Posted Monday, February 12, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
More details of former 99X music director Sean Demery' s brain-stem stroke have come out: he is sadly fully paralyzed.
Demery, who last worked as afternoon host and program director at KINK-FM in Portland, suffered the stroke last month caused by a blood clot. He cannot breathe on his own or speak. Good news: his mind is still clear.
Unfortunately, he cannot work and his family has no income. His wife Jennifer is an artist and has not worked since they moved to Portland in April, 2017.
Jennifer posted on Facebook that "this stroke has left him paralyzed and the only way he can communicate is with his eyes. We plan to use these funds for Augmented Alternative Communication Technology (think Stephen Hawking) to allow Sean to communicate."
The site is asking for $12,000. As of Monday morning, 77 friends had raised nearly $7,000. By 1:15 p.m., a collective 135 donors had met the $12,000 goal and an hour later, it was up to $14,000. Eric Rhoads, who created the site, raised the goal to $22,000 at around 3 p.m. EST. By midnight, that goal had been reached. As of Tuesday morning, the goal was upped to $25,000, then $33,000 by early afternoon. On Friday morning, the goal had grown to $44,000 with $38,182 raised from 403 people. By March 1, the total had grown to $51,000 from nearly 500 donors.
Many of Demery's former colleagues and admirers in Atlanta radio have donated, including Mara Davis, Steve Craig, Dylan Sprague, Axel Lowe, Rob Roberts, Crash Clark, Jimmy Baron, Tracy St. George and Rich Shertenlieb. And Evan Lowenstein, the singer who was part of the brother duo Evan and Jaron ("Crazy for This Girl") and has been the talent manager for Kevin Spacey, donated $250.
Demery was instrumental in the rise of 99X from 1992 to 1999 as music director and host. He later returned briefly as morning host in 2006 and 2007.
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