Jerry Blavat

Gerald Joseph Blavat (July 3, 1940 – January 20, 2023), also known as "The Geator with the Heater" and "The Big Boss with the Hot Sauce,"[2][3] was an American disc jockey and performer who had been a major influence in promoting oldies music on the radio.

A Philadelphia icon, he gained local fame hosting live dances in the area, leading to his own independent radio show, on which he introduced many acts in the 1960s to a wide audience, including the Four Seasons and The Isley Brothers.

[4][5][6] Several notable musicians who hailed from the Philadelphia suburbs, including Daryl Hall and Todd Rundgren, cited Blavat as inspiring their musical careers.

[11] From 1965 to 1967, Blavat produced and hosted a weekly television show in Philadelphia called The Discophonic Scene, a dance show for "all my yon [sic] teens" along the lines of American Bandstand (which began in Philadelphia a decade earlier), referring to himself as "the Geator with the Heater" and "the big boss with the hot sauce."

[17] In 1998, he was included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of a permanent exhibit in its Museum of Radio and Records.

[1][18] He had been producing oldies concerts at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia every year since January 2002.

He had been a member of the New York Friars' Club since 2010 and had been the emcee of Time Life's annual Malt Shop Memories Cruise since 2011.

[19] Blavat died in hospice at Methodist Hospital in Lower Moyamensing following complications from myasthenia gravis on January 20, 2023, at the age of 82.