Ben Vaughn does the impossible task of explaining the Geator to a non-Philly outsider in his new podcast
"Only South Philly could have produced a guy like him," Vaughn said of Jerry Blavat, who is featured in the latest episode of Vaughn's "Straight from the Hat" podcast.
Ben Vaughn is a man of many moods, and an equal number of career twists.
The Camden County native and radio host’s hourlong show The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn — “broadcasting weekly from the Relay Shack, from parts unknown” — airs Saturdays at 6 p.m. on WXPN-FM (88.5). It’s also heard on 19 other stations in the U.S. and one in France.
The singer-guitarist has released 20 albums, starting with his 1986 debut, also called The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn and including one, 1997’s Rambler ’65, recorded entirely in his car.
His collaborative album with Providence, R.I.-based band and Ben Vaughn fanboys Deer Tick is due in October, and his first U.S. tour in nearly three decades will follow. (He plays regularly in Spain, France, and Italy.)
In the 1990s, the Mount Ephraim-native moved to Los Angeles and worked as music composer for the hit TV sitcoms 3rd Rock From the Sun and That ‘70s Show. His credits as a record producer include legends and eccentrics such as Charlie Feathers, Alex Chilton, Los Straitjackets, Nancy Sinatra, and New Hope duo Ween.
Along the way, he’s accumulated a lifetime of stories, from his encounter with Billy Joel’s hippie band Attila in Philly head shop 13th Street Conspiracy to playing harmonica with Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Spectrum in the 1970s.
Those tales — an encounter with composer Lala Schifrin, producing soul music great Arthur Alexander, or how Duane Eddy’s guitar changed his life — are now collected in Straight From the Hat, Vaughn’s new podcast with Sun Records marketing and social media manager Laura Pochodylo.
This week’s episode of the pod, which debuted in January with episodes released every other Thursday, concerns a subject dear to Vaughn’s heart. Philly DJ Jerry Blavat — the Geator with the Heater, the Boss with the Hot Sauce —who was Vaughn’s “mentor without knowing it” for years until the two became close friends and then collaborators late in the life of Blavat, who died in 2023 at 82.
Straight From the Hat took shape because Sonny Bono brought Vaughn and Pochodylo together.
In 2022, Vaughn was digging into the Sun vaults to curate a compilation for the storied label’s 70th anniversary. With songs by Feathers, Harmonica Frank and the Prisonaires, it shows the flair for unearthing musical gems that Vaughn displays in the 552 Many Moods episodes that have aired since launching on Valentine’s Day 2009. (Over 300 are available on podcast platforms.)
Speaking from Many Moods headquarters near Joshua Tree in California’s Mojave Desert, Vaughn says that “even though she’s a lot younger than me” — he’s 70, Pochodylo is 33 — “her record collection is almost identical to mine.”
They bonded over “non-ironic appreciation” of Bono, the late singer, actor, and politician famed for his work with his wife Cher. Bono who also wrote songs recorded by Sam Cooke, Jackie DeShanon, and the Rolling Stones. Pochodylo calls herself “a Sonny Bono evangelist.”
Vaughn told Pochotylo stories about musicians in Sun Records’ collection that he had worked with.
“And then we came up with the idea to write all these names down and throw them in a hat. She picks one out, and I say whatever comes to mind. No preparation, no planning.”
In this week’s episode, Pochodylo pulls out Blavat’s name, and Vaughn has plenty to say about the Philadelphia life force he first felt at age 10 in 1965, when he tuned into Blavat’s afternoon TV show The Discophonic Scene.
» READ MORE: Jerry Blavat, ‘The Geator with the Heater,’ dies at 82
“I started going to these dances he would put on at gymnasiums and Knights of Columbus Halls,” Vaughn said. “The first song I ever played lead guitar on in front of an audience was ‘Sheba’ by Johnny and the Hurricanes because the Geator was using it as a theme song.”
Vaughn played drums in his first band when he was 12, and got a South Jersey musical education at Blavat package shows seeing vocal groups like the Dells and Delfonics.
A Four Tops performance at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City “spoiled me,” he said, “because the Four Tops were one of the most professional acts in the history of entertainment. So everything was perfect.
“And then I saw Canned Heat [at the Pier], and I remember they were very high, and couldn’t keep their guitars in tune because of the salt air. I remember thinking: ‘There are several ways to go as an entertainer, and this is one way I will never go!’”
The free-form nature of The Many Moods, which last week featured all songs under two minutes by artists like Francoise Hardy, Bob Dylan, and Nina Simone, was shaped not by Blavat but early 1970s Philly DJs like David Dye and Michael Tearson on WMMR-FM (93.3).
But the unstoppable self-confidence and business acumen of Blavat, who Vaughn got to know in the 1980s, shaped Vaughn’s career.
“There was a way the rest of the world did things, and a Geator way,” Vaughn said. “He told me I should own my own show, which I do.” Blavat emphasized self-belief. Whatever Vaughn did would have value, as long as it was truly unique.
“The Geator would buy time on the radio, and sell ads himself. I would drive around with him to pizzerias and shoe stores and car dealerships and watch him. And then we’d drive away with a car with his name on the side. The Geatormobile!”
Philly musicians in future Straight episodes include “Mashed Potato Time” singer Dee Dee Sharp and rock and roller Charlie Gracie, who befriended Vaughn in the 1970s at the Mount Ephraim club Capriotti’s, where Gracie was nightly entertainment and Vaughn a dishwasher.
Vaughn’s own stature as a Philadelphia institution was underscored when he was contacted by the Delco-set HBO series Task. They asked him to record a Many Moods snippet for the show. In one scene, Tom Pelphrey’s character Robbie Prendergast rolls a joint, listening to Vaughn on air pods.
“I watched it and you can hardly hear me. But I show up in the close captions and they spell my name right. So that’s a victory.”
In 2021, Vaughn helped Blavat move out of his office on east Market Street and found unopened letters from 1964 with song requests to play on Blavat’s WCAN-AM (1320) radio show. Blavat and Vaughn opened them on air on XPN in 2021 in a show called The Lost Dedications.
“The Geator created something that never existed before,” Vaughn said. “Geatordelphia! It was a subculture. The way he talked, the kind of records he played, the way he had of communicating with the audience.
“He connected so many human beings, and made everybody feel good. He made us all feel like we were better looking than we really were. Only South Philly could have produced a guy like him. It didn’t make sense to anyone outside of a 90 mile radius. The Jersey Shore, Trenton, Wilmington, that’s it.
“That was the great thing about doing the podcast. Laura is originally from Detroit, and she didn’t know anything about the Geator. And trying to explain the Geator to an outsider is an amusing thing.”
Straight From the Hat episodes are at straightfromthehat.com and on all podcast platforms.