Geoff Edwards dies at 83; L.A. radio and TV personality

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Rainer poses in her central London apartment on July 29, 1999. She died on Dec. 30, 2014. (Adam Butler / Associated Press)

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Considered to be among the most influential rabbis of his generation, Schulweis stressed deed over ritual. He founded Jewish World Watch, which raises about $2 million a year to fight genocide in Africa and improve the lives of survivors. He was 89. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Tom Magliozzi, left, along with his brother Ray, for more than 35 years dispensed frequently good advice on “Car Talk,” one of NPR’s most popular and least serious programs. Tom Magliozzi was 77. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

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The former dictator of Haiti helped condemn the country to endemic poverty and violence before he was ousted by a popular uprising. He was 63. (Lee Celano / Getty Images)

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Rivers rose to prominence in the 1960s as one of only a few nationally known female comics. She had a run on late-night television and reinvented herself as fashion commentator on Hollywood’s red carpet. She was 81. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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An iconic Bay Area tunnel, commonly known as the Waldo Tunnel or Rainbow Tunnel, will be named after the late actor Robin Williams.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Former White House spokesman James S. “Jim” Brady gave his name to a gun-control law after surviving a devastating gunshot wound to his head during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. He was 73. (Mandel Agan / AFP/Getty Images)

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Van Kirk was the last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, which dropped the first nuclear bomb in the history of warfare over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. He was 93. (Bita Honavar / EPA)

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The raspy-voiced actress enlivened the New York stage for more than six decades. Her lengthy theater career included a Tony-winning one-woman show and collaborations with Stephen Sondheim and Edward Albee. She was 89. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

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The groundbreaking Soviet foreign minister later became the president of an independent Georgia. In the final years of the Soviet Union, he helped topple the Berlin Wall and end the Cold War. He was 86. (AFP / Getty Images)

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The South African writer won fame and a Nobel Prize as a chronicler of apartheid. Her work conveyed the visible and hidden wounds of racial injustice, corruption and abuses of freedom. She was 90. (Pierre Haski / AFP / Getty Images)

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The world-renowned conductor held top posts with the Vienna State Opera, the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, among others. Over the course of his career, he conducted an average of two concerts a week for more than 70 years. He was 84. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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The doyenne of the modeling business, Ford co-founded an agency that set standards for the industry. She launched superstars such as Brooke Shields, Christie Brinkley and Naomi Campbell, and shaped American ideals of beauty in the 1960s and beyond. She was 92. (Evan Agostini / Getty Images)

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Rising from near-poverty as a teenager, Glazer went on to own the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and international soccer powerhouse Manchester United. He was 85. (Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images)

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The Pritzker Prize winner ushered in architecture’s post-modernism movement in the 1970s. He was 80. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2013 (Jean-Philippe Ksiazek / AFP/Getty Images)

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Convicted with a codefendant of three 1966 New Jersey barroom murders they did not commit, Carter was the subject of a Dylan anthem and a 1999 film starring Denzel Washington. He was 76. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

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Phil Everly, left, shown with his brother, Don, made up a vocal duo that profoundly influenced the Beatles and the Beach Boys among others. Their hits included “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love” and “When Will I Be Loved.” He was 74. (Dave Hogan / Getty Images)

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By Steve Chawkins

March 5, 2014 8:31 PM PT

Geoff Edwards, a Los Angeles radio personality and TV game show host who for years flew weekly to Sacramento to emcee the California Lottery’s “Big Spin,” died Wednesday at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica.

He was 83.

His death was caused by complications from pneumonia, his agent Fred Wostbrock said.

Over the years, Edwards hosted 10 game shows, including “Jackpot” and “Treasure Hunt.”

On radio, he was a clever talker who sprinkled music and news with homegrown bits like “The Answer Lady.” That was simply Edwards answering listeners’ questions, often comically, without even pretending to imitate a female voice.

But there was also a serious side to his radio personality.

In 1989, he left KFI after refusing to air station promotions touting a fellow host’s planned destruction of recordings by singer Cat Stevens, who had become a Muslim and adopted the name Yusuf Islam. On air, Edwards called Tom Leykis’s upcoming record-burning “fascist.”

“If this radio station is supporting that,” Edwards told listeners, “then I’m out of here. I don’t want to work here.”

Leykis, who called off the burning because of potential air pollution problems, instead crushed a pile of 200 Cat Stevens records and tapes with a steamroller. It was payback, he said, for Stevens supporting the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death edict against author Salman Rushdie for blasphemy.

Edwards, who had been suspended, quit. His 9 a.m.-to-noon program was replaced by the syndicated “Rush Limbaugh Show.”

Born Feb. 15, 1931, in Westfield, N.J., Geoffrey Bruce Owen Edwards attended Duke University and later worked as a disc jockey at WOKO-AM in Albany, N.Y. Two years later, he was running a jazz show on San Diego’s KFMB and then traveled up the coast to radio jobs in Los Angeles at KHJ, KMPC and KFI.

“He was a very talented, very hip individual,” said longtime radio and TV personality Gary Owens. “He could comment on just about anything in the news.”

Branching into TV with “Jackpot” in the early 1970s, Edwards “helped change the look of game shows,” his agent said.

“He had long hair, he never wore a tie, he had an unbuttoned shirt with a gold chain, jeans and boots,” Wostbrock said. “In 1974, that was really dramatic.”

In 1978 and 1979, he was a celebrity panelist on a syndicated show called “The Love Experts.” One of his fellow panelists was a young comic named Dave Letterman.

In the 1980s, Edwards hosted “Starcade,” where contestants battled via arcade video games.

Edwards also worked as a travel writer and came back from a 2003 Tahitian cruise to a job offer at KSUR — nicknamed “The Surf.”

“The next day by noon, I was enslaved again,” he joked to a Times reporter.

Edwards’ survivors include his wife Michael, sons Todd and Chess, daughter Shawn, stepsons Justin Feffer and Jason Feffer and nine grandchildren.

A previous marriage ended in divorce.

steve.chawkins@latimes.com