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John Frank Tesh Jr. (born July 9, 1952) is an American musician and radio and television presenter. He wrote the '' NBA on NBC'' basketball theme " Roundball Rock", and hosts the ''Intelligence for Your Life'' radio show. In addition, since 2014, he has hosted ''Intelligence for Your Life TV'' with his wife, Connie Sellecca. Tesh has won six Emmys and has four gold albums, two Grammy nominations, and an
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
award for investigative journalism. Tesh has sold over eight million records. His live concerts have raised more than $7 million for PBS. He has co-hosted the television program ''
Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Par ...
''. He has previously worked as a sports commentator and host for the
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
, Wimbledon, the US Open, the Tour de France, Ironman Triathlon, and as a news anchor and reporter. In 2018, Tesh was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.


Early life

Tesh was born in Garden City, New York, on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
, the son of Mildred (Bunny), a nurse, and John Frank Tesh Sr., a textile chemist, both from
North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
. He graduated from Garden City High School in 1970. Playing piano and trumpet from the age of six, he was named to the New York State Symphonic Orchestra in high school, while also playing the organ in a rock band.Bio at Crossmap.com
Tesh studied communications and music at
North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...
. He was also a "walk on" with the varsity lacrosse and soccer teams. While at North Carolina State, studying physics and chemistry, he took a TV and radio course. Tesh worked part-time reading the news for Rick Dees at WKIX (AM) Raleigh in 1974. His roommate, Bill Leslie, anchor at WRAL-TV, helped him get into the radio and TV field. While in the area, Tesh worked as a news anchor in Raleigh, Orlando, Nashville, and New York's
WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS New York, is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–lic ...
; this portion of his career spanned 12 years.


Career


''Entertainment Tonight'' and television career

His television career included a stint as a news anchor and reporter at WSM-TV (now
WSMV-TV WSMV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Media alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTNX-LD (channel 29). The two stations share studios on Knob Road i ...
) in
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
, in the 1970s, where he often covered the same stories as
Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
, who worked at a competing Nashville station. From Nashville, Tesh shuffled to WTVD in
Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
, then down to WFTV in Orlando, and finally up to New York's
WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS New York, is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–lic ...
, where, at age 22, he was their youngest reporter. In the fall of 1978, Tesh was a roving reporter for CBS during the 1978 New York City Marathon, which he ran and completed in 3:51:56. However, he became more well known when he co-hosted the television show ''
Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Par ...
'' from 1986 to 1996. Tesh also served as a sportscaster for CBS and later NBC, anchoring events such as the Tour de France bicycle race from 1983 through 1986 (Tesh has the distinction of being the anchor for the first American broadcast of this event), the US Open, and gymnastics at the
1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...
and
1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
. Tesh hosted the short-lived ''One on One with John Tesh'' talk show in 1991–92 on NBC daytime, and co-hosted the show '' John & Leeza from Hollywood'' with fellow ''Entertainment Tonight'' personality Leeza Gibbons from 1993 to 1994, also on NBC daytime. In 2014, Tesh returned to syndicated television in the series ''Intelligence for Your Life TV'', based on his radio show. Tesh appeared in " The Icarus Factor", an episode of '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', playing a
Klingon The Klingons ( ; Klingon language, Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a humanoid species of aliens in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the Star Trek: The Original Series, original ''Star T ...
warrior. He also appeared as himself in a 1987 episode of the daytime serial '' Santa Barbara''.


Musical career

In 1987, Yanni was assembling his first touring band to promote his album '' Out of Silence'', as well as selections from '' Keys to Imagination''. Being good friends, Tesh asked Yanni if he could join the band as keyboardist along with Joyce Imbesi and drummer Charlie Adams, as he had never been onstage for a live performance, and he needed the experience. Despite already having a full-time job with ''
Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Par ...
'', and the long hours of rehearsal for the band, he performed exceptionally well, although he participated in only one tour with Yanni, playing in approximately twelve shows, including the " 1988 Concert Series", before being replaced by Bradley Joseph. Later, Yanni assisted Tesh in signing his first recording contract with Private Music. In the 1990s, Tesh was credited with the theme music to '' Bobby's World'', hosted by Howie Mandel, and the '' NBA on NBC'' theme, known as " Roundball Rock". Tesh composed the ''NBA on NBC'' theme after an idea hit him while traveling. In order to recall his idea at a later juncture, Tesh recorded the initial beat vocally on his answering machine, by ringing his home phone and leaving a message for himself. The theme was used for the ''NBA on NBC'' before the network stopped carrying NBA games following the 2001–02 season (as well as an
electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
-driven spinoff that was used on NBC's WNBA telecasts from 1997 to 2002), though NBC would revive the theme for its basketball coverage during the
2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...
. Tesh would later license the song to
Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...
for its college basketball coverage. In August 1994, John performed at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, for his first ''Live at Red Rocks'' concert. Tesh performed with conductor John Bisharat and the 70-piece Colorado Symphony Orchestra. The concert featured Tesh playing grand piano, Charlie Bisharat playing electric violin, and Everette Harp playing alto saxophone. Also featured were Olympic gold medal-gymnasts Nadia Comaneci (1976) and Bart Conner (1984) performing gymnastic routines specially-choreographed to Tesh's music. After Tesh left his ten-year job as co-host for ''Entertainment Tonight'' in 1996, he turned to his career as a contemporary keyboardist. This led to him starting ''The John Tesh Radio Show'' in 2003.


