the storage.
Koerner stated that early final week, associates all thought chemotherapy can be the subsequent step for Gould, who had been the perfect man at Koerner’s wedding ceremony. “We still thought he had options,” he stated. Then “it went from one thing to another” and out of the blue become a race towards time.
He died nearly precisely at 6 a.m., Koerner stated, which was good, as a result of he was by no means a morning particular person.
“He is survived by a community of artists, misfits, and fans who were changed by the sound of his voice — and the daring freedom it represented,” Sinacore wrote. “Jed the Fish didn’t just play the hits. He was the disruption, the detour, the spark in the signal.”
