Jon Kennedy‘s sister, Simone, has informed radioinfo of further details of his death.

“Jon passed away of a heart attack in the early hours of the morning on Thursday 15 July. At present, my mother and I are in Beijing, making the necessary arrangements.”

Ray Peters has also forwarded radioinfo Jon Kennedy’s last email which describes his first impressions of China, where he moved after working in the Middle East.

It reads:

Here is a little very rushed piece that I was given an hour to write for web mag. It will fill you in on first impressions of China…

All animals are equal, some are more equal than others wrote George Orwell. When I thought of China, this quote was ringing in my head louder than the telephone at the Friendship Hotel that I came to unplug after three days. My first memory of China is the loud ring of the hotel phone and doorbell. It was enough to wake the dead.

After disconnecting my phone and doorbell there was panic amongst the hotel staff because they had to knock on the door. The routine had been changed by this strange Australian that enjoyed serenity.

I remember being very thirsty and my mouth was as dry as a cockatoo’s beak. I was told not to drink the tap water, just ask the hotel staff and they will bring you some. A thermos arrived full of boiling hot water! This was culture shock number one. When I asked for cold water they laughed and said Chinese don’t drink cold water it’s bad for your health. Now there is a saying I would hear for the next year and a half over and over, “It’s good for your health”.

I quickly came to realize I was in the land of the routine and health conscious. Australians in general are very laid back and carefree and almost fleetingly live by the saying ‘No worries mate, she’ll be right”. Whereas I found the Chinese to be sticklers for order and routine. This was going to be an interesting ride on the roller coaster of culture shock..

I suppose it may not have been such a dramatic culture shock for me it was for many other westerners because I was coming from the Middle East where I worked as a reporter for the previous few years and had experienced my fair share of culture differences and learnt the art of patience and tolerance. My feeling of execration from the horrors I saw in the war torn Middle East had all passed. I knew China would be peaceful and yet thought provoking.

Like a sperm whale I needed spermaceti to keep me buoyant in this tawdry hotel room on my own, lost again with no idea what tomorrow will hold.

Brimming with excitement and anticipation I arrived at CRI on my first day and quickly tracked down the only person I knew, Shen Ting, my new colleague with the British/Chinese accent that picked me up from the airport the previous evening.

I couldn’t grasp the Chinese names as they were so foreign sounding, this was something I had to grapple with for many months ahead.

I found myself saying things like “Do you know where the short man with black hair and brown eyes is?” Then realizing that 1.3 billion people here look like that. In fact, I remember seeing my first blonde headed foreigner and staring at her like a baby discovering chocolate for the first time. Oh how I would savour this taste. Everyday gave me a smile, there was so much to observe.

That is one of the delights of travel. It doesn’t matter how old you get, you still see something new and interesting everyday. China was so refreshing!

I arrived at CRI as the Iraq war was breaking out and SARS was on the rampage although not yet made public. The newsroom was buzzing, a hive of activity. Three televisions blaring out CNN, CCTV and Al Jazeera. Stories were racing onto my computer screen like donkey’s after the last carrot. I was working in an electronic sausage factory of words. A media production line like no other. I now had sympathy for the Anhui seamstress I met on the subway. After working in newsrooms in Britain, the Middle East and Australia I was amazed at the amount of staff and resources at CRI.

Learning to put a story to air with a “Chinese perspective” was a difficult task to get used to. It would be too easy to say it was a propaganda machine. I think it fair to say it was a typical newsroom with their own version of what “objective” was. To this day, I am still in awe of the talented and gifted Chinese staff that read, write and broadcast in a foreign language. This is only something I can aspire to. I am still in admiration of my colleagues and this is such an inspiring feeling to have in the workplace.

I arrived around Spring festival before SARS was announced. Beijing was bustling with more people and vehicles than I had ever seen in one place at one time.

There is a misconception about China in the west. I was perplexed at the openness, growth and modernity of Beijing. It was an exhilarating place to be in the world at this moment. I discovered friendly people from all walks of life from migrant workers selling corn and sweet potato out of an old 44 gallon drum with hot coals in it to millionaire entrepreneurs shimmying out of there black Mercedes Benz whilst firmly strangling their “manbags”(a little handbag Chinese men seem to carry) full of cash..

