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Jonny’s Dead Air dives deep into the seldom told, the eerie, and the forgotten corners of music history. Hosted by radio veteran Jonny Hartwell, each episode blends storytelling, mystery, and...
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Jonny’s Dead Air dives deep into the seldom told, the eerie, and the forgotten corners of music history. Hosted by radio veteran Jonny Hartwell, each episode blends storytelling, mystery, and a touch of rock ’n’ roll grit to resurrect stories that deserve another listen. From bands that should’ve been legends to the backstage scandals, strange coincidences, and tragic twists the industry tried to bury, Jonny peels back the layers to reveal the raw, human truths behind the music. It’s part history lesson, part cautionary tale, and all killer—no filler.
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Episodes & Posts
Episodes
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Transcribed
18 MAY 2026 · Five musicians. Five completely unbelievable endings.
A mother makes a split-second sacrifice in the waters off Cozumel. A black metal pioneer disappears into the violent mythology he helped create. A French pop icon dies fixing a bathroom light. A founding member of T. Rex is killed by something smaller than a coin. And an Electric Light Orchestra cellist loses his life in what may be the most statistically bizarre accident in music history.
In this episode of Jonny’s Dead Air, we dive deep into the lives, music, and haunting final moments of Kirsty MacColl, Euronymous, Claude François, Steve Peregrin Took, and Mike Edwards.
These aren’t just stories about death.
They’re stories about randomness, fate, music… and the terrifying moment when ordinary life suddenly stops making sense
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Transcribed
11 MAY 2026 · He was a rock god. A poet. A provocateur. The voice of The Doors.
But on July 3rd, 1971, Jim Morrison was simply a man alone in a bathtub in Paris… staring at ceramic tile while his body began to fail.
Doctors say the brain can remain active for several minutes after the heart stops. In this haunting episode of Jonny’s Dead Air, we enter the final four minutes of Morrison’s fading consciousness as memory, regret, fame, love, fear, and poetry collide inside an oxygen-starved mind.
From desert highways and Sunset Strip stages… to the Miami trial, Riders on the Storm, and the woman sleeping in the next room… this is not a traditional biography.
It’s the collapse of a legend from the inside out.
And somewhere between the storm and the silence… a man finally steps through the last door.
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Transcribed
4 MAY 2026 · There’s a name buried deep in the history of the music business… a name you won’t find on album covers or radio charts. Morgan Lane.
In the late 1970s, this rising rock artist found himself trapped in a contract with one of the most powerful record companies in the world. Instead of complying, he fought back—triggering a legal battle that shook the industry and challenged the very idea of artist ownership.
Bankruptcy. Intimidation. Corporate pressure. And a quiet act of defiance that still echoes decades later. This is the story of a musician who refused to be owned… and the secret behind the name that was never meant to be known.
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Transcribed
29 APR 2026 · He wrote one of the most recognizable songs in rock history.
You just might not know his name.
In this episode of Dead Air, we tell the story of Dave Mason—the man behind “Feelin’ Alright,” a founding member of Traffic, and a musician who kept showing up at the center of classic rock… without ever staying long enough to claim it.
From walking away from success… to watching his songs become famous through other voices… this is the story of a career defined not by one big mistake—but by a lifetime of almosts.
And once you hear it…You’ll never hear those songs the same way again.
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Transcribed
20 APR 2026 · You know this story—or at least you think you do.
A global music superstar, the kind of fame that follows you everywhere, with a voice that became part of your life whether you realized it or not. And then came the headlines… the moments that got replayed, the ones that became shorthand for who he was.
But those aren’t the secrets. Those were the parts we were meant to see. Because while the world focused on all of that, something else was happening—quietly. No cameras, no credit, no one stepping forward to say “that was me.” Money was moving, lives were changing, problems were disappearing… and no one knew why.
With this episode, we’re not following the fame—we’re following the silence behind it, uncovering a story built on generosity, anonymity, and one simple rule: no one was supposed to know.