''John Tesh Radio Show'' and spin-offs

Tesh currently has a nationally syndicated radio show called the ''John Tesh Radio Show'', which typically airs on
adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
, classic hits, Christian and
soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...
radio formats. The music is interspersed with various factoids and other information Tesh considers useful to listeners, often with topics such as health and well-being. These factoids are called "Intelligence for Your Life", played on radio stations across the United States and Canada, and the
Armed Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two sub ...
. Select pieces of "Intelligence for Your Life" are broken up and distributed in vignette form to other radio stations (including talk radio formats) and for use on morning shows. There is also a three-hour weekend show, "Intelligence for Your Health", launched in 2010, hosted by Connie Sellecca. Across all of its versions, Tesh's radio programs reach listeners across the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom, placing it on the list of most-listened-to radio programs. Tesh's main rival is '' Delilah'', and these two shows are sometimes aired in the same market on competing stations, or occasionally on the same stations in differing time slots. The show started as a weekend show in 2000 on Clear Channel's KKDJ-FM/Bakersfield and then a few other stations, expanding to a daily version in 2003. The program was originally syndicated by Westwood One under the name ''On the Air with John Tesh'', albeit with a slightly different format. It is produced by Tesh with a staff of 35 and still distributed by syndicator Westwood One. In September 2016, the partnership with Westwood One was renewed in a new multi-year agreement. At the time, Westwood One indicated that it was airing on 280 radio stations. As of 2022, the programs are distributed through a partnership with Compass Media Networks. In late 2014, a television version of these factoids, ''Intelligence for Your Life TV'', debuted in syndication to local stations. In April 2016, the TV program was seen on 174 stations. The series also features health segments hosted by his wife, Connie Sellecca, based on her own radio program, "Intelligence for Your Health". Tesh also authored a book, ''Intelligence for Your Life: Powerful Lessons for Personal Growth'', in 2008, reprinted in 2012 (, publisher Thomas Nelson).


Personal life

Tesh has been married to actress Connie Sellecca since 1992. They have one daughter together named Prima. His wife also has a son with actor Gil Gerard, named Gib, who now appears on some of Tesh's radio and TV programs. Tesh and Sellecca reside in Los Angeles. In the 1970s, he also briefly dated
Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
. Tesh is a Christian. He was raised a
Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
and was involved in the church during his youth. He played organ, sang in the choir, and went to church camp. He became inactive in the church during his adult life, but became involved again after Sellecca introduced him to pastor Louis Lapides. Since then, he has written and performed Christian music.


Awards

During his early career as a television journalist in the 1970s, Tesh received an Associated Press award for investigative journalism. In 2018 John Tesh was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. In 2019 he was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. In 2007, Tesh won the Syndicated Personality/Show of the Year award by '' Radio & Records'' magazine for his radio show. Tesh was nominated in 2003 for the Grammy for "Best Pop Instrumental Album" for ''Power of Love''. John has also earned three gold albums, six Emmys for his sports themes, and a '' Keyboard Magazine'' Award.