It was organized chaos, a land of contrasts going through rapid change. Then SARS hit! Literally within a day the grand Beijing boulevards were depleted of their metal people movers and hardly a soul was to be found crowding around the old man selling corn. It was like a nuclear holocaust.

I felt like the hands of time were wound back and I was transported to Beijing of yesteryear. Within days after health and protection measures were announced by the government throngs of people courageous enough to face the unknown ventured out with face masks on. Now it really was surreal!

After several weeks I even saw the rapid growth and change in peoples attitude in a time of despair whilst SARS lurked in the corner. The plain white medical face mask soon became a fashion accessory. Young girls were wearing Gucci and Hello Kitty masks, I even saw a long haired guy with a Metallica Rocks mask! There was humour in the face of adversity.

Even though the country seemed to come to a halt the CRI newsroom was at full strength. As a journalist I saw this as an opportune time to be here. My family and friends felt otherwise. I was getting phone calls saying things like “What’s wrong with Hawaii this time of year?”. Then again it wasn’t actually bullet dodging in the Middle East either.

Every top story on the headline news bulletin was the daily bodycount of deaths or those that contracted SARS. For three months it was SARS, SARS, SARS. Finally by around July as the disease dissipated life went back to normal, although I think the masks were needed more due to the horrendous amount of pollution from the millions of cars on the roads.

I have had the opportunity to do some interesting programmes at CRI including Life In China which looks at the average daily life of the mainstream Chinese person. This has given me a wonderful insight into the culture and all in the cause of my work, which was a pleasant gift just to be able to learn whilst you work.

I have done international programmes including news bulletins for the shortwave service like “news and reports” where we reach people from Africa to the South Pacific.

On the domestic service my main role recently had been anchor of Real Time Beijing, a magazine news style programme covering the diversity of the city. On the other hand I have hosted Biz China whereby, once again, I had the chance to obtain a greater understanding of the most powerful an influential part of China in recent times, the great economic boom!

My role as a copy editor, broadcaster, writer, presenter, journalist and even debater and possibly sometimes debaser with my peers has been overwhelming and invaluable. I think maybe my colleagues are finally understanding my twisted humour as well.

Everyday brings me a smile and laugh! Even the boiling hot Coca-Cola which is supposedly good for your health still makes me smile.

My travels have taken me primarily along the east coast of China including Qingdao, Tianjin, Shanghai, Suzhou, Guangzhou, macao, Hong Kong, Shenzen etc. I am jumping out of my skin to see more of the country but as I want my boss to notice I am a media tragic and dedicated my time to work. This summer I plan to head “out west” and see Xinjiang, Tibet, Shaanxi etc and get to see the vast “real” China where the other one billion people live. I also want to see if they drink boiling hot coke in Tibet too!

Just a tip for foreigners learning Chinese, learn the tones in the language first! Otherwise you will never be understood and end up saying something completely different to what you mean.

I remember trying to ask a lady for dumplings in Chinese and instead asked her to come to my bed. I was also in taxi one day attempting to get to the Australian Embassy in Beijing for a CRI interview. I didn’t know the word for embassy but I knew the Chinese word for Australia. The driver asked me where I wanted to go, I replied “ Australia!” in Chinese and “embassy” in English. He must have thought it was new year! I could see the dollars signs light up in his eyes like a cash register at the supermarket. He was on the phone calling friends trying to get me on a boat out from Fuzhou via Indonesia for the bargain sum of 20000RMB.

It is a very humbling experience being far from the comforts of your own country, culture and home. The climax of my English teaching was aroused when I was told by one of the ladies at the hotel that was helping me clean my room that “Here we have clean clits for you everyday.”, when in fact she was trying to say “Here we have clean sheets for you everyday.” Language and culture exchange has proven to be fun, fluid and fabulous.

China has and will always have a special place in my heart. So will boiling hot coca-cola.

China has been good for my health.

JK

Jon Kennedy was a larrikin and sometimes a headache to his station management, but he was also a warm and adventurous radio personality who loved mixing with people and bringing their stories back to his radio studio.

Here is one “small tribute to a lost friend and colleague” by Greg Fairlie in Beirut.

