Posted Tuesday, January 30, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Sean Demery, the ground-breaking music director and afternoon host for the original 99X more than a quarter century ago, suffered a brain-stem stroke earlier this month, according to RAMP Radio News .
He is able to listen to music, talk to friends and family and check social media, the story said, but he has a long road of recovery. There is a public Facebook page to keep track of his progress.
"Pulling hard for you Sean!" wrote 99X promotions director Michael Kee. "I owe everything I have been able to accomplish in this wacky radio industry to you, Leslie [Fram], [Mark] Renier and that mix of amazing people. You have so many fighting for you, right along with you. I am right there with them."
Demery is currently program director and afternoon host of rock station KINK-FM in Portland, Ore.
I spoke with Demery just a few months ago in advance of 99X's 25th anniversary. He was deeply proud of his time there and the influence 99X had in Atlanta and nationwide.
You can read his detailed take on the station's first 16 years here. He worked at the station first from 1992 to 1999, then came back for a brief stint as a morning host in 2006 and 2007.
"At its best," Demery wrote in 2008, "99X was that radio station that used to be pretty damn good. Again, it wasn't crafted to be a mass appeal number one station. How the hell could you be the Alternative to pop (popular) culture and also be the most popular? 99X was there to aggregate enough quality listeners to satisfy the sales department and to satisfy the programming staffs need to do something that mattered. 99X helped multitudes of bands get their start. The station staffers received numerous industry awards and accolades. At times 99X felt like it was making a difference. At its best 99X was a great experience on the inside. I hope it was good for you as well, because that's why we created the station in the first place."
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