Movies
TV
Radio
Music
Science Fiction and Superheroes
Although it's been a while since I've done it intensely, I love to listen, late late at night, to an AM radio as the distant crackle of radio waves bouncing off the ionosphere reach through the ether to arrive as sound in my speakers. Guessing where the disembodied voices and music come from is a passion. Hour after hour...it's what made me want to do what I do for a living.
Television
House
Heroes
Boston Legal
24
West Wing
CSI: The Original
Deadwood
Studio 60
Eureka
Shark
Books
These days my draw is to Fiction. Spy, Detective-ish stuff by folks like Robert Ludlum, Steve Berry, John Sandford. Up till about 5 years ago I had a long and passionate affair with Robert Heinlein, Aasimov & Orson Scott Card among other SciFi writers.
Heroes
People who just put it all out there and don't give a shit what others think about them. And of those, the ones who use their lack of fear for good.
Hi! My name is John Majhor and I was diagnosed in August 2006 with cancer.
We like to call it ADENOCARCINOMA
But you can call it anything you like. It started out as non-small cell lung cancer and spread to the bloodstream, which means every sector of my body is now getting washed in it. The main points are lungs, left shoulder, lymph glands near my right lung, pelvic regions, various muscle tissue, adrenal glands on my kidneys and three lesions in my brain. Unfortunately, the treatment I have been receiving won't kill it.
It's incurable!
So, I may be able to last a bit longer and live a bit healthier if we kill off the lesions in my brain (gamma knife treatment) along with gamma ray dosing my pelvis and left shoulder. I really DO need some financial help from you. This cash you spare will help with groceries, rent and day-to-day stuff like insurance, telephone, net connection, etc. Those who know me know that I don't drink or gamble, so I'm not gonna use it for that.With luck, I'll be able to qualify for local assistance and eventually federal for the medical billswhich are at around $12,500 now (uninsured discount). It's a long process and they don't give it away with any kind of speed, unless it's FEMA giving away credit cards to pimps, druggies and girls who want bigger boobs. The message is... The money will go for good works. And I can only repay you with the deepest, most heartfelt thanks.
Now, before I start feeling ashamed of myself for even asking, please just click on the link below to go to PayPal.
Or, if you don't do PayPal, send a check or money order to:
John Majhor P.O. Box 41 Young America, Minnesota 55397
How pleased I am to read of your induction into the Hall of Fame...That wide smile of yours I see in my minds eye brightens an otherwise dreary day....
Just wanted to share with everyone that John's precious little dog, Lia, died peacefully in her sleep early Monday morning. I know that she and John are together again.
Happy Birthday! - It's weird because I feel like you'll get the message if I post it here...who knows? Here's a poem I wrote a while ago:
You
I saw something in his face of you Something in the brown eyes But more so the playful gesture - My breath caught in the cavern of my throat but I held those damn tears behind my eyes – deep in the sockets where they can't overwhelm and choke me to death. My visions of you beat like a drum and appear to me without invitation. The trouble is that you aren't dead. You haunt me – You see, I can't seem to stop that dangerous fantasy that grips me – I still entertain the dream that you're there, so casual, rounding into the kitchen for a cold glass of water, passing through quickly in your own fashion And here I've gone again – a macabre reverie that exposes my heartache – his face isn't yours but my eyes have become glass and I try to fire my heart into glazed ceramic Or, simply, I do miss you.
Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we'll meet now and then when we wish,in the midst of the one celebration that can never end" Richard Bach
My wife just reminded me the other day that John had written me a note for my b-day a few years ago (my wife was putting together a little b-day album). Here it is:
What can be said that hasn't been said already? John represented the beginning of the video age & is and always will be iconic on Toronto TV & Radio. His personality on the air & off can never be duplicated. Though I didn't know him personally, I feel that he was a friend, always there when you needed him, to cheer you up & entertain through good times & bad.
All my best to the family. You are the best John & I'll never forget you.
I always admired John as a person. His on air voice and personality would have you glued to the radio. Years after Chum radio when I met the "Majhor" I was suprised that he was so young. I had a blast watching him at Citytv's Lunch television aired at noon in the late 90's. He was a natural. His on air antics had me totaly cracked up. He was always able to smooth things over with his voice and facial expressions. You new he was doing what he loved.
He put himself out there, and he was and always will be one heck of a nice guy. He made a huge impact and impression on Toronto. He will be missed but never forgotten.
I wish his family peace and strength through this difficult time.
PS: It would be really great to see some clips of John from Lunch Television. I have contacted CityTV already. If anyone else has any pull there please use it.
Im Soo Sorry To Hear John Has Passed Away From Are Eyes...
He was such a sweet guy...
And his fav bob dylan song he told me was "You gotta Serve Somebody"...
He always play bob for me...
I thank him for doing that...
I even have a tape of his voice is on it witch i need to find its some where in my room...
I hope i find it...
He always made me smile when he said my name on air...
God Bless You John!!!
May Your Song Always Be Sung!
R.I.P.
I was so sad to hear of John's passing. My thoughts and prayers go out to all who loved him.
John Majhor was a huge in my world as a young teen. John first introduce my generation to music videos through "Toronto Rocks". My sister, friends and I used to race home from school so we could watch his show! We thought he was the coolest guy ever. By reading all the tributes, we were right!
From being barefoot reading comic books in the control room at 1331 Yonge .. to doing show prep on the balcony at the Yonge-Norton Centre nearly twenty years later … I feel so fortunate to have shared some of those moments with “The Majhor” …
John lives on in the hearts of those he touched .. encouraged and inspired … I’m lucky to be one of them …
I would like to sincerely express my deepest sadness upon hearing of John's passing. I was unaware he was ill and have just caught up on everything as I read about John's passing on the Toronto Star's web site and finally found my way here.
For the relatively short time that I knew John Majhor personally, he treated me in an exemplary fashion and was always the consummate gentleman.
Always very approachable and easy to talk to, I remember calling him a couple of times at home.
A very warm and passionate person all around. Sarit, I always got the feeling when he spoke about you that he loved you immensely and that it was unwavering.
I can understand completely why God might have wanted to take him from us earlier than we would have liked. May God give us all strength during this difficult time.
With best wishes and warmest regards to Sarit and John's family,
When I moved back to Charleston, SC after many years away, I dropped off resumes at nearly every radio station in town. John’s the only one who gave me a job. He’s the only one who gave me an interview.
I worked part-time at The Bridge, the station John created, programmed and for which he did afternoon drive, for just six months. It was old-school radio. He gave his jocks freedom little-seen nowadays. John had strong ideas about what radio was, what it should be, could be, once was. Because he’d lived it, made it and seen it work. The tributes to John now flooding the news, the air and the Internet are witness to it. He was a star, and deserved to be. People would run home to listen to The Maj, back in the day. He was can’t-miss radio. I seldom missed his show on The Bridge. I was as much a fan as a friend.
John encouraged, noodged and sometimes bullied we jocks to be what he knew good jocks were – artists, poets, who gave of themselves to their audiences, who shared their love of life and music over the airwaves. Because that’s what he did, as all artists do.
John called his time programming The Bridge the most satisfying radio experience of his life. Maybe not the best. But The Bridge was his baby, an extension of his passion, his personality, and his love for broadcasting, music, and what was best in radio. And what sadly, like John, has been lost.
John was a deeply passionate man. He did not willingly suffer those he judged to be fools, unless that fool was working hard to become less insufferable and if they were, John would stick with you to the end. He delivered the truth without pretty packaging and trusted you, expected you to be strong enough to hear it and learn from it, grow, be better, not make excuses. You didn’t have to agree with him. If you didn’t, he expected you to tell him so. Agreement wasn’t the point.
Because that’s how he was. No apologies, no whining, no spoken regrets. Just that “I’ve got a secret” smile and that big laugh, as if saying, “Ain’t this the damndest thing?”
Once during an airshift, I joked on-air that the hard-case PD had given me “special permission” to play a particular Elvis Costello song. After I killed the mic, the hotline rang. It was John, who said but one word – “Bastard.” And hung up. It still makes me laugh out loud.
Like so many people who plunge their arms into the mess of life up to the shoulders, who feel so very deeply about so very many things, John hid much of his heart with a sometimes gruff demeanor, and with that big laugh, that occasionally was more defensive bluster than mirth, and that we heard so often in the weeks following his diagnosis. That he still had so much heart unhidden to give, shows just how enormous his was.
I told John I loved him, more than once, in the months between his diagnosis and death. We spoke often, cramming in as much as we could in the time he had left. We would joke that ours was “big, manly love.”
The last time I spoke with John was two weeks ago. He was very weak and slipping in and out of lucidity by then, seldom able to talk, no longer answering e-mails. Sarit was helping him from his bed, and relayed my words to him. “Tell him I love him,” I said. It was all I could think to say anymore. She did, and then laughed, as I did, when I heard John shout “Manly!” from the background.
I do love John. I love what he is, and what he stood for, and what he represented, and the glorious life and radio he made. I cherish my brief time playing radio with John, playing the music of my youth, planning song sets and segues like poems, making good radio. Being jocks! I was heartbroken when I had to leave his station, though John did everything he could to enable me to stay.
I’m even more heartbroken now. More has died with John than just flesh.
I already miss conversations I will never have with John. I will miss talking to him about “Firefly,” to which he turned me on, and “Battlestar Galactica,” on which I was selling him hard. I will miss not being able to turn him on to Regina Spektor, who he would have loved, as he loved female singer-songwriters, and the ladies loved him. I will miss seeing his name on my caller ID when the phone rings. I will miss talking about what boneheaded programming move this PD or that GM made, and gossiping about the ratings book and trends. I will miss everything. Oh, how I miss it.
One of John’s friends and I told him that he had our permission to haunt us after he passed. My only condition was that he not scare my dog.
My friend says to watch my dog now. I’m listening for the laugh.
John you WILL be missed. I am glad I had the chance to become your friend. you were really an inspirtation and mentor to me. I will never forget when you invited my dad and I over to your house to film a school project for me in 1995 (attached photo is a screen capture from the video) and we stayed in touch ever since. You were truly one of those nice guys in the biz that we all talk about.
you Will be missed.
I'm really bad at this kind of thing, I would just like to say that you were an inspiration to me. I hope someday that I might be even half the broadcaster you were. I know you will be watching, so I hope that I can make you proud!
No matter how much we prepared for this news..it still felt like a ton of bricks.
I wish John's family peace and comfort knowing John was in the best care possible during his last days.
Bless you all...and bless you Johnny.
love, Dionne
To John's family and friends ~~~ my deepest condolences on this very sad day. John is out of his pain and misery now and we are left behind with only memories....