I first met Jon Kennedy when we worked together at Country 1035 in London in the early nvarchar(15)ies. He was known on-air as “Randy Vickers” and laughed loudly when we used to reminisce about those days. He loved London and always said he wanted to work there again one day.

When I asked Jon to come over and present Drive-Time on RML, the station I was then on, we had long link ups on msn voice chat from Beirut to the Gold Coast in Australia. We would have drink break’s as we both went to get ‘something nice and cold’ before he would come back with lots of questions about Lebanon! What kind of life would I have over there Greg he would say. I told him he would love it and in truth I think he did love it for a time. Like many foreigners here he both loved and hated the chaos found here!

J.K brought his professionalism and experience to Lebanon when he joined RML in 2001 and with him came his unmistakable deep resonant Australian Voice.

He lived for adventure and travel. He was fascinated by the Lebanese and enjoyed traveling by service taxi or the local bus from his apartment in Beit Meri to RML’s studio’s in Ashrafieh and to NBN’s television studios in Jnah. He would always have stories of the people he had met on the bus or in the taxi on the way and laughed with people he told the stories to. Once a taxi driver shouted at a dustbin bag full of rubbish to “get out of the way!” as if the bag was a person.

Jon used to find it so funny that the Lebanese are very image conscious and materialistic. He would just look at people when they talked about their new mobile phone or BMW Car with his knowing look and say “It’s THE BEST” with a roar of laughter.

He was a people person who could talk to an Ambassador just as easily as a Cigarette Vendor. He just enthused charm and people warmed to his gentle nature. On the radio during his drive-time show he brought laughter and happiness to a generation of enthusiastic listeners.

Jon became frustrated when he saw that change was very slow particularly concerning radio in Lebanon. He was a consummate professional and wanted a station that Lebanon would be proud- that just wasn’t the case with RML, sadly- even though both Jon and I gave the management so many ideas. He once said that even if he left Lebanon to work professionally he would eventually like to come back. He immersed himself in the culture of this country and practiced his Arabic whenever he could, bringing cheer to his friends and people wherever he went and a smile.

What I loved more than anything about Jon was his common sense and wisdom. Jon’s interest and knowledge about people, places and just life in general. He had so many life experiences so when he talked you always learnt something from him. Being a friend of his was such an honor, he was and is special and I’m missing him along with the many other people he touched in his short life – much more than words can express.

And here is another tribute from a previous workmate who remembers his more raucous side.

Our thoughts on Jon Kennedy.

“G’day you fat **** , so what are you going to do here”?

I’m not really sure if they were the first words I first heard from
Brother Jon. Perhaps it was when I was tuning around to FOX FM back
in July 1991 driving home from 3XY and BAY FM , I’m sure it was
….”Are ya peakin?”

The Fox Hot 20 countdown was when I first heard this maverick.

On air quotes such as “Are ya an INSTANT LEGEND”?…. “Fair suck of
me sav ” , “Lets go to the phones”….

Yeah , I knew then I was listening to something amazing.

His distinctive gravel voice got me thinking that this guy was going
to be big.

And he was.

To be a part of the team that helped Jon re-shape night time radio
was something I will never forget. He was the pioneer of nightly
countdown radio which is now a staple on most city stations. His
influence can still be heard around the country today.

A few years later, most of the old Fox team found themselves together
again in sunny Brisbane after Jon had done a stint in Sydney on MMM, a
place he always wished to work once he left Fox.

What a happy place , Paul James as our PD , jox like Joe Bovalino ,
Sheridan Stewart , Shirl and Irvine , and producers such as myself,
Matt Nikolic, Rick Wade …..

Wow 1994 , we were like “pigs in shit” and working for yet another
station that strived to do things differently.

Once again it was Jon the maverick on air during drive, always
entertaining.

Jon moved to Radio RML in Lebanon where he got me to do some
production for the place. This was a great opportunity for me thanks
to Jon’s friendship and I was happy to send him as much production as I could do to make him and myself look good over there. This was a huge learning curve in Jon’s life. Living in a new culture and a very
different approach to radio, Jon was not one to sit back in Australia
wondering why there were no offers of work in his own country anymore.

This little Maverick that the radio industry forgot went on to become News Director of a Chiness radio network.

Was it “G’day you fat **** ” or “are you peaking”?

Yes, it was “are you peaking”.

Jon , we’re all peaking.