Hello, my name is Jon and welcome to Rock Is Dead Radio.

Firstly, and contrary to belief, rock isn’t fucking dead!

But before I expand on that, here’s a little about me.

Growing up in Wiltshire, England, I yearned to be on the radio. At ten, I started making demos on my Talkboy, and as I got older, my Dad let me use his Technics system so I could plug a mic in, throw on a vinyl/CD/cassette and record shows to the secondary cassette deck. Yes, I am nearly 40, how did you know?

I used to hand-deliver demos; if not, I would mail them to my favourite presenters. I have Jamie Theakston to thank for passing my work along to Jamie Scott (RIP) back in 2010. However, by the time we connected, I had exhausted all avenues in the UK and had sorted an open work permit to move to Canada. Despite this, Jamie invited me to spend my last few days with him at Heart FM in Bristol. He essentially had me make a show off-air, then we’d aircheck it, I’d go back in the studio and repeat the process. He basically gave me as much knowledge as possible to help me in my next life chapter.

A few months later, I met John Shields, the Program Director of The Zone @ 91-3 in Victoria, Canada. Long story short, and after a trial period, I got hired for the first time! I was an Evening & Weekend DJ; a few years later, I moved to The Midday Zone and was so lucky to have sustained growth and success.

The thing is, I yearned for another challenge, and the pandemic presented an opportunity. After a decade, I left The Zone in 2020 to start this project, formerly known as What was That?

I have nothing against commercial radio, but for half my lifetime the mainstream consensus has been that Rock Is Dead, and that, my friend, is utter bullshit! Rock Is Dead Radio is home to hundreds of bands and thousands of songs, with no release date older than the year it launched in 2020.

You can listen via my free apps (made by Radio Co) on Android/iPhone or via the player here on the website. You can join the Skeletons in Discord. Support me via donations or Patreon. But most importantly, throw your hard-earned money at the bands that touch your soul. Get to their gigs, follow their socials, and if we’ve spoken, listen to my deep-dive podcasts into incredible musicians’ lives and creations.

Thank you for being here,

Jon