Remembering John “JT” Thomas

• Despite nearly a decade of battling a brutal and particularly relentless form of cancer, Myxoid Liposarcoma, John “JT” Thomas always remained amazingly positive, and in doing so, lifted the spirits of everyone who knew him, came in contact with him or read his upbeat social media posts. On Saturday we learned that JT had passed away at the age of 54. His battle has ended, and he can now rest.

Thomas’ early radio career was spent with Cumulus Savannah, where he rose to Director of Operations. After a stint in mornings on WBNS-FM/Columbus, OH, Thomas was named Director of Operations & Programming for Entercom Rochester, NY, followed by a stint as PD of Country KYGO/Denver. After a two-year run as VP of Marketing & Entertainment for Boomtown Entertainment and Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grille, Thomas returned to radio in 2015 when he was named SVP of Programming for iHeartMedia Springfield, MA.

In 2017, as his cancer recurred yet again, and “after a lot of prayer, weighing the pros & cons and deep soul-searching,” Thomas resigned his position to fight his disease fulltime and was accepted into an Immunotherapy Clinical Trial at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Jacksonville, FL. Since then, he has candidly shared his journey via his Cancer And Chill podcast and his #IBelieveInMiracles initiative via social media. In September he and his longtime love Carrie were married, and shortly thereafter, Thomas announced he was entering in-home hospice care.

Thomas, the eternal optimist, recently shared these words in a Facebook post: “Someone who had terminal cancer once said, ‘Don’t be sad for me, we all come to this world to be tourists, enjoy life, go sightseeing, do good deeds, I just so happen to be leaving earlier than others.'”