From Abington to Harrisburg to Philadelphia. Philly DJ Jimmy Bishop's gold discs have traveled a long way

PHILADELPHIA — First, the gold discs honoring Earth, Wind & Fire, Barry White and Philly soul singer Eddie Holman spent 22 years in the evidence room of the Abington Police Department.

Then, they sat for another 16 years in a Pennsylvania Treasury Department vault in Harrisburg.

And now — finally — the awards marking half a million copies sold of EW&F’s 1973 album "Head To the Sky," White’s 1973 songs “Standing In the Shadows Of Love” and “Bring Back My Yesterday,” and Holman’s 1969 hit “Hey There Lonely Girl” are back where they belong.

The case of the unclaimed gold records has been solved.

On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity returned the discs to the family of Jimmy Bishop, the legendary Philadelphia disc jockey and influential program director of WDAS-AM, who shaped the careers of acts like the Temptations, Gladys Knight, and the Jackson 5. The gold records were gifted to Bishop by the artists or labels in appreciation of his support.

Garrity presented the records to Bishop’s sons Tabb and Jimmy Bishop Jr., and his wife Louse Williams Bishop at the IHeartMedia offices in Bala Cynwyd that house the studios of WDAS-FM (105.3).

The event was a Philadelphia music history teaching moment celebrating legacy of Bishop, a powerful force in the 1960s and early 1970s when ‘DAS was the dominant radio station in the Black community.

Starting in 1964, Bishop led a team that included such classic jocks as Georgie Woods, Douglas “Jocko” Henderson and Joe “Butterball” Tamburro. Louise Williams Bishop, the “Gospel Queen” who altered music history by introducing Aretha Franklin to producer Jerry Wexler with whom she would create her greatest work, was also on the air.

“When you work at ‘DAS, you are stepping in the line of some of the greatest voices in Philadelphia radio,” Patty Jackson, current ‘DAS host and 2023 Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame inductee, said Wednesday. “And at ‘DAS, Jimmy Bishop was that guy. He was this huge radio presence who believed in Black music and the heritage.”

Bishop’s influence in the soul and R&B worlds was formidable. He regularly hosted multi-acts shows before screaming fans at the Nixon Theatre on 52nd Street and Uptown on North Broad.

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