Ron Patton

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Ron Patton, Executive Producer of Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis, has passed away peacefully following a short battle with cancer.

For those who knew Ground Zero, Ron was far more than the man behind the programme.

He was Clyde Lewis’s best friend, trusted colleague and one of the driving forces behind Ground Zero for many years. Their relationship went far beyond broadcasting. It was a friendship built through years of working together, facing difficult times together, sharing ideas, arguing for what they believed in and refusing to give up on something they had built together.

And there were times when giving up would have been the easier choice.

When Ground Zero came close to ending, Ron was one of the people who refused to accept that it was over. He pushed for it to continue. He came up with new ideas, looked for new ways forward and kept believing in what Ground Zero could become.

More importantly, he kept believing in Clyde.

That belief mattered. Ron understood what Clyde brought to broadcasting, and he understood what Ground Zero meant to its listeners. When circumstances made continuing difficult, Ron was often the person looking for another solution, another possibility, another way to keep the programme alive.

That determination became part of Ground Zero itself.

Ron spent more than three decades working in independent media as a publisher, writer, researcher, editor and producer. He published Endure to the End, created MKzine, produced ConspiraZine Radio, and later became publisher of Paranoia Magazine, helping to preserve a distinctive voice within independent and alternative media.

But his contribution cannot really be measured by a list of publications, programmes or job titles.

It can be measured by the people around him.

By the friends who trusted him. By the team who worked alongside him. By the ideas he brought into a room. By the times he kept pushing when everyone else could have been forgiven for stopping.

And by a friendship with Clyde Lewis that became inseparable from the story of Ground Zero itself. Many Ground Zero listeners may never have known Ron personally or even realised how much of what they heard and experienced had his fingerprints on it.

But they knew his work.

They felt the results of his ideas, his persistence, his creativity and the brilliance he brought to Ground Zero from behind the scenes. The programme that reached their radios, computers and phones existed in no small part because Ron helped make sure it did. That is part of his legacy.

And that legacy does not end today.

It will continue within Ground Zero, within the work that Ron fought so hard to preserve, and within the people who worked beside him and learned from him. It will continue in the hearts of the Ground Zero team. It will continue with Clyde, who has lost not simply an Executive Producer but his best friend.

And it will continue with the listeners, including the many who may never have met Ron, but nevertheless experienced something he helped create.

Ron believed in Ground Zero. He believed in Clyde. He believed that independent voices deserved to survive. And when things became difficult, he did not simply stand on the sidelines hoping somebody else would find the answer. He tried to find it himself. Producer. Publisher. Researcher. Creator.

But to the people closest to him, most importantly: Friend.

Our thoughts are with Ron’s family, Clyde, the entire Ground Zero team, his friends, and the listeners whose lives his work touched over so many years.

Thank you, Ron, for the ideas. Thank you for the perseverance. Thank you for believing when things looked impossible. And thank you for everything you gave to Ground Zero and to the people around you. Your work will continue. Your legacy will continue. And you will be deeply missed.

Ron Patton
Rest in peace Rondo Mondo