John started his technical career at the age of 16 when he trained as a cinema projectionist at Auckland's St James Theatre. Through that period and the following 18 years in the industry he learned about electronics and sound engineering. He also had a part-time business DJing at various functions such as weddings, celebrations and dance parties. In 2013 he established Sleep Radio, a station that plays sleeping music to help insomniacs get to sleep. Then in 2021 he also established Radio Te Aroha, a small community FM station in Te Aroha, New Zealand where New Music Aotearoa is recorded. In 2023, John saw a huge anomaly in that new, New Zealand artists got very little, if any, airplay on mainstream radio stations - hence the birth of New Music Aotearoa.