Early years

Tesh was born in Garden City, New York, on Long Island, and graduated from Garden City High School in 1971. Playing piano and trumpet from the age of 6, he studied with teachers from The Juilliard School and was named to the New York State Symphonic Orchestra in high school, while also playing theorgan in a rock band.^[1] Tesh studied communications and music at North Carolina State University graduating in 1975. While at NC State, he was initiated into Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. While in the area, Tesh worked as a news anchor at WTVD in Durham, North Carolina. After graduation, Tesh went to Orlando, Florida, to take a television position at WFTV.

[edit] Entertainment Tonight and television career

His television career included a stint as a news anchor and reporter at WSM-TV in Nashville, Tennessee, in the 1970s, where he often covered the same stories as Oprah Winfrey who worked at a competing Nashville station. He shuffled from Nashville to Raleigh, to Orlando, and finally to New York'sWCBS-TV where, at age 23, he was their youngest reporter.^[1] He later hosted the television show Entertainment Tonight from 1986 to 1996.

Tesh also served as a sportscaster for 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), and gymnastics at the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics.

Tesh hosted the "One on One with John Tesh" talk show in 1991-92 on NBC daytime and co-hosted the show John & Leeza with Leeza Gibbons in the 1990s.

Tesh appeared in "The Icarus Factor", an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, playing a Klingon warrior.

[edit] Musical career

In 1987, Yanni was putting together 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'd never been onstage for a live performance and needed the experience. Despite already having a full time job with Entertainment Tonight, and the long hours of rehearsal for the band, he did very well, although he did only one tour with Yanni, about 12 shows including the "1988 Concert Series", before being replaced byBradley Joseph. Later, Yanni helped Tesh get his first recording contract with Private Music. ^[2]

In the 1990s, John 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 on his answering machine, 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.

In August 1994, John performed at the majestic 250 million year old outdoor Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado for his first "Live at Red Rocks" concert. The four time Emmy Award-winning Tesh performs with conductor John Bisharat and the 70-piece Colorado Symphony Orchestra. The concert features Tesh playing grand piano, Charlie Bisharat playing electric violin and Everette Harp playing alto saxophone. Also featured are Olympic gold medal gymnasts Nadia Comaneci (1976) and Bart Conner (1984) performing gymnastic routines specially choreographed to Tesh's music.

After Tesh left his 10-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.

In 2008, he put out a piano gospel dance DVD called "Alive: Music & Dance". It combines Tesh's music, big gospel choirs and hip-hop dance.^[3]

[edit] John Tesh Radio Show

Tesh currently has a nationally-syndicated radio show called the John Tesh Radio Show, which typically airs on Adult Contemporary and Classic Hitsradio stations, which plays soft rock music (or music selected by an affiliate station themselves), 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." It is played on radio stations across the United States and Canada. "This show was created for my wife, (actress Connie Sellecca)," he says. "She's one of those people where, you look at her side of the bed (and see) six issues of Prevention magazine and five months of Oprah magazine . . . (she) never has time to read any of that stuff . . . I feel there's enough entertainment there - nobody needs to know the latest in the trial of Anna Nicole Smith from us, or who the celebrity birthdays are. So I said, ‘Let's just do something that moves people forward in their life, and we'll do the work for them.'" According to Tesh the show now airs on about 250 stations nationwide, primarily on adult contemporary music stations, but is carried on some classic hits stations as well; select pieces of "Intelligence for Your Life" are broken up and distributed in short form to other radio stations (including talk radio formats) as well, for use on morning shows.

The show was originally syndicated by Westwood One under the name On the Air with John Tesh, albeit with a slightly different format. It is currently self-syndicated.

[edit] Awards

In 2007, Tesh won the Syndicated Personality/Show of the Year award by Radio & Records magazine for his radio show. Other finalists included Delilah,Blair Garner, Steve Harvey, Kidd Kraddick, and The Lia Show. ^[4] Tesh was nominated in 2003 for the Grammy for "Best Pop Instrumental Album" forPower of Love. John has also earned three gold albums, six Emmys for his sports themes, and a Keyboard Magazine Award. ^[5]