Jerry G. Bishop

Jerry G. Bishop (August 3, 1936 – September 15, 2013) was an American radio and television personality who is known for being Chicago's original "Svengoolie", and for his award-winning twelve-year stint on Sun-Up San Diego.

Education Born Jairus Samuel Ghan in Chicago to Russian Jewish parents, he graduated from Wright Junior College, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Columbia College Chicago.

Career Radio 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. He had used his real name of Jerry Ghan at his previous jobs, but began using the name "Jerry G" at WPGC. KYW program director Ken Draper requested he use that same name. hosted a weekly dance-party program, "Jerry G & Co.," on KYW's television outlet,

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."

Television 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 lead to Jerry inventing his most famous role as Svengoolie on Channel 32's Screaming Yellow Theater in 1971.

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, when 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.) He worked for WMAQ until 1975, when WMAQ changed formats from MOR/talk to country and replaced their entire announcing staff. Bishop remained for a short time afterward, as Director of Corporate Affairs for the National Easter Seals Society of Chicago. In 1980, he served as local moderator of the discussion segment of Norman Lear's 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, a Chicago-style pizzeria. The latter closed in September 2018, having been in business for 31 years.

Death Bishop died at age 77 on September 15, 2013, at the University of California – San Diego Medical Center, of a heart attack. He was survived by his wife of 49 years, Liz, and his two children.