Far Too Soon for the Final Countdown
We Lost a Close Friend and a Big Part of KEDG

D.J. Willis was a key member of our student-run radio movement.  He was a wealth of knowledge in terms of music (especially, big hair rock bands!), music production, and more.  He was incredibly bright, humorous, passionate, and generous.  He immediately connected with many of us.  He opened his home to us for meetings and casual get-togethers.

In fact, his home became a regular gathering place for us.  D.J. turned one room into a production studio and some of us got our first music and sound production lessons there.  He was a very talented musician and he owned several instruments and a lot of audio equipment.  A little known fact is that Sacramento's seminal punk band, the Secretions, formed at D.J.'s home.  Many of us took up playing instruments (some quite poorly) at his place.  We even started an informal "band" called The Land of the Misfit Toys.  Each of us had different musical tastes and none of us looked like we belonged together on any stage.  We were awful (except D.J. and, maybe Chris), but we had great times together.

Tragically, D.J. was taken away from us, and all too soon.  One night he took his scooter out to a video store with his girlfriend, Sally Rivers.  A car ran a stop sign at a four-way intersection and hit D.J. and Sally.  Both were taken to the hospital.  Sally wound up with a broken leg, but D.J. had further complications.

D.J. died a few days later, on June 28th, 1991.  He was 22 years old.

Here we are at D.J.'s house.  It was a very special time and place.  We were fortunate to have such a close-knit group.  It was the love of music, any and all music, which united us.

It is true that we built a student-run radio station.  However, and most importantly, we also built lifelong friendships and memories.

D.J., thank you for letting us in.  We had some fantastic times together.  Life goes on, but we wish you were here.