R I P GEOFF EDWARDS With great sadness I announce the death of Geoff Edwards three days ago. I have fond memories of this very, very funny radio and TV host. He was the afternoon host on KMPC radio when I won a contest they sponsored. Somewhere in Los Angeles was a secret phone number and they gave a new clue every day. I got obsessed with the clues and rolled them around in my head over and over...and I found the number on a Christmas card hanging on an office door in a building on Sunset Boulevard. I called the number and no one answered but I said I am going to hang on until someone answers. About 25 minutes later a stagehand at KTLA answered and told me to wait...no one was expected to find the number that quickly and they hadnt hired anyone to man the phone yet. Well the next day I went on the air with Geoff and he awarded me a trip to London, 8 days at the London Hilton, a visit to Scotland Yard, and $1,000. We had so much fun tossing funny lines back and forth he asked me to call him every day while on the trip. We had a ball with the daily phone call and it was a big hit with his listeners. Geoff passed away from pneumonia at age 83. He WILL be missed... from the L.A. Times: Geoff Edwards, who hosted 10 TV game shows, including Treasure Hunt and Jackpot, also worked as a radio DJ on KMPC, KFI and other Los Angeles stations. He died Wednesday in Santa Monica. Geoff Edwards, a Los Angeles radio personality and TV game show host who for years flew weekly to Sacramento to emcee the California Lotterys Big Spin, died Wednesday at St. Johns Health Center in Santa Monica. He was 83. His death was caused by complications from pneumonia, his agent Fred Wostbrock said. Over the years, Edwards hosted 10 game shows, including Jackpot and Treasure Hunt. On radio, he was a clever talker who sprinkled music and news with homegrown bits like The Answer Lady. That was simply Edwards answering listeners questions, often comically, without even pretending to imitate a female voice. But there was also a serious side to his radio personality. In 1989, he left KFI after refusing to air station promotions touting a fellow hosts planned destruction of recordings by singer Cat Stevens, who had become a Muslim and adopted the name Yusuf Islam. On air, Edwards called Tom Leykiss upcoming record-burning fascist. If this radio station is supporting that, Edwards told listeners, then Im out of here. I dont want to work here. Leykis, who called off the burning because of potential air pollution problems, instead crushed a pile of 200 Cat Stevens records and tapes with a steamroller. It was payback, he said, for Stevens supporting the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinis death edict against author Salman Rushdie for blasphemy. Edwards, who had been suspended, quit. His 9 a.m.-to-noon program was replaced by the syndicated Rush Limbaugh Show. Born Feb. 15, 1931, in Westfield, N.J., Geoffrey Bruce Owen Edwards attended Duke University and later worked as a disc jockey at WOKO-AM in Albany, N.Y. Two years later, he was running a jazz show on San Diegos KFMB and then traveled up the coast to radio jobs in Los Angeles at KHJ, KMPC and KFI. He was a very talented, very hip individual, said longtime radio and TV personality Gary Owens. He could comment on just about anything in the news. Branching into TV with Jackpot in the early 1970s, Edwards helped change the look of game shows, his agent said. He had long hair, he never wore a tie, he had an unbuttoned shirt with a gold chain, jeans and boots, Wostbrock said. In 1974, that was really dramatic. In 1978 and 1979, he was a celebrity panelist on a syndicated show called The Love Experts. One of his fellow panelists was a young comic named Dave Letterman. In the 1980s, Edwards hosted Starcade, where contestants battled via arcade video games. Edwards also worked as a travel writer and came back from a 2003 Tahitian cruise to a job offer at KSUR — nicknamed The Surf. The next day by noon, I was enslaved again, he joked to a Times reporter. Edwards survivors include his wife Michael, sons Todd and Chess, daughter Shawn, stepsons Justin Feffer and Jason Feffer and nine grandchildren. A previous marriage ended in divorce.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 19:35:07 +0000
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