Discography


Studio albums

* 1987: ''Music from the Tour de France, Vol. I'' (Tesh Music BMI) * 1988: ''Tour de France'' ( Private Music) * 1989: '' Garden City'' (Cypress) * 1992: '' A Romantic Christmas'' ( Decca) * 1992: ''Ironman Triathlon'' (GTSP) * 1992: ''Music in the Key of Love'' (GTSP) * 1992: ''The Games'' (GTSP) * 1993: ''Monterey Nights'' (GTSP) * 1993: '' Winter Song'' (GTSP) 1994: (Decca) * 1994: ''A Family Christmas'' (Decca) * 1994: ''Sax by the Fire'' (Decca) * 1995: ''Sax on the Beach'' (Decca) * 1996: ''Discovery'' (Decca) * 1996: ''Choirs of Christmas'' (GTSP) * 1997: ''Avalon'' (Decca) * 1997: ''Sax All Night'' (Decca) * 1998: ''Grand Passion'' (GTSP) * 1998: ''Guitar by the Fire'' (Decca) * 1998: ''Songs from the Road'' (BMG) * 1998: ''Pure Movies'' (GTSP) * 1999: ''One World'' (GTSP) * 1999: ''John Tesh & Friends'' (Columbia River) * 2000: ''Pure Hymns'' (Faith MD) * 2000: ''Pure Movies, Vol. 2'' (Garden City) * 2001: ''Pure Orchestra'' (Garden City) * 2001: ''Pure Gospel'' (Faith MD) * 2001: ''Classical Music for an Intimate Mood'' (Garden City) * 2001: ''Classical Music for a Stress-Free World'' (Garden City) * 2001: ''Classical Music for Babies (and Their Moms)'' Vol. 1 & 2 (Garden City) * 2001: ''Classical Music for a Prayerful Mood'' (Garden City & Faith MD) * 2002: ''Awesome God'' (Garden City) * 2002: ''The Power of Love'' (Garden City) * 2002: ''Christmas Worship'' (
Word A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...
) * 2002: ''A Deeper Faith'' (Garden City) * 2002: ''God of Wonders'' (Garden City) * 2002: ''Worship God'' (Garden City) * 2003: ''A Deeper Faith, Vol. 2'' (Garden City) * 2007: ''A Passionate Life'' (Garden City) * 2008: ''Grand Piano Christmas'' (Garden City) * 2009: ''Grand Piano Worship'' (Garden City) * 2010: ''Grand Piano Romance'' (Garden City) * 2011: ''Big Band Christmas'' (Garden City) * 2012: ''Big Band'' (Garden City)


Live albums

* 1995: '' Live at Red Rocks'' (Decca) * 2004: '' Worship at Red Rocks'' (live) (Garden City) * 2005: ''Red Rocks Platinum'' (live) (Garden City) * 2008: ''Alive: Music & Dance'' (Garden City) * 2020: ''Songs and Stories from the Grand Piano'' (Garden City)


Compilations and collections

* 1990: ''Tour de France – The Early Years'' (Private Music) * 1993: ''Monterey Nights'' (Decca) * 1995: ''Anthology'' * 1997: ''Victory – the sports collection'' (GTSP) * 1999: ''Heart of the Sunrise - The Millennium Collection'' (John Tesh) * 1999: ''One Day'' (Unison) * 2000: ''Pure Hymns'' (Faith MD) * 2000: ''Forever More: The Greatest Hits of John Tesh'' (Decca) * 2003: ''Worship Collection: Awesome God'' (Garden City) * 2009: ''The Best of Christmas'' * 2009: ''John Tesh – Greatest Hits – Live in Concert Vol. 1 CD/DVD'' (Garden City)


Singles

* 1988: ''A Thousand Summers'' (single) * 1989: ''You Break It'' ( Atlantic) (single)


Other albums

* 1995: ''Backstage with John Tesh'' (Digital Entertainment) (an interactive CD-rom) * 2005: ''Drive Time Intelligence'' (26 tracks of Intelligence For Your Life on the go, plus 3 bonus music tracks)
* 2010: ''God of Wonders'' (Word)


Videography

* 1993: ''A Romantic Christmas'' * 1995: ''Live in Monterey'' * 1995: ''Live at Red Rocks'' * 1997: ''The Avalon Concert'' * 2000: ''One World'' * 2002: ''Christmas Worship'' * 2004: ''Worship at Red Rocks'' * 2008: ''Alive: Music & Dance'' * 2009: ''Greatest Hits: Live in Concert, Vol. 1'' * 2012: ''Big Band Live'' * 2020: ''Songs and Stories from the Grand Piano''


References


External links

*
Official music website
*
John Tesh
at Allmovie * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tesh, John 1952 births 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American pianists 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American pianists American Christians American male bloggers American male composers American male pianists American performers of Christian music American radio personalities American television sports announcers Composers for piano Cycling announcers Garden City High School (New York) alumni Gymnastics broadcasters New-age pianists North Carolina State University alumni NC State Wolfpack men's lacrosse players Olympic Games broadcasters People from Garden City, New York Private Music artists American video bloggers YouTubers from New York (state) Living people