Chicago's (and San Diego's) Jerry G. Bishop: 'CFL and Svengoolie-- Part 2

When Ken Draper was hired as program director of Chicago's rock giant WCFL-AM, 1000, in 1967, the first thing he did was hire Jerry G. away from KYW, but asked that Jerry G. choose a last name. He and his wife went through the Cleveland phonebook and settled on the name Bishop. Jerry G. Bishop took over the morning show and helped make Big Ten WCFL into competition with rock giant WLS.

Management shakeup in 1969 caused Bishop to leave radio and sign on with Chicago's WFLD-TV, one of the city's first UHF stations. There, he did a little bit of everything, including hosting Dialing for Dollars and the station's Friday night horror movie show "Screaming Yellow Theater" where he created the character that became Svengoolie. He was a green-haired, green-bearded, guitar-playing hippie who slept in a psychedelic coffin and told the corniest jokes.

Svengoolie was resurrected in 1979, with Bishop's permission, by Rich Coz, who continues on with the tradition.

Later, Bishop was on Chicago's WMAQ-AM and WMAQ-TV before going to San Diego.

Svengoolie, Just in Time for Halloween. --RoadDog