Wes "Scoop" Nisker (December 22, 1942 – July 31, 2023) was an American author,

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

commentator,

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

, and

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

meditation instructor. He was a fixture on the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

free-form radio station KSAN in the late 1960s and 1970s, and later was heard regularly on KFOG. He was well known for the catchphrase, "If you don't like the news ... go out and make some of your own," which he also used as the title for a 1994 book. Nisker's radio features could be unconventional, like this traffic report: "People are driving to work to earn the money to pay for the cars they're driving to work in. Back to you." He and his books were covered in various publications of record. He was the founder and co-editor of the international

Theravada Buddhist ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dhamma'' in th ...

journal ''Inquiring Mind'' and was one of the regular teachers at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in

Marin County, California Marin County ( ) is a County (United States), county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat a ...

. Steve Feinstein of ''

Radio & Records ''Radio & Records'' (''R&R'') was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister ...

'' wrote of Nisker's work in 1985: "Nisker is the dean of FM rock radio newspeople. Since 1968 and the days of progressive pioneer KSAN, he's been crafting irreverent, satirical

sound collage In music, montage (literally "putting together") or sound collage ("gluing together") is a technique where newly branded sound objects or Musical composition, compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as musique concrè ...

s that present news as an ongoing drama in the theater of life. The timing and rhythm of his work brings to mind music; no wonder that two record albums have compiled his newscasts." Nisker was

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and his father was a

Polish Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

immigrant. Nisker died on July 31, 2023, from complications of

Lewy body dementia Lewy body dementia (LBD) is an umbrella term for two similar and common subtypes of dementia: dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). Both are characterized by changes in thinking, movement, behavior, and mood. The ...

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References

1942 births 2023 deaths Jewish American non-fiction writers American people of Polish-Jewish descent People from the San Francisco Bay Area American spiritual writers Radio personalities from San Francisco American male non-fiction writers American magazine editors Students of S. N. Goenka 21st-century American Jews Sound collage artists {{US-radio-bio-stub