Steve Keating
14 – November – 2008
Las Vegas, Nevada

I first met John when I accepted the position of Chief Engineer at Metromedia’s KMET-FM in L.A. in June of 1985. John was doing freelance photography and movie work and worked part-time at KMET. Our friendship grew to the point where we were spending so much time together away from the job, John became my roommate at my condo in Reseda.

I remember that year, we were invited to a Halloween party somewhere in the San Fernando Valley and we went as our heroes, Jake and Elwood Blues from the Blues Brother’s Movie. We were the hit of the party. From then on, when we corresponded, he signed his name “Jake,” and I signed mine “Elwood.” Eventually John met his wife to be, Starla, and I stood with him as his best man at their wedding. Despite my relocating outside L.A., John and I never lost touch. I was extremely pleased the day I learned John was named the Chief Engineer at the venerable KFI, L.A.’s power house AM news-talk station. If anyone deserved to take the reigns from Marv Collins, John most certainly did, and he prospered and grew in the job making more friends in the business and solidifying his professional status as a major market broadcast engineer.

It was with shock and sadness on that recent Sunday morning when Starla called me to say John and passed on suddenly. He had just turned 50 a couple of weeks prior. It was just after his birthday that John had occasion to come to Las Vegas for a convention at the resort I am employed at, the Mirage. After the convention one day, I met John for dinner and we spent the evening at my home. He seemed in good spirits and we picked up where we’d last left off as if the sea of time in between didn’t exist.

Had I known it would be the last time I would be spending with John in this world, I would have told him;

When you were born, you were crying
and everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so at the end,
you're the one who is smiling and everyone
around you is crying.

Don't count the years-count the memories.