‘They thought I was dead’ — Jim Gearhart’s triumphant return to NJ 101.5

We never go more than a few days here at New Jersey 101.5 without being asked a familiar question: How's Jim?

It's been nearly a year and a half since Jim Gearhart left New Jersey 101.5's airwaves, after suffering a traumatic brain injury in a terrifying fall down his cellar stairs. The nearly 26-year veteran of the station — here from the day we took on our talk format, and instrumental to proving New Jersey residents hungered for a station that was all their own — had to learn to walk all over again in the aftermath.

Now, fully recovered, he's returned to New Jersey 101.5 for a weekly podcast, "The Jim Gearhart Show." You can get it on iTunes and on Google Play.

Coming out of his self-described "cocoon," Jim hit the airwaves for the first time since late 2015 Wednesday — joining Judi Franco for an hour and recounting the fall that could have ended his life.

"I remember these EMTs sitting in there, and they kind of squeezed me around, and they said, 'This old guy, he must be made of iron. He has to have broken bones. Nobody could live through that.' ... Actually, they thought I was dead for a short while," he said.

Made of iron, indeed.

Jim said his loss of balance and fall were eventually chalked up to medicine, too much time in a hot tub, and "three fingers of Glenmorangie  Scotch" — though loosening up with the latter may have actually saved him.

Hear how in the latest installment of the podcast and the video above.

— Townsquare Media staff

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