When longtime Victoria radio host Jason Lamb worked across the hall at The Q he was already a standup comedian with a dream of combining the two careers.
“Comedy doesn't pay the bills unless you're super lucky, unless you win the lottery of life,” The Zone’s newest midday host said.
Not long later he kind of did, with the sister stations sharing a site on Quadra Street, one morning show host at The Zone frequently missed work – leaving Lamb called on last-minute to read the news alongside Dylan Willows.
“Almost from the first time I met Dylan in that studio, we just hit it off in a weird way, even though we're very different people. So I did that a few times and then she ended up leaving and they offered me that job,” Lamb said.
“That changed my life completely.”
For 16 years, co-hosts Dylan and Jason playfully roasted each other every morning, regaling the city with tales, interactions and funny moments.
“We didn't always get along, we were two quite different people in a lot of ways, which I think made for good radio,” Lamb said. “When we butted heads and stuff, that was often the funniest stuff or the most entertaining stuff.”
On Feb. 15, 2024, the banter came to an abrupt halt, even as fans – packed in cars creeping through the morning crawl – tuned in.
“Unfortunately, the sad news is today is my last radio show here on The Zone at 91.3,” Willows told listeners that morning.
“I’m now facing very limited time and unfortunately, that time can’t be spent here at the radio station anymore, which is a vital blow to me. A death that I need to mourn myself because this has been my whole life for 22 years of radio. To see the day come that I have to walk away from not only this radio show, but from my partner in crime Jason and my extended family here at the Zone and my even greater extended family of all the Zoners, unfortunately, today is the day.”
Zoners, as avid listeners are called, looked left and right and found themselves suddenly connected to the people in the cars around them – all crying over the news.
Willows’ final broadcast was among the many low moments in the turmoil for longtime morning show co-host Jason Lamb since “Big D” revealed the cancer he’d defeated two decades ago had returned – with a vengeance. But that low also exposed the amazing impact the duo had on the city.
It sparked texts to both “Lambo” and the station. What was wild, was how many listeners wrote to describe a similar scene.
“How powerful is that? I was like, holy shit,” Lamb recalls, leaning back on a chair at the Quadra Street station more than a year later. “It really became so apparent, and it was too bad it took this, but we already knew people loved us, you know, we already knew that we had a good fan base and people felt very connected to us.”
A roller-coaster of a year later, just settling into happiness as a midday host, Lamb was surprised to see the pair nominated for Victoria News’ Best of the City.
When crafting the nominees list for folks to vote on, it comes down to the reader. Across the region, people type in the name of their favourite bookstore or brewery. That can lead to technically incorrect names as people cling to nostalgia or submit their local lingo for a business name.
Or nominating a morning show duo that exists only in memory.
“At first I'm like, ‘That's so weird’ because, you know, Dylan and I haven't been on the air for over a year for obvious reasons,” Lamb said, surprised their names remained in the forefront for Zoners and musicians.
“I think sometimes you can't quantify or put your finger on just a chemistry that people have together,” he added. “I mean, if you look at our sister station, you’ve got Ed and Cliff, they've been together for 30 years. Some morning shows have those lasting powers, when you just have that click and that chemistry … like Larry and Willie on CFOX back in the day, and there's a few like that, but it's rare.”
Ed Bain and The Q Morning show on 100.3 The Q are among those nominated for Best of the City.
Big D leaves a “massive legacy”
The wider music community, fans and performers alike, mourned when Willows was Stage 4 uveal melanoma, a rare form of ocular cancer, in December 2023 and died June 6, 2024. He was 45.
After his death, Willows’ family suggested donations to charities he supported, including the Canadian Cancer Society, Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
A Claremont Secondary graduate, Willows was on the airwaves for more than two decades and served as a proponent of local music. He was once director of The Zone’s Band of the Month program and gave his time as a juror for programs such as the Juno Awards, Peak Performance and Western Canadian Music Awards.
Starting in 2010, his family built a successful annual toy drive, now called The Willows Family Toy Drive.
The community showed its heart for Big D in March 2023 with two sold-out tribute concerts at the Royal Theatre, featuring bands he championed. Willows was pretty sick at that point, but he showed up for a final hurrah with his people.
“This guy really impacted people's lives. … His legacy is massive and I think it's gonna continue for a long, long time,” Lamb said.
His radio family mourned. Lamb didn’t miss a day, and in hindsight, figures he maybe should have. After a year of depression, anxiety and lack of sleep – and a girlfriend who stuck by his side – the midday show host turned a corner in January.
“Obviously, I think about Dylan pretty much every day still, but that really deep grief and anxiety and depression lifted,” he said. “It feels really nice to feel passionate about radio again, because I was not for quite some time after he left.”
At the station, a silver lining emerged in the wake of Dylan’s departure.
“It feels like a family again here at The Zone. Pol and Jenny and Kirsten, and myself, and all the people here – it feels happier again, cause we were all struggling. All of my co-workers were grieving too.”
Current morning show host Pol Plastino and Jenny West were thrown into the early-morning fray, and their hjinks are pretty popular too.
“Pol and Jenny, they were the afternoon show for many, many years, and they have a great rapport too. They also have that kind of unspoken chemistry,” Lamb said.
Recent ratings show them as the lead Victoria morning show, he added expecting they’ll be among the Best of the City 2026 nominees.
“I want to make sure I give a tip of the hat to what's going on now,” Lamb said. “We're moving forward. We all had a terrible year with Dylan's illness and death. But we're all kind of coming out of it and brushing off the cobwebs and we're still The Zone. We're still his family, and Pol and Jenny are doing an awesome job, and I'm happy as pie for them.”
