Tom Scharpling

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Tom Scharpling is the host of The Best Show on WFMU, a 3-hour comedy, music and talk radio program which airs every Tuesday night on New Jersey freeform radio station, WFMU. He is also an executive producer and writer for the television series Monk, on the USA Network, as well as a contributing writer to Tom Goes to the Mayor's second season. He is best known for his on-air collaboration with Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster on WFMU. Together, as Scharpling and Wurster, they have released 5 critically acclaimed CDs of comedy segments from The Best Show on their Stereolaffs record label.

In the early 1990s, Scharpling was the publisher of 18 Wheeler fanzine, and ran an independent record label of the same name. The first 7" single by Portastatic was released by Scharpling's label in 1992.

He was also a contributing writer for The Onion, as well as the writer of Harp Magazine's (Not So) Great Moments in Rock column. He also contributed the liner notes for The Electrifying Conclusion, Guided By Voices's DVD documentary of their final live show in Chicago.

Scharpling appears on an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force ("The Shaving") as the voice of "Willie Nelson", an awkward, unassertive onion/spider monster hybrid who lives in the attic of the house. He also appears on the special features portion of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume 3 DVD.

[edit] Big Dipper Reