How a broken bus radio started it all
My radio career started on a school bus. No, really!
I was riding home from school one day with my headphones on, listening to my music like always. Sometimes I'd talk to myself, DJing my own little show. That day we had a substitute driver, and what I didn't know was that the bus radio was broken, so the poor guy had nothing to listen to.
He got my attention and told me to take my earphones off, let the music play, and keep doing exactly what I was doing. So I did, for about 45 minutes, not thinking a thing of it.
When we got close to my house, he told me I was really good, and that I should apply at the local skating rink. I told him I didn't think they'd take me, because I'm blind. He said, "Oh, I'm sure the owner would take you." I asked him how he knew that.
"Because I'm the owner."
And that's how I ended up volunteering as the DJ at a skating rink, and how my radio career got rolling. Get it? Rolling? Skating? I'll see myself out.
About me
Hey there, everybody, and welcome! I'm Jerry, but most folks know me as JamminJerry, a name I've been rocking since about 1988. Yes, I'm that old. No, we're not going to talk about it.
I'm blind, I live in Michigan, and I get around my computer with the NVDA screen reader. I have two boys who are the smartest kids on the planet, and I love them to pieces. Don't tell them I said that, or they'll want a raise in their allowance.
When I'm not doing dad stuff, you'll probably find me buried in Harry Potter fan fiction. If there's a story out there, I've either read it or it's sitting on my to-read pile. I also love just about every kind of music there is, which brings me to...
PhoenixFire FM
Ever since that bus ride, radio has been in my blood. I've worked on a bunch of internet stations over the years, and I've owned two of them: JJRN, from 2007 to 2012, and PhoenixFire FM, which is still going today.
These days it's more of a hobby, because I'm just too darned old to run it the way I used to. Ha! Doing live shows is the part I love most, but my body hasn't let me sit in my chair long enough for one in about a year. In the meantime, the music keeps on playing, day and night.
And here's a treat: every night at 9:00 PM Eastern, the station plays one of my old PhoenixFire FM shows. Which one? Beats me! My software picks it, so it's a surprise for both of us.
I have so much music it isn't even funny, so go ahead and try to stump me. The request page has a mind of its own sometimes, so if it acts up, give it a minute and try again.
My podcast
I also do a podcast, and you never know what you're going to get: bits from old shows, rants, discussions, demonstrations, cute stuff from my boys, unboxings where everything that can go wrong does, random topics, and everything in between. Fair warning: there's some adult language here and there.
Checking for my newest episode...
Accessible Diabetes Tracker
In May of 2026, I found out I have diabetes. My very first A1C was a 10.3. In August it went up to 11.2, and in early October it jumped to 12.6. Yikes!
The worst part was that I had no real way to figure out why. Which foods were getting to me? How bad were they hitting me? What else could be pushing my numbers up? When I went looking for a way to keep track of all that, one that actually works with a screen reader, I came up pretty much empty-handed. So I designed my own!
Accessible Diabetes Tracker is a free Windows program that turns your FreeStyle Libre or Dexcom readings into plain words, keeps a food log, makes reports for your doctor, and a whole lot more. Every bit of it works with a keyboard and a screen reader.
Find me on Mastodon
I'm on Mastodon, where I post way too much: over 52,000 posts and counting! Come say hi.
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