Radio broadcaster Tush began his professional career after high school as a radio newscaster and
disk jockey for a number of radio stations in the Pittsburgh area, including
KQV AM where he was known as Bill Williams. Tush was drafted in 1969, served in the U.S. Army, spending six months in Vietnam as a communications specialist. He also worked simultaneously on KQV, again using the name Bill Williams to avoid listener confusion.
Atlanta years In 1974, Tush traveled to Atlanta, looking for work. He was hired by
WGST AM as a disk jockey playing the station's
oldies format. "It was a strange place to work" Tush said. One day, after playing the
Johnny Bristol song "
Hang on in There Baby", a station employee walked in, picked up the record from the turntable and broke it, saying "I hate that record". The station was
WTCG Channel 17. Tush walked into the station carrying his
reel-to-reel demo tape and asked if the television station needed any announcers. They did. It was rebroadcast at 5 am One stunt saw Tush and his crew promoting the addition of "a new, award-winning weatherman from Cleveland, Ohio". A week-long promotion built audience interest. The day the new "weatherman" started, Tush placed an older announcer who worked off-air for the station in front of a weather map. When the "weatherman" was given his cue that he was on the air, the announcer introduced himself, grabbed his chest and "died" on air, causing another false panic on set.
Tush television show Hoping to capitalize on Tush's growing national fame from the satirical overnight newscasts, Turner told Tush to develop a comedy show for WTBS. "I want you to do a show. It can be variety, it can be comedy, I don't care. I'll pay you $100,000 () a year to promise you'll never leave". Tush said "Of course, I'll do that. I won't leave". Turner continued, saying "We're gonna have everything: comedy, singin', maybe even wrasslin'. You're gonna host it!" Tush left the meeting and said to his production director and said "What are we going to do now?". Tush said he "had no clue what we were doing". Premiering on December 28, 1980,
Tush (also known as
The Bill Tush Show) was an inventive sketch-comedy hour with a troupe. Its cast included
Jan Hooks, a comedienne from Decatur, Georgia who went on to
Saturday Night Live and
3rd Rock from the Sun. It also featured
Ted Henning,
Bonnie and Terry Turner (
SNL writers and co-creators of
3rd Rock from the Sun and ''
That '70s Show''). The hour-long program aired at 7 pm Eastern time on Sunday evenings. Although the show ceased production five months later on June 6, 1981, reruns aired through May 28, 1983 on a late-night basis. The following week of its old timeslot was filled by
Night Tracks, a six-hour program of music videos. Ironically, later that year, Tush made a comedic appearance in a
Night Tracks sales presentation video playing an investigative reporter.
CNN Feeling he had no further work at WTBS for Tush, Turner eventually dispatched Tush to Hollywood to take over the host position on
People Now from
Mike Douglas in January 1983. The show was broadcast on Turner Broadcasting's
CNN channel. Eventually, Tush became senior entertainment correspondent for CNN in 1993 and moved to New York City to host
Showbiz Today. ==Later career==