S. Gary Geers, 84, longtime Philadelphia TV announcer

S. Gary Geers, 84, an announcer on what is now CBS3-TV from 1953 until he retired in 1994, died of lung cancer Wednesday, Nov. 10, at LifePath Hospice at his retirement community, Sun City Center, Fla.

Mr. Geers was not only the voice of the station for decades but also an early-morning weatherman and host of an early-morning farm and garden show and of a Sunday morning religious program.

Pat Ciarrocchi, a news anchor at CBS3, said in a Thursday interview that Mr. Geers "was gentle and kind and taught me how to do early-morning TV."

They worked together from 1984-88 on Three Today, a 6:30 a.m. news show, where "he was the first weather person in an early-morning newscast in local TV," Ciarrocchi said. "This was my first major-market show. He taught me so much in the course of working together."

In December 1994, Inquirer TV columnist Gail Shister wrote in an appreciation of Mr. Geers' career that "Channel 3's Man in the Booth is about to retire and, with him, a television era."

Over the years, Shister wrote, his "slow, relaxed style had become passe in a medium catering to a short-attention-span audience."

Philadelphia Daily News reporter Ron Avery wrote in the same month that Mr. Geers "says he's retiring because he has no real role at the station these days."

" 'My job has disappeared. I don't want to be like some guy in City Hall just sitting with a phone and a window.' "

When Mr. Geers began his career, Shister wrote, "an announcer sat in a broadcasting booth for a full day, doing live promos about every 15 minutes."

"Since the advent of tape, Geers says, he can record all his announcements for the day in an hour."

In June 1953, "he launched Farm, Home and Garden, the country's first TV farm program," Shister wrote. "It ran for the next 38 years."

The program aired at 6:30 a.m. Saturdays before moving to 5:15 a.m. weekdays and then for 10 minutes at 5:20 a.m.

"Having grown up on a farm in New Jersey with a father in the nursery business," Shister wrote, ". . . he had the required agricultural background."

Avery wrote that besides offering interviews with county agricultural agents, Mr. Geers' show, the longest-running in local TV, focused on "household hints, healthy eating, food shopping, gardening."

In the spring of 1991, the station killed the farm show and Connections, his Sunday program.

Born in Bridgeton, N.J., Mr. Geers graduated from Upper Merion High School in 1944. But even before that, Shister reported, he "broke into broadcasting in 1943 as an impressionist on KYW Radio's The Wake Up Show."

In the Marine Corps from 1944-46, he was a truck driver in a support battalion in China during World War II until "somebody told him a good job was to be a good cook. So he had to learn fast," said his daughter, Laurie.

He earned a bachelor's degree in speech and drama at Northwestern University in 1951.

For two years, Mr. Geers searched, as do many seeking a footing - becoming an announcer at Channel 10, a disc jockey on WFIL-AM, then an announcer at Channel 6 until he found his career at Channel 3.

"He loved his work and found his calling and was very, very happy," his daughter said.

In retirement, she said, he was active in the United Methodist Church of Sun City Center.

Besides his daughter, Mr. Geers is survived by his wife, Roseann; sons Gary Jr. and David; stepson Stephen DeJohn; stepdaughters Maria and Christine DeJohn; a brother; a sister; two grandchildren; and his former wife, Ann Geers.

A memorial was set for 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16, at United Methodist Church of Sun City Center.