John’s passing was announced Sunday afternoon but I have been busy with other crises at Castello di Maggi as you see from earlier posts. It was sad to see the news from the Austin Chronicle‘s e-mail alerts yet it was not surprising, he had a stroke a few years ago which led to his late 2020 retirement. I’m saddened that poor health likely followed thanks to Amerika’s for-profit medical system.
For roughly 50 years, John hosted his show Eklektikos on KUT and then KUTX when the station acquired 98.9 from a Media Barony fire sale. While on KUT, his weekday morning show ran from 8 AM to 2 PM until the bosses cut it back to make more room to broadcast additional news programming. Moving him over to KUTX was an easy decision as the point was to provide Austinites a choice between all news/information via KUT and musical variety via KUTX. Trust me, if I’m not playing stuff from my iPod Touch in the car, it’s these two stations or KMFA, our Classical station. Austin’s commercial stations suck.
Despite Eklektikos pertaining to a Classical music term, John played whatever he felt like against the tradition of most public stations being enslaved exclusively to Classical or Jazz. You’d hear Jellyfish’s “I Wanna Stay Home,” followed by some Gregorian chant stuff and then a novelty song by the Austin Lounge Lizards. You never knew what was next. I readily admit, some choices led me to change the station because I’m only human. John also had interviews. The only one I recalled at length was with Lisa Loeb in the Aughts, it led to me liking her work more.
Overall, he wasn’t my cup of tea as I’m not a fan when DJs blather pointlessly or want to bore me with their annual trip to France. While I’m writing this, I can’t think of a DJ in decades I miss hearing anyway. The ones I did love or admire did funny things during breaks and didn’t need to call unnecessary attention to it a la The Morning Zoo! Still, John was an Austin institution, a constant for many decades and I respected him and his longevity. He will be missed enormously as “New Austin” crowds out what made my adopted home a desirable place to reside.