Edwin Fish "Jed" Gould III, known to radio listeners as "Jed the Fish", is a disc jockey who hosted afternoon drive on KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, 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" 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.
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” 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. 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, where he programmed his own show. In 2018, he became a DJ at Los Angeles' KLOS. 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. In addition to his on-air work, Jed the Fish produced the Southern California punk band El Centro debut album in 1995 and the remix track “Thing” on Meg Lee Chin’s Junkies and Snakes in 2000.
Awards
In 1997 and 1999, Jed was awarded the BillboardModern RockPersonality of the Year award. In 1998, Jed received an award for the Radio & Records Local Modern Rock Personality of the Year. Jed the Fish was awarded Billboard's Major Market Alternative RadioPersonality of the year in 1998 and 2000. 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.”
