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From his nonsensical moniker Geator with the Heater, to his total recall of encyclopedic details of music history (you never heard him struggle to remember a date or a name), to his penchant to talk over the music he was playing, the Boss with the Hot Sauce was a personality that generations of Philadelphians embraced, and he embraced them back.
“What we’re talking about makes no sense to anyone outside of the Delaware Valley,” said Vaughn, who grew up in Philadelphia and is now based in Los Angeles.
“The Geator is not a real word. He called us Yon Teens and claimed that came from Shakespeare. I’ve read Shakespeare and I’ve never seen Yon Teens in there,” he said. “We never questioned it because he was so real, and so authentic in his passion for music.”
Although Baker is not a DJ in the mold of Blavat — he spins mostly hip hop and jazz without the old-school hipster banter — he calls the Geator one of the greatest DJs ever.
“In 2023, by and large, people who are music consumers really lean on automation, really lean on algorithms, really lean on the ubiquitous cloud of music which isn’t even referred to as music. It’s content,” said Baker. “Curation is an art. This is what he did, and what he did impeccably.”
Early in his career, Blavat would buy air time on local stations and sell his own ads, in order to have complete control over what songs he played. He was an early advocate of music by Black artists that was often marketed to just Black audiences. Where many radio stations played white artists covering songs by Black artists, Blavat played the originals.
“If you liked what the Geator was doing you had to go to him. He had no competition at all. He was the Geator and I went for it 100% when I was a kid,” said Vaughn. “Being true to yourself was really the message I got.”
Blavat was known not only for his deep musical experience, but for the unflagging energy he brought to his performances for almost 70 years. At 82 years old, he was still booking himself for gigs six days a week. Just last October, he was one of the featured entertainers on an oldies-themed cruise liner.
Even as an older man, the king of the oldies never seemed to get old.
On Jan. 10, just ten days before he died, he wrote a letter to his fans on his website explaining why he had to cancel some events due to a health complication caused by a torn shoulder, which revealed an underlying nerve disorder. “I look forward to being back with you shortly,” he wrote.
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