April 6th 1983- July 15th 2022
This is honestly the hardest write up I've ever had to type.
This will NOT be our typical write up of the who, what, where etc
For those of you that may not know us on a personal level, in July we all lost our best friend, and our #1 Fan and supporter of this station.
....
Paul and I had known Ryan 26 years, Kandi knew him 17 years, and quite honestly were fully expecting another 26+ years. Obviously no one is ever truly expecting a sudden loss of a loved one and healing the wounds in the hearts of everyone that loved Ryan will take a long time and a lot of support from all our friends and family together.
24 years ago Ryan, myself and our friends Tim and Adam all decided to start a band one day on the golf course at the ages of 15 and 16 without ever picking up an instrument in our lives previously. Ryan finally decided on the Bass after a staredown with me over playing the drums. But he became fully invested into being an awesome bass player and eventually even leading a few vocals on some live tracks
As the years went on Ryan stuck with playing the bass and for the last 10 years he performed across Grey-Bruce county with 'Pick Up Game'. They gained a strong following and rocked countless crowds over those last 10 years.
No matter when you knew Ryan young or old. Music was a major part of his life, and he loved bands like Sloan, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, I Mother Earth, and well most 90s alternative which is likely why he loved our station. We played everything he loved. When we started he was our only listener for months and months. He donated audio equipment and old CDs to help us move forward. He would always have feedback on his listening experience. We built this station around his suggestions and help.
Recently he had been going through a difficult time and he turned to music as many people do. Ryan discovered his newly found love for Lynyrd Skynyrd and loved spinning their vinyl. He would cite Ronnie's lyrics like Bible qoutes to me. Doing this seemed to help him get through some of the hardest parts of that difficult time.
Unfortunately music wasn't able to completly save him, his pain was far greater then any of us knew...
.....
Ryan's support meant everything to us and our small gesture will never be enough to repay the debt of gratitude we have for him.
But this month we will celebrate our best friend by playing songs for him, recordings of him performing live, and songs he loved.
Ryan lived by a silly mantra we all knew as "301" a number which represented a taunt to each other when someone was trying to bail on an event or party or social gathering...."301, man...You only live once" (This was before YOLO was a thing too)
So in honour of his love for that number and what it meant, we have decided that every 301 minutes on the station this month will be a song for Ryan. It could be him playing in Pick Up Game, our old band Krymera, a song he loved, or one we all loved together.
We will miss you forever
Rest easy man


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