In high school, Bill Tush showed an early interest in broadcast performance and started working in radio professionally while a Junior in High school.
28 Facts About Bill Tush
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Bill Tush went to work in Atlanta, Georgia for Ted Turner, first as an announcer, later developing Bill Tush, a comedy show broadcast on Turner's WTBS SuperStation.
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Bill Tush was born October 16,1948, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the only child of Apolonia "Pauline" and William John Bill Tush Jr.
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Bill Tush said that as young child he was drawn to radio announcer's voices.
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Bill Tush chose not to attend college in order to continue his professional broadcasting career.
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Bill Tush was a staff member of the Washington Highlights, the high school's newspaper as well as an editor of the school's yearbook The Cavalier.
7.
Bill Tush built a low power broadcast radio station in his parents' attic.
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Bill Tush said he found himself playing recorded crop reports and hosting the station's "Mid Morning Polka Party".
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Bill Tush was drafted in 1969, served in the US Army, spending six months in Vietnam as a communications specialist.
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Bill Tush worked simultaneously on KQV, again using the name "Bill Williams" to avoid listener confusion.
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In 1974, Bill Tush traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, looking for work.
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Bill Tush was hired by WGST AM as a disk jockey playing the station's Oldies format.
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Bill Tush walked into the station carrying his reel-to-reel demo tape and asked if the television station needed any announcers.
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Bill Tush was hired as a part-time booth announcer for $50 per week.
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Bill Tush was one of the few who was seen on-air at the station, appearing in commercials and occasionally moderating public affairs shows.
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The next day, WTBS' Director of Operations Sid Pike called Bill Tush and said "You're going to host Academy Award Theatre".
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The late night time slot and having full control over content allowed Bill Tush to take great liberties with the news presentations.
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One episode saw Bill Tush literally dragged off the set by a "kidnapper" as Bill Tush delivered "news" of diplomats being kidnapped around the globe.
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Bill Tush said "There was fake panic from the crew" as he forcibly removed from behind his news set desk.
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The day the new "weatherman" started, Bill Tush placed an older announcer who worked off-air for the station in front of a weather map.
21.
Bill Tush once delivered the news with his "co-anchor" Rex, a German Shepherd.
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The dog was shown next to Bill Tush on set wearing a shirt and tie while eating a peanut butter sandwich.
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Bill Tush was often joined by a so-called "Unknown Newsman" who read the news while wearing a paper sack on his head.
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Bill Tush said he knew the reach of the new cable SuperStation had grown when he was invited by fans in Valdez, Alaska to be the grand marshal of their winter festival parade.
25.
Premiering on December 28,1980, Tush was an inventive sketch-comedy hour with a troupe whose cast including Jan Hooks, a young comedienne from Decatur, Georgia who went on to Saturday Night Live and 3rd Rock from the Sun.
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Ironically, later that year, Bill Tush made a comedic appearance in a Night Tracks sales presentation video playing an investigative reporter.
27.
Bill Tush retired from Turner Broadcasting System to pursue other interests, including writing and producing, in 2003.
28.
In 2014 Bill Tush travelled to Nigeria to help launch a television station; when he returned to Atlanta in 2015, he was hired as the manager of a small multiplex movie theater in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs, where he continued to work after the theater changed hands and was renovated to include a full bar and restaurant.