Why is Jerry Blavat called Geator with the Heater?

Jerry Blavat was an American disc jockey and performer.

With a career spanning over six decades, Blavat was the first disc jockey in the early ’60s to play music from the ’50s.

Why is Jerry Blavat called Geator with the Heater?

Jerry Blavat came up with his nickname Geator with the Heater as a variation on “gator,” because his radio show would eat you up like an alligator.

In a 2011 interview with S J Magazine, Blavat revealed, “When I started, this phenomenon happened where these kids would make phone calls every night with dedications. I said, I can’t just be Jerry Blavat. At that time, disc jockeys had a handle. There was Jocko the Ace from Outer Space, Joe Niagra was The Rocking Bird – I had to come up with a name. I’m at the end of the dial, I didn’t intend to be a disc jockey, but I snatched these kids up. An alligator lives in the mud. They don’t bother you, but if you get close to it, it snatches you up. I’ll be a geator, derived from the alligator. What could I rhyme that with – the car heater?.”

Adding that “When we were kids, in the wintertime we’d jump in the car and turn the heater up. When it got too hot, we’d turn the heater down. Parents were yelling at their kids to turn that guy down, so I became the Geator with the Hot Heater”.