It’s Gold Jerry! Gold! Jerry Blavat spins, rings and sings five decades on the radio

By Patty-Pat Kozlowski

Jerry Blavat, known to millions as “The Geator with the Heator” and “The Boss with the Hot Sauce”, is the man many credit with having invented the oldies craze. A broadcasting pioneer, Blavat was the first disc jockey in the early ’60s to play music from the ’50s. He took risks, introducing audiences to songs no one else played, which became local and national hits all over again.

During a career spanning nearly five decades, Blavat has done it all. He’s been a dancer, a record producer, and nightclub owner. He’s launched television shows, made guest appearances in movies, and was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And what drives him first and foremost is his passion for music and the listeners he’s always put first.

50 Years of Being the Daddio on the Radio

Snow and Geators just don’t mix. A geator bakes in the hot sun and mud and doesn’t bother no one unless you get close and then he opens up his mouth and snatches you up.

But that’s the alli-geator, not Philly’s own Geator with the Heator, Jerry Blavat who welcomed the snow on Saturday night, January 30th to a sell out crowd at the Kimmel Center as he celebrated 50 years on the radio with a concert featuring The Skyliners, Jay Black, and Darlene Love.

It was déjà vu for Blavat who 50 years ago took to the airwaves in a blizzard to broadcast what was first booked as hour of radio time at WCAM in Camden, New Jersey. When the overnight guy didn’t show up in the whiteout, Blavat stayed the night and jibber jabbered, spinned the platters that mattered and had a captive audience on the airwaves as the Delaware Valley was blanketed with a snowstorm that closed cities and all major roads. With his rat-tat-tat banter and his selection of songs that came from his heart, not a research chart, the phonelines at WCAM were burning up with kids calling in to this new DJ. And the rest was history.

So when Darlene Love, yes that Darlene Love took the stage at the Kimmel Center and belted out that famous first line of “He’s Sure The Boy I Love”, “I always knew the boy I loved would come along, and he’d be tall and handsome, rich and strong” she had people on her feet dancing and swaying and then ended the song saying that, “Man, people in the east, like New York and Philly, they don’t stay in cause of the snow! They come out for Jerry!”

Sing it again, Darlene. Blavat is more than just a DJ. He’ll tell you himself, anyone can push the play button and cue the music, and I can testify that most DJs, myself included, can spin the music but can’t get out there on the dance floor and shake the tail feather, but Geator is an entertainer. One so much that case in point, the last time Cher had a concert at the Wachovia Center, the queen of over the top eye candy performances changed her outfit 13 times during her show. On Saturday night in January, Blavat changed clothes 9 times, including a black velvet suit and a shiny red pant ensemble with the boots to match and a white zoo suit jacket. (What more do you want from an Italian-Jewish kid from McKean Street?)

It’s the epitome of a following and Blavat has had it for the past five decades. His dance parties are legendary, he has a following that that would make an evangelistic preacher hawking prayers on late night television sell his soul to the devil (yet again) for Blavat’s groupies.

Once, Blavat was playing a local bar and restaurant in Philly’s riverwards and the dancefloor was packed-and it was a Tuesday night. One of the dancers was Mary Karcher, formerly Mary Stubeno of South Philly who remembered when Blavat played the dances at St. Maria Goretti High School for Girls when she was a teenager. And Blavat, with his trademark jeffcap, tassled shiny loafers and signature dance move that mimicks a hopscotch game called her out by name, “Mary, Mary from Maria Goretti!” four decades after her dances.

For Blavat was only a teenager himself at age 13 when he became one of the original dancers on bandstand in 1953 when Bob Horn was the host. Blavat’s popularity, dance moves and motor mouth made him a crowd favorite and he headed the the coveted “Committee”-the group of teenagers that told Horn what was hot and happening with his audiences. When Horn was fired and Dick Clark came on the scene, it was Blavat who performed the definition of loyalty and left the show in support of his mentor, Horn.

After graduating high school, Blavat was promoting records for the Cameo-Parkway label, became comedian Don Rickles valet and the road manager for Danny and the Juniors.

By 1963, Blavat was on the radiowaves and making appearances at nightclubs and dances reaching 5,000 teenagers a week who would flock to his shows in droves. Two years later, he was on television with his newly launched “The Discophonic Scene” which was aired in 40 markets across the country with Blavat’s bank account of contacts, he booked live performances of Fats Domino, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, The Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas. His ironclad rule was it had to be live performances, “none of that lip syncing crap”.

But radio and dance shows was and still is Blavat’s forte as he’s become a Philadelphia icon up there with the salt on the soft pretzel, the crack in the Liberty Bell and the sweet peppers on the hoagie.

Every weekday you can listen to the Geator with the Heater from 5-7 p.m. on Crusin’ 92.1 FM and on Saturdays at 6pm on WXPN 88.5 FM or go see one of his appearances. He’s spread out weekly at the Buck Hotel, Chickie’s and Pete’s, Parx Casino and on weekends in the summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day, his nightclub memories in Margate where you can listen live on NJ KOOL 98.3.

And again, anyone can be a DJ and push the play button and cue the next song but only an entertainer could single-handedly unofficially rewrite the first 27 seconds of Martha and the Vandellas hit song, “Heatwave”.

While the rest of the world thinks the first lyrics are, “Whenever I’m with him, something inside, keeps burning and I’m filled with desire…” we Philadelphians know much better. We know it goes something like this:

“According to! The big, tick-tock, on the, tower power, clock correct! It’s time-time, for the ,Big Boss, with the, Hot Sauce! And it’s got to be, the Geator with the Heator, Heator beater on the records, a swing-a-ling, a loop-a bop-a choo!”