INDIANAPOLIS — Sept. 26, 1986, marked the end of an era in Indianapolis television. That’s the day Jim Gerard signed off from his television show for the last time.
“I will miss the people,” Gerard told WRTV reporter Linda Lupear. “I will miss people you interview from all over the world, and that’s great fun. I will not miss broadcasting per se.”
Gerard signed off from WTTV where his show spanned 9 years. The end came after the Hook’s Drug Store chain ended sponsorship of the program.
Prior to his stint at Channel 4, Gerard spent more than a decade at WFBM, later WRTV.
Gerard’s first Indianapolis show, “Sound of the City,” launched on WFBM radio in 1962. It featured man-on-the-street style interviews of people throughout Indianapolis.
Gerard launched the "Jim Gerard Show," a live weekday talk show on Channel 6 in 1966. The show featured a studio audience and an 8-piece band led by George Nicoloff.
“It would get to be about noon, and George would have his musicians warming up and it would reverberate all around the station,” Gerard told WRTV in 2019. “Anybody who was anybody, they came to us.”
Some of those guests included Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Bob Hope, Carol Channing, and Liberace.
The “Jim Gerard Show” ran on WRTV until Nov. 1975, when it was replaced by a midday newscast.
Jim Gerard died May 1, 2020 at the age of 93.
