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AIRCHECK OF THE
WEEK - Edition #961 - October 29, 2017 - |
Talent: JOHN
ZACHERLE
Station: WPLJ
New York
Date: September
18-19, 1975
Time: Pt.
1 - 30:14
(unscoped)
11:03
(scoped)
Pt. 2 - 29:38 (unscoped)
3:06 (scoped)
Best known for his work as a TV horror show host, John Zacherle was also one of
the leading album rock jocks in the early years of the genre. Zacherle arrived
at New York's WNEW-FM in 1968 shortly after the station began its legendary progressive
rock format. Zacherle also did the album format at Philadelphia stations
WDAS-FM
and WMMR. Most of his time in progressive rock radio was spent at New York's
WPLJ, where he spun the discs throughout the '70s.
Long before his album rock days, Zacherle was a Philadelphia TV legend. He hosted an enormously popular late-night horror show on Philadelphia's WCAU-TV in the 1950s. Called Shock Theatre, Zacherle appeared as the ghoulish figure Roland in the show that was shown on Philadelphia's Channel 10 in 1957 and 1958. The show moved to New York's WABC-TV in 1959, and later to WOR-TV in New York. In 1963 and 1964, he took his act to New York's WPIX-TV. After that ended, he hosted what a spooky version of American Bandstand - sort of a "Transylvania Bandstand" - on New Jersey's WNJU from 1965 to 1967.
Zacherle was also a recording artist, making the Top 10 nationally in 1958 with the novelty classic Dinner With Drac. Supposedly, it was Dick Clark who gave him the nickname The Cool Ghoul.
Zacherle returned to TV in the 1980s, playing a wizard on
CBS-TV's Captain
Kangaroo. He also did a few TV shows that reprised his Roland character. In
1984, he began hosting an annual Halloween show at New York's
WCBS-FM. The show
moved to
WXRK New York after 1992. He was still going strong in 2007, hosting a
Halloween night show at
WCBS-FM at the age of 88! He died October 27, 2016,
about a month after his 98th birthday.
Hear
John Zacherle on
WPLJ (Pt.
1 - UNSCOPED)
here.
Hear
John Zacherle on
WPLJ (Pt.
1 - UNSCOPED)
here.
Hear
John Zacherle
on
WPLJ
(Pt. 1 - SCOPED)
here.
Hear John Zacherle
on
WPLJ (Pt.
1 - SCOPED)
here.
Hear
John Zacherle on
WPLJ (Pt.
2 - UNSCOPED)
here.
Hear
John Zacherle on
WPLJ (Pt.
2 - UNSCOPED)
here.
Hear
John Zacherle
on
WPLJ
(Pt. 2 - SCOPED)
here.
Hear John Zacherle
on
WPLJ (Pt.
2 - SCOPED)
here.
(The Don Shuttleworth
Collection)
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