Jed the Fish

Edwin Fish "Jed" Gould III (born July 15, 1955), known to radio listeners as "Jed the Fish", is a disc jockey who hosted afternoon drive on KROQ-FM in Los Angeles,[1][2] from 1978 to 2012. Known for his maniacal laugh and biting humor, he interviewed seminal alternative acts such as Brian Eno, David Bowie, Sting and Elvis Costello, and is sometimes credited as the first DJ on KROQ to play The Offspring's "Come Out and Play"[3] in 1994 and Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” in 2008. An early supporter of New Wave and alternative bands, Jed the Fish is reputed to be the first US DJ to play Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, The Pretenders and thus helping KROQ establish itself as the preeminent alternative radio station of the 1980s and 1990s.[4]

Jed the Fish
Born
Edwin Fish Gould III

(1955-07-15) July 15, 1955
Career
StyleDisc jockey
CountryUnited States

Career

Born Edwin Fish Gould III, Jed’s professional name is a hybrid of the first initial of his mother’s name, Joanne, and his given patrilineal name, Edwin. Fish is a multigenerational family name. At KROQ, going in turns by “The Fish” and “Jed,” he adopted the name “Jed the Fish” in 1978 at the suggestion of a friend of former KROQ general manager Gary Bookasta.

Jed the Fish began his radio broadcasting career while a student at Casa Grande High School in Arizona. The Newport Beach, CA native spent his high school years with his family in Casa Grande, Arizona earning his First Class Radiotelephone Operator License in 1971 at age 16, programming and hosting a radio program targeted at the “youth market”[5] on KPIN-AM in the afternoons where his interest in alternative radio formats and recording techniques took shape.

From 1984-1985, Jed the Fish took a one-year hiatus from KROQ and spent the year working at KWVE-FM, and “The Quake” KQAK, San Francisco's new wave alt rock during the last three months the station was on the air.  This was followed by a brief stint on the then-album-oriented rock format KCBS in San Francisco where he was fired for playing Elvis Costello on Live Aid day, July 13, 1985. One month later, in August 1985, Jed the Fish rejoined KROQ.

From 1994 to July 2013, Jed hosted the nationally syndicated show Out of Order.[6][7] It is a countdown of the most popular alternative rock songs in the country, but, as the name implies, the songs are not played in numeric order. Out of Order is two hours long and is syndicated by Dial Global.

In 2003, Jed the Fish replaced Tommy Vance on Cathay Pacific’s inflight audio programming.

From 2012-2018 Jed the Fish was also an air personality at radio station KCSN,[8] where he programmed his own show.

In 2018, he became a DJ at Los Angeles' KLOS.[9]

In February 2019, Jed the Fish, joined the Roq of the 80s lineup on KROQ HD2 station on radio.com on Sundays from 6pm-midnight PST.[10][11]

In addition to his on-air work, Jed the Fish produced the Southern California punk band El Centro debut album in 1995[12] and the remix track “Thing” on Meg Lee Chin’s[13] Junkies and Snakes in 2000.[14]

Awards

In 1997 and 1999, Jed was awarded the Billboard Modern Rock Personality of the Year award.[1]

In 1998, Jed received an award for the Radio & Records Local Modern Rock Personality of the Year.[1]

Jed the Fish was awarded Billboard's Major Market Alternative Radio Personality of the year in 1998 and 2000 (in 1999 his co-workers Kevin and Bean took home the prize). He won Album Network's Alternative All Stars award for Virtuallyalternative Radio Personality in 1999 and 2000.

In 2004, he tied for 8th place along with former 102.7 KIIS-FM DJ Rick Dees as one of LA Radio’s top ten most influential radio people described as “amazingly inventive” and “the best pure disc jockey in Los Angeles.”[15]

Personal life

In 1994, Jed the Fish purchased a 1894 Queen Anne Victorian estate home in Pasadena, California. The estate was featured in Lucille Ball's 1968 film Yours, Mine, Ours.[16]

A graduate of USC's Annenberg School of Journalism with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Broadcast Journalism in 1978, Jed is also an accomplished drummer, even sitting in on drums for John Dolmayan during the KROQ Weenie Roast performance of System of a Down in 2002.[17] In 2017, he joined Beat Lab Academy where he is currently studying music production and composition.  

Other Media

References

  1. "Top 10 Los Angeles Radio People of 2004". LARadio.com. Don Barrett. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Born Edwin Fish Gould III on July 15, 1955, Jed the Fish grew up in the beach cities of Orange County and in Casa Grande, Arizona, where his first radio job was at KPIN-AM.
  2. Leitereg, Neal J. (June 1, 2017). "Disc jockey Jed the Fish lists his pristine Queen Anne Victorian in Pasadena". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 19, 2019. Jed Gould, the disc jockey better known as Jed the Fish, has put his Queen Anne Victorian on the market in Pasadena for $2.299 million.
  3. Clizbe, Craig. "#ThrowbackThursday: "Self Esteem" By The Offspring".
  4. "KROQ: an oral history by Kate Sullivan - Los Angeles Magazine November 2001". www.radiohitlist.com. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  5. "Around the Station". DJ Jed the Fish. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  6. "Out of Order show website". Westwood One. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
  7. "Jed the Fish Bio". Westwood One. Archived from the original on 2007-10-20. Retrieved 2007-09-27.
  8. "KCSN". KCSN. Archived from the original on 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  9. "Against common sense, KLOS are putting me on the air this Monday at 7pm". Jed the Fish on Twitter. Twitter.com. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  10. "Jed The Fish is back! Listen every Sunday 6pm-midnight". KROQ-HD2. 2019-03-03. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  11. Alvarez, Jimmy (2018-09-05). "Classic KROQ Gets a Second Wind With ROQ of the '80s". OC Weekly. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  12. "El Centro "Prohibido"". ReadJunk.com: Music & Movie News, Reviews & Interviews. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  13. "Meg Lee Chin Biography | Meg Lee Chin". www.megleechin.com. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  14. "Meg Lee Chin - Junkies And Snakes". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  15. "~Los Angeles Radio People, Best LARP 2004". www.laradio.com. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  16. REPORTS, From STAFF. "Pasadena Now » Celebrity Radio DJ Puts Pasadena Home Up for Sale | Pasadena California, Hotels, CA Real Estate, Restaurants, City Guide... - Pasadena.com". Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  17. Cousins, Simon. "Jed The Fish playing drums for System of a Down at KROQ Weenie Roast". DJ Jed the Fish. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
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