In 1961, he got his start in radio at WNMP (now WCGO) in Evanston, hosting the morning-drive program. He also worked part-time on stations in Rockford and Springfield. In 1962, he was hired at WPGC-AM-FM in Washington, D.C., where he stayed for a year, before being hired on at Cleveland giant KYW as a night-time DJ.
During his three-year stint at KYW, Jerry G. toured with the Beatles as a reporter for Group W and NBC Radio stations on their 1964 and 1965 tours, hosted a weekly dance-party program, "Jerry G & Co.," on KYW's television outlet, and recorded a song, "She's Gone," backed by local group the Statesmen. Released as a single on the Clevetown label as by "Jerry G & Co.," it became a local hit in 1966.
When Ken Draper was program director at Chicago's WCFL from 1965 to 1968, he hired Bishop in 1967. Draper then asked him to pick a last name to go with the "Jerry G." name he had been using. He and his wife flipped through the Cleveland phone book, and together settled on the name "Bishop."
In 1969, Jerry G. became a staff announcer and the host of an afternoon local version of the movie/call-in contest show Dialing For Dollars on WFLD-TV, which was also located in Marina City in what is now The House of Blues building. This affiliation with WFLD would, of course, lead to Jerry inventing his most famous role as Svengoolie on Channel 32's Screaming Yellow Theater in 1971.
WMAQ/67Q Jerry G. Bishop, November 5, 1974. [ LISTEN ] (7:40)
Here is Jerry at his best reeling off one liners with audio drops sprinkled in. Also featured is one of Jerry's harmonized intros very typical of Top 40 radio.
Bishop was the announcer of the station's Friday-night scary-movie anthology "Screaming Yellow Theater," when he had an idea to create a live host for the program-the character that became known as Svengoolie - at first a Bela Lugosi-type voice under a title-card (and over Link Wray's 1958 hit "Rumble"), then on-screen, in the guise of a green-haired, green-bearded, guitar-strumming hippie who slept in a psychedelic-painted coffin and told corny, vaudeville-era jokes given a horror-movie skew.The show's title was derived from Screaming Yellow Zonkers, a yellow, sugary glazed popcorn snack, first produced in the 1960s. Svengoolie was a pun on the name Svengali + ghoul. The show, and character, proved to be wildly successful; the show lasted from 1970 until 1973.
Parent company Field Communications sold WFLD-TV to Kaiser Broadcasting, which chose to replace "Theater" with a similar show popular in Cleveland, "The Ghoul Show." (The Svengoolie persona would be resurrected, with Bishop's permission, in 1979 by Rich Koz, who had been a writer for the original series; Koz continues in the role today.)
After leaving WFLD, Bishop would be hired by WMAQ as their morning-drive personality. He also worked on the station's television outlet (channel 5), hosting "Chicago Camera," a Sunday-afternoon variety program. He also anchored the "Today in Chicago" segment of NBC's "Today" show. He would work for WMAQ until 1975, when WMAQ changed formats from MOR/talk to country and replaced their entire announcing staff. Bishop remained in the Windy City for a short time afterwards, acting as Director of Corporate Affairs for The National Easter Seal Society of Chicago.
In August 1978, he headed West, to San Diego and KFMB-TV, where he assumed the co-host chair of the long-running morning-talk program "Sun-Up San Diego." He collected three local Emmy Awards and a National Press Club Award for his work on the show, which he co-hosted for twelve years until its cancellation in 1990.[12] In 1980, he served as local moderator of the discussion segment of the innovative Norman Lear project "The Baxters"; the segment was titled "The Baxters with Bishop." In 1992, He worked at adult-contemporary KPOP (now KLSD), and wound up his broadcasting career with a three-year stint hosting a show (via voice-tracking from San Diego) on WRLL ("Real Oldies 1690"), an Oldies extended-AM station aimed at the Chicago area, beginning in 2003.
Restaurateur
Away from his radio/television pursuits, Bishop and his family operated two Chicago-themed restaurants in San Diego's Seaport Village for 36 years: the Greek Islands Cafe (based on a similarly-named restaurant in Chicago) and Asaggio Pizza, Pasta, Plus 30 years featuring deep-dish pizza and Chicago Cubs decor).
Bishop died on September 15, 2013 of a heart attack. He was survived by his wife Liz. They had been married for 49 years.
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