I learned today that Jeremy Lansman, a very complex, intelligent man with many talents, and not a few loose ends untied, passed away on December 28, 2024 at his home in Grabouw, South Africa. He and I had very different skills. He knew as much about birds and plants as I knew about power lines. Yet we also had much in common and we had a wonderful and playful relationship in which we both learned from each other.
He's a legendary figure in the community radio world and he's the only person I know who thinks that electrical towers of any kind improve the landscape. To the point where I have photos of such things in my files, because of him.
There's so much more to say about him, but this will have to do for now.
There will be a celebration of his life in his garden in Gabrouw, South Africa on February 15, 2025.
Google doesn't tell us much about Jeremy, but here are a couple of links. Just search 'Jeremy Lansman' when you get to the pages.
[Note: not to be confused with Baltimore's "Jeremy Landsman, the developer/pot-dealer/money-launderer chronicled in City Paper's coverage until his January 2013 sentencing, is out of prison and heading to Hawaii."]
https://www.kopn.org/about/history/
https://people.well.com/user/dmsml/kfat/
https://kpfa.org/episode/5368/
https://pacificanetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CAMPAIGN_57.pdf
https://acrnewsfeed.blogspot.com/2020_05_17_archive.html?m=1
Jeremy was in my life weekly, often daily, for maybe five or ten years before he went off to South Africa. He was a good friend and I already missed him when he left Anchorage. He left with bizarre blood issues that had him scouring the internet to figure out ways to lengthen the dire prognosis he got from his doctors. And he lived another life still during the years in South Africa.
Miss you.
Steve, sorry to hear of Jeremy's death. Your friendship was my friendship with him as well. My life with him started because of my volunteer work with David McCartney and the show on KSKA for LGB(not so much T) News that ran for quite a number of years. I had done radio and television work with KUAC in Fairbanks during my university years there and media became part of my life.
ReplyDeleteLet's skip forward to Out North, where Jeremy was a board president at a time (Carol had also served with us). Jeremy and I talked radio a lot. And in that time, he planted the crazy idea of Out North starting its own radio station --- as he did in so many places across the world, actually.
Out North's KONR exists, in a BIG way, because of his professional connections, (particularly the FCC attorney he put us in contact with to fight a religious competitior for the same frequency), his real, people-power views on community folk taking up a broadcasting role, and his own knowlege of 'how to make radio work on less than a 'shoe-string' budget.
Always surprising -- at times alarming -- in his thinking, he was someone I wish you and I had had the real fun of being in the same room together with him. I didn't know our paths had crossed in this way. He had invited me to visit in S. Africa (as he knew I had lived there briefly in the 70s ) but never got there. I knew of his fight for health.
I need to really do a real think about going to his 'send-off'. I am one of many who has a thank-you story to tell. If you have any contact details, please do email me.
Hello Jakob. Check Ineke Buskens Facebook page. It's public. Details about the 15 February 2025 life celebration will be published there. And when you have photos and videos of Jeremy's, please post them there?
DeleteGladly. Eugene just sent me this Pacifica Radio link this morning. Jeremy loved to tell this story highlighted here. He stirred the pot.. A master mischief chef! Gotta love the guy.
Deletehttps://pacificanetwork.org/community-radio-pioneer-and-rm-2493-co-author-jeremy-lansman-has-died/
Jakob in Ireland, just to say I've emailed Ineke's published email, which squares with her home address. All is well. Shall see if it makes sense to attend. Know some folk in SA, so might be able to see them at the same time.
DeleteWay OT, Alaska Senator Murkowski says she cann ot vote for Pete Hawgsbreath for secretary of sexual predators in drumpf's cabinet.
ReplyDeleteNo, nothing to add today other than things seem to be going according to Putin's plan. Who wudda thunk.
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