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Transcribed
13 APR 2026 · In the smoky clubs of 1920s Chicago, a young piano player could make a room move with nothing but his hands, his voice, and a rhythm the world had never heard before.
He didn’t just play music—he commanded it. And people followed. But on one crowded night, in a hall full of laughter, whiskey, and dancing… everything changed. A fight. A gun. And silence where the music once lived.
Told through the memory of a man who was there, this is the haunting story of the boogie that wouldn’t die.
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Transcribed
6 APR 2026 · They were on their way.
From small rooms in Warrington to stages across Europe, Viola Beach were doing everything right. The songs were landing. The crowds were growing. A debut album was ready.
The future wasn’t a dream anymore.
It was happening.
And then, in the early hours of a cold February morning in Sweden, the road ahead simply… disappeared.
This episode of Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast tells the story of a band that never got the chance to become what they were meant to be — and the music that still carries them forward.
Because some songs don’t know they’re unfinished.
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Transcribed
23 MAR 2026 · Before the chant echoed through stadiums… there was a man.
In the 1970s, Paul Gadd reinvented himself as Gary Glitter — a glam-rock provocateur with towering platform boots, thunderous drumbeats, and a string of hit singles that dominated the British charts. One song in particular would travel farther than the man himself, becoming one of the most recognizable sports anthems in America.
For decades, fans stomped and clapped without ever asking who wrote it.
But behind the glitter and the roar of the crowd was a darker story — one that would eventually unravel across police raids, international arrests, and a courtroom reckoning that shocked the music world.
This episode of Jonny’s Dead Air follows the rise and catastrophic fall of a man who had fame, wealth, and access… and chose to destroy it all.
Because sometimes the most uncomfortable truth isn’t that the music was wrong.
It’s that we never looked closely at the man behind it.
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Transcribed
16 MAR 2026 · A hospital room. A failing body. Machines translating a lifetime into numbers.
But the man in that bed once commanded arenas.
In this episode of Jonny’s Dead Air, we trace the life of the outsider who became one of rock’s most magnetic frontmen. From a lonely childhood in Dublin to the explosive rise of one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, his songs turned street stories into anthems.
But success has momentum… and sometimes that momentum never slows down.
This is the story of ambition, identity, addiction, and the voice that helped redefine Irish rock — and what happened when the music finally stopped.
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Transcribed
9 MAR 2026 · A famous disappearance.
An unresolved bridge.
A man who says he met a ghost.
When an American writer receives an email claiming a long-missing rock figure has a message for the living, he expects a prank. What he uncovers instead is a chilling story about myth, mental health, and the unintended consequences of romanticizing despair.
This episode explores the life, music, and mysterious vanishing of one of Britain’s most enigmatic lyricists — and asks a dangerous question:
What if the story didn’t end the way we’ve been telling it?
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Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen. Jonny’s Dead Air Podcast
Written, hosted, and produced by Jonny Hartwell.
A production of iHeartRadio Pittsburgh.
Thanks for listening—and for keeping the light on.
Jonny’s Dead Air dives deep into the seldom told, the eerie, and the forgotten corners of music history. Hosted by radio veteran Jonny Hartwell, each episode blends storytelling, mystery, and...
show more
Jonny’s Dead Air dives deep into the seldom told, the eerie, and the forgotten corners of music history. Hosted by radio veteran Jonny Hartwell, each episode blends storytelling, mystery, and a touch of rock ’n’ roll grit to resurrect stories that deserve another listen. From bands that should’ve been legends to the backstage scandals, strange coincidences, and tragic twists the industry tried to bury, Jonny peels back the layers to reveal the raw, human truths behind the music. It’s part history lesson, part cautionary tale, and all killer—no filler.
show less
Information
| Author | 3WS Radio (WWSW-FM) |
| Organization | iHeartRadio |
| Categories | Music History , Documentary , Music Commentary |
| Website | - |
| jonny@3wsradio.com |
Copyright 2026 - Spreaker Inc. an iHeartMedia Company
