Jon was and is a strong presence in this community and in the world of radio.
I've known and worked with him for over 16 years. When I first started at 101.7 The Fox, I was on with Matthew in the Morning, and Jon was on the news talk station KSRO reporting and producing. He joined the Blazy Morning Show in early 2001,and found the fit he had been looking for. He was and always will be a rocker, so the Fox was his home turf. While he loved doing mornings, in my opinion, his strength was working with the community, vendors, elected officials, concert promoters, events, and listeners. He knew soooooo many people. He knew so many things. He was a musician and sound guy, so he knew many musicians and connected with many more as they would roll into the Bay Area. He was a foodie and a great cook. He loved to barbeque and took pride in taking over my BBQ whenever he came over to my house. He was a spaz monkey in front of the microphone and would blurt out things that would just crack you up. Amazingly, he never cursed on the air! Getting him to voice a commercial was an event. I learned to just hand him a script and say, "go have fun". I would end up with 60 seconds of the actual commercial, surrounded by gags, guffaws, snorts, very bad accents from countries that don't exist, answers to questions he would ask himself in one voice and answer in another, and long lectures to me about stupid things like why toilet paper is useless.
The interesting thing between him and me was how in the beginning we couldn't stand each other. Seriously, we would push each others buttons so easily with a comment. This type of relationship changed over time as we realized we were better on the same team than at odds with each other. We would agree on things more and more, but then we were so alike that we would still argue. When Jon started dating his wife Angelina, I'm not sure what she thought of me and Jon because we could be so snarky with each other. In later years, she would say we fight like brother and sister, but then if anyone picked on either of us, we would rush to one another's defense. Looking back, I can see how accurate that was.
Jon had some health difficulties as he got older. He struggled with back and neck injuries that plagued him. He dealt with excessive partying (as did I), and then one day realized he had to make changes. Marrying Angelina allowed him to do that. He took on a more mature role and looked to improve his health. However, he was NEVER completely out of pain. He had a degenerative disease that was hereditary and a daily struggle. But everyday, he showed up to do what he could for the radio stations and for his relationships. 2015 was especially hard for him, and he made choices to do what he felt was the right thing to do. Doing the right thing for the ones you love doesn't mean it's an easy choice, but it means when you lay your head down at night, that you have done what you can to make the life of the ones you love that much better.
It's been hard knowing I won't see Jon anymore, but I can see his impact on radio and the community as so many people, listeners, vendors, event coordinators, and musicians have stepped up to share condolences. I would be so lucky to have that many friends. I was lucky to call Jon my friend, my brother.
I know you're rockin' the moshpit in heaven, give my best to Lemmy, Dimebag Darrell, Layne Staley, Kurt Cobain, Robin Williams, Craig, and Todd Pyne.