Jay Stone, radio personality, dead at 55

By James Gonser
Advertiser Staff Writer

Radio was everything to on-air personality and station manager Jay Stone, 55, who died in a one-car crash Monday in Hawai'i Kai.

"He was really a total radio nut," said long-time friend and radio consultant Jerry Clifton. "He worked long hours and his mind was in it all the time."

Clifton said Stone was a jokester who would find a way to make any situation funny.

"He would have probably made a joke out of this," Clifton said.

Stone was killed at about 1 p.m. Monday when his car flipped and hit a tree on Haha'ione Road. Police say speeding was involved and Stone was not wearing a seat belt.

Clifton said Stone, whom he had known for 30 years, was moving to the Las Vegas area to be near his family and was probably late for his flight when the accident happened.

"He was excited about moving near his son," Clifton said. "He was real positive about the move and in one of those places in his life where he was moving to a whole new mission. I talked to him the night before and said goodbye, but I didn't think that would be the last time I would ever talk with him."

Stone was raised in Los Angeles and worked at radio stations across the country in the '70s and '80s before moving to Hawai'i, where he most recently was morning show host for KGMZ-FM Oldies 107.9.

"He had an unlimited creative streak," Clifton said. "Whatever we were working on, he always had some kind of strange angle. He had a tremendous ability to bring the best out of other people. He was a good friend and a really good radio guy."