It might be a real stretch to say that Jim Gearhart "paved the way" for the likes of Soupy Sales, and Howard Stern but he did precede them as a DJ on WNBC in New York.
I recall back in the early 60s listening to Gearhart doing afternoons on WNBC 66. He referred to himself as "The Gearhart" and did had a routine where he took phone calls and covered fictional topics that were supposed to be funny.
His theme song went like this: "Your red scarf matches your eyes, please close your cover before striking, father had the shipfitter blues, loving you has made me bananas." Makes a lot of sense doesn't it ?????
I could only listen on days when school was closed, but the topics I remember him doing included "Trying to sell the Irish Airforce" which doesn't exist, and trying to make an extra large record turntable possibly the size of a house or a car. People would actually call and offer suggestions on how to accomplish these absurd goals. It was different for the time, and I did listen when I could.
In those days there were few FM radios, so being on a 50-kw AM station owned by one of the three major networks in the top market was a big deal. "The Gearhart" made a big mark very early. I have heard since that he was also on other NY stations but I don't remember that.
I remember reading in Broadcasting magazine that he left New York for a morning show in Seattle and out there he was a big deal. The local radio folks were delighted to have a NYC radio talent on their air. I recall one executive saying it put Seattle radio on the map.
Some years later when Gearhart decided to come back east, rumor had it in the radio world that he was working at a hot dog stand on Route-17 in North Jersey called Fat Mike's. He could have been trying to make ends meet for a while, or the story could have been a fabrication of some other "creative radio mind."
When next heard from he was doing mornings on an AM station in Trenton that was co-owned with "The Mega Station" on 101.5.
When Press Broadcasting bought the two station package and started NJ-101.5 it flipped its morning guys between AM and FM, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I heard the Jersey guys talking a few weeks back about not letting people over 65 drive. Even if Gearhart was 25, when I first heard him on a NYC station (not likely) according to the Jersey Guys he should have stopped driving to work a long time ago.
It's good things worked so well for Gearhart, he has always been a talent and I have heard from mutual friends that he is a nice guy. So many other really top notch broadcasters from his generation wound up spending their last years in the business on some small AM in some smaller market. Some, from the old big time stations, needed board operators because they had never learned to do combo.
Gearhart shows up on lists as one of the top 50 local talk show hosts in the country. He still sounds fine. With a little bit of luck he wound up in a place where his talent and the audience size matched. Congratulations to him, I have never seen it so I hope the building is up to the name Gearhart.
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