Posted on 09/17/2013 7:41:18 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Jerry G. Bishop traveled the country with the Beatles, worked as a major market radio and television personality over five decades, and created the original character of Svengoolie out of his fertile imagination.
But he always considered himself a Chicago kid at heart, proud of his roots in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side. He even modeled his two restaurants in San Diego after his favorite hometown dining spots.
Word that Bishop died Sunday at 77 evoked memories of his unforgettable run as morning star of the former WCFL during the golden era of Top 40 radio in the ’60s. ”He was a great, great talent,” Bob Sirott recalled. “Those WCFL shows he did were very clever.”
“Those were magic times,” Bishop told me in a 2001 interview. “We were nipping at the heels of WLS.” Despite his success, a change in management and format at the station cost him his morning job, which eventually went to Howard Miller.
In 1969, Bishop joined WFLD-Channel 32 ostensibly as a staff announcer. Two years later he transformed his off-camera role as the voice of “Screaming Yellow Theater” into the live persona of a wildly funny and enormously popular horror movie host named Svengoolie. Rich Koz, Bishop’s writer and protege, eventually inherited the role, which he made his own and continues to this day.
“He was an incredibly talented, generous man,” Koz tweeted Monday night. “I owe him everything.”
Bishop later worked at WMAQ-Channel 5 and the former WMAQ-AM before he moved to San Diego to begin a 13-year run as host of “Sun Up San Diego” for which he won three Emmy Awards. He also hosted an afternoon radio show there for 14 years.
He opened two waterfront restaurants in San Diego — a Greek place named after Chicago’s Greek Islands Cafe and an Italian joint called Asaggio. “Our sign says we serve ‘the best Chicago deep dish pizza west of Wrigley Field,’” he boasted.
Bishop last worked on the air here as weekend personality at Chicago’s former “Real Oldies” WRLL from 2003 to 2006. He voice-tracked the show from San Diego.
Born Jerry Ghan, he attended the University of Illinois and Columbia College, and began his radio career in 1961 at the former WNMP in Evanston. He quickly advanced to stations in Washington, D.C., and Cleveland. As a top-rated nighttime disc jockey at Cleveland’s KYW, he traveled with the Beatles on their 1965 and 1966 concert tours.
The program director he’d worked for in Cleveland, Ken Draper, eventually brought him back to Chicago and put him on WCFL. “To this day people tell me that was greatest radio ever,” Bishop told me. “And they’re right.”
I remember him from his time on San Diego TV and radio. RIP
Wow, another memorable voice has passed.
For a quick listen to the Voice of Labor from nearly this very day in 1967, here’s a clip of Jerry G. Bishop on WCFL, including a Chicago 10 Capsule Countdown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnvxiKRlxEg
RIP Jerry G.
Spoken like Pelosi!
Wow, dig those threads. Far feckin’ out.
Ernie Anderson was Ghoulardi in Cleveland in the 1960s.
He later became the voice of ABC.
The Ghoul came later using much of Ghoulardi's shtick (including blowing up things).
I recall the Son of Svenghoul in Detroit in the 1980s.
http://www.chillertheatre.com/gt/gtc4.htm
WHERE ELSE could you meet Zacherley, Sly Stone, Bo Derek, the 5-6-7-8s, Peter Fonda, Larry Storch, Gilbert Gottfried, and Keith Emerson??? Only in New Jersey, apparently!
I worked with Jerry at KFMB in San Diego and ate at his Greek place in Seaport Village. He was a very nice guy.
I just saw him as the original Svengoolie a couple times.
I like Rich Koz and have seen him dozens (hundreds?) of times.
Ah, the old World’s Largest Station/Chicago Federation of Labor rivalry! How I have missed that....
“Bob Sirott.” There’s a name that brings back memories.
Ch 50 Detroit must have been owned or part owned by Kaiser
Aluminum. In Boston Kaiser teamed up with the Boston Globe for Ch 56, WKBG-TV, the BG obviously meaning Boston Globe (with studios right next to the paper on Morrisey Blvd). The logo for CH 50 and Ch 56 are just about identical (same font or
whatever). Boston’s Ch 56 used to have Creature Double
Feature but there was no on air host, instead local DJ
Dale Dorman (WRKO, WVBF, WXKS “Kiss 108”) did voice overs.
Man, it's almost like I'm getting old or something. :-)
Sure was.
RIP.
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