Biography
Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster formed an unexpected comedic partnership that steered radio humor toward fresh and inventive territory. Their regular segments on the long-running program The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling, a fixture of the free-form Jersey City, New Jersey station WFMU-FM, built a devoted cult audience and drew admiration from numerous fellow comedians. In the early 1990s Scharpling, then an aspiring comedy writer and committed music enthusiast, began volunteering at WFMU; he also edited and released the music zine 18 Wheeler, which later spawned a label that issued, among other titles, a pair of singles by Portastatic, the side project of Superchunk singer and guitarist Mac McCaughan. McCaughan introduced Scharpling to Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster in 1992, and the two quickly bonded over identical comedy tastes and a shared fixation on the finer points of popular culture.
Scharpling had become a WFMU disc jockey by 1997 when he and Wurster first aired a comedy bit they had devised. Wurster phoned in as Ronald Thomas Clontle, a would-be music critic who claimed authorship of the book Rock, Rot & Rule. During the exchange Clontle repeatedly displayed his limited grasp of rock music, and several listeners called to challenge him only to meet his unbothered indifference. Copies of the broadcast began circulating, and once Scharpling launched the weekly series The Best Show on WFMU, Wurster became a fixture, phoning in each week to portray an ever-expanding roster of characters from the fictional Newbridge, New Jersey community. Among them were Philly Boy Roy, a simpleton fixated on the City of Brotherly Love; Roland Gorchnik, who insists he inspired Fonzie on Happy Days yet prefers brawling with chains; Kenny Dupree, a dubiously patriotic country singer eager to supplant the Dixie Chicks on radio playlists; and Matthew Thompkins, a programmer at a struggling cable network.
The Best Show cultivated a loyal listenership after WFMU introduced internet streaming and made the Scharpling & Wurster calls available as podcasts. Avowed fans included Conan O’Brien, Amy Poehler, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross. The duo founded the independent label Stereolaffs to issue selected calls on CD and MP3, while both men maintained separate careers—Scharpling as writer and producer for the television series Monk, and Wurster as drummer with Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, Bob Mould, Robert Pollard, Jay Farrar, and many others. In 2013 Scharpling & Wurster announced the end of The Best Show on WFMU, yet they relaunched the program in late 2014 as a podcast simply titled The Best Show. The Numero Group issued the expansive box set The Best of the Best Show in 2015, gathering 16 CDs of calls from the WFMU era. The pair later toured, and a Nashville performance yielded the 2016 LP Live at Third Man Records.
Scharpling had become a WFMU disc jockey by 1997 when he and Wurster first aired a comedy bit they had devised. Wurster phoned in as Ronald Thomas Clontle, a would-be music critic who claimed authorship of the book Rock, Rot & Rule. During the exchange Clontle repeatedly displayed his limited grasp of rock music, and several listeners called to challenge him only to meet his unbothered indifference. Copies of the broadcast began circulating, and once Scharpling launched the weekly series The Best Show on WFMU, Wurster became a fixture, phoning in each week to portray an ever-expanding roster of characters from the fictional Newbridge, New Jersey community. Among them were Philly Boy Roy, a simpleton fixated on the City of Brotherly Love; Roland Gorchnik, who insists he inspired Fonzie on Happy Days yet prefers brawling with chains; Kenny Dupree, a dubiously patriotic country singer eager to supplant the Dixie Chicks on radio playlists; and Matthew Thompkins, a programmer at a struggling cable network.
The Best Show cultivated a loyal listenership after WFMU introduced internet streaming and made the Scharpling & Wurster calls available as podcasts. Avowed fans included Conan O’Brien, Amy Poehler, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross. The duo founded the independent label Stereolaffs to issue selected calls on CD and MP3, while both men maintained separate careers—Scharpling as writer and producer for the television series Monk, and Wurster as drummer with Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, Bob Mould, Robert Pollard, Jay Farrar, and many others. In 2013 Scharpling & Wurster announced the end of The Best Show on WFMU, yet they relaunched the program in late 2014 as a podcast simply titled The Best Show. The Numero Group issued the expansive box set The Best of the Best Show in 2015, gathering 16 CDs of calls from the WFMU era. The pair later toured, and a Nashville performance yielded the 2016 LP Live at Third Man Records.
Albums
Singles