Let me take a moment, if you will, to dedicate the next 15 minutes of today's show to the memory of a rock and roll radio pioneer. He was a radio and nightclub star in my Philly hometown, all along the Jersey Shore too. His thousands of fans knew him as “The Geator” and “The Big Boss with the Hot Sauce.”
Jerry Blavat was a native of South Philly, and take it from me, another South Philadelphian, if music was your thing, there was no better place to be. Jerry Blavat's career spanned seven decades. He was one of the first mobile DJs, if not the first in the world, setting up two portable record players in a community hall in the early ‘50s.
At the same time he was doing this, he was dancing on American Bandstand, which was being broadcast from Philly in those days. Jerry's radio career started around 1960, just in time for soul and Motown. Even though he played just about everything, he could go from James Brown to Frank Sinatra and make it sound completely natural.
Having grown up very close to a radio in South Philly, Jerry Blavat was a major influence for me. His career was colorful, to say the least, and he will be missed. Let me take you now to Jerry Blavat's Jersey Shore nightclub, Memories in Margate, where he played live every summer weekend since the early 2000s. Jerry Blavat had a local hit in Philly with “The Discophonic Walk.”
Jerry Blavat, “The Geator with the Heator,” died on National DJ Day, January 20, 2023.
Listen to the segment, above.
