Lazlow Jones

Lazlow Jones

Lazlow Jones presents at The Last HOPE on July 20, 2008
Born Jeffrey Crawford Jones
(1973-09-04) September 4, 1973
Occupation Radio personality, video game producer for Rockstar Games, writer, producer, director, talk show host
Website lazlow.com

Jeffrey Crawford "Lazlow" Jones (born September 4, 1973) is an American writer, producer, director and talk show host based in New York City. He was the host of Technofile, a radio show syndicated on more than 100 radio stations in America and as well as Sirius XM Satellite Radio. The Technofile ran from February 1995 to July 2007.

He has also been involved in writing, producing, and doing voicework (as a version of himself) for the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series of video games,[1] widening his influence and recognition far beyond that of a radio host. Lazlow also worked at an advertising agency as a writer and producer, along with writer Reed Tucker (who is now his talk radio show's producer) on advertisements for a variety of consumer products.

The Lazlow Show

Lazlow hosts The Lazlow Show, which aired on the former WXRK (K-Rock) on Sundays 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern Time and is now heard on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 197 and XM 103 (the two channels are mirror broadcasts). The 23rd and final WXRK (K-Rock) show was broadcast December 18, 2005. After the show stopped broadcasting on K-Rock, it moved to a non-regular schedule on XM 202, beginning on April 8, 2006 as part of the "Saturday Night Virus"; these shows are usually made available in downloadable form on Lazlow's website shortly after they air; while older episodes are removed from this website, due to bandwidth restrictions. However, all episodes ever produced, along with extras, are available for purchase in a "box set" on Lazlow's website. Each show is approximately three hours long, and airs live on Saturday nights, with a period between two weeks and four months between shows. Episode schedule available on the website. Lazlow's co-hosts continue to be the same from his show when it first aired on WXRK 92.3 FM: K-ROCK in New York. They include his friends Reed Tucker; jokingly mocked as the 'useless producer'; along with "Big" Wayne, Lazlow's sidekick. As of January 2, 2010, The Lazlow Show no longer airs on satellite radio. Lazlow and crew were dissatisfied by Sirius' treatment of the show after Sirius took over XM. Since then, the program has been streamed live on the internet on an irregular schedule. On November 3, 2014, long-time co-host "Big" Wayne died of a heart attack in New York City, leaving the future of the show on hiatus. On the 22nd of June, Lazlow brought back Reed Tucker, along with several of Wayne's childhood friends, for a special show in memory of Big Wayne.

Grand Theft Auto series

Grand Theft Auto III (2001) was Lazlow’s first appearance in the game in which he produced, scripted and hosted the popular Chatterbox FM radio station. He co-wrote all of the radio stations with Dan Houser and Sam Houser of Rockstar Games. He is mentioned in the MC Hawking song "GTA3" (about the video game) with the line "Sometimes I sit in my car and just listen to Lazlow / Rock the Chatterbox with the serious flow."

After the massive success of Grand Theft Auto III, Lazlow took a larger role in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002). Rockstar Games hired Lazlow's production company, Radio Lazlow, to co-write and produce all the radio stations in Vice City as well as minor character and bystander scripting. In this game, which takes place in 1986, Lazlow is the host of Vice City radio station V-Rock. In this fictional universe, Lazlow had mentioned in III (which is set in 2001) that he used to host the rock station before he was kicked off.

In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004), Lazlow also co-wrote and produced all of the in-game radio, as well as hosting Entertaining America on WCTR after the original host Billy Dexter was killed by game character Jack Howitzer on air.

Lazlow "returned" as host of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories's (2005) rendition of the Chatterbox radio show, although in a much smaller role as the in-game chronology (which takes place in 1998) has Chatterbox as merely a show on a channel, not an entire channel on its own. During his show on the Public Access station, he hints that he will be getting his own channel during a call that frustrates him, when he says that "My buddy Donald (Donald Love) and I have big plans for this station. C-box 24/7!"

Lazlow "returned" in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006), which is set in 1984, as an intern at V-Rock working for his real life friend, Couzin Ed. Earlier in Lazlow's and Couzin Ed's real-life radio careers, Lazlow was the sidekick of Couzin Ed, who he would almost always tease on the radio.

Lazlow is the host of radio station Integrity 2.0 in Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (2009). Integrity's sole program consists of Lazlow's on-site reporting from around Liberty City. The content of this show is noticeably more profane than previous installments, with the character Lazlow's justification being that he's "fed up with the system." Lazlow also provides the ZiT! service, where listeners can request the artist and title of the song currently playing on the radio. Lazlow is also credited among others for creating the conversations of pedestrians in Liberty City. He has an in-game criminal record, as can be seen in the Liberty City Police Department database.

On 15 September 2013, Lazlow presented a special radio show alongside Pete Donaldson on Absolute Radio in the United Kingdom to celebrate the launch of Grand Theft Auto V. He confirmed that he had been working on the game for the last five years. He appears in the game as a co-host of the talk radio show called "Chattersphere" and the host of the TV talent competition Fame or Shame. He makes his first on-screen appearance in the series in the mission "Fame or Shame" in which he is chased and threatened by protagonists Michael De Santa and Trevor Philips.

Other projects

He has written articles for Playboy magazine and the Long Island Press, and is an occasional guest on the Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez shows on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Lazlow is affiliated with 2600, having appeared on their Off the Hook radio show, in their movie Freedom Downtime, and as a panelist and staffer at several of the H.O.P.E. conferences. Lazlow has arranged voice cameos in the Grand Theft Auto for several key figures from the magazine, including Emmanuel Goldstein, Bernie S., and Kevin Mitnick.

He has also collaborated with Rockstar Games on Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3, co-writing and directing pedestrian dialogue as well as co-writing in-game media for both games.

Discography

Video Games

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chaplin, Heather (29 April 2008). "Grand Theft Auto, Live (Almost) from Liberty City". NPR. NPR. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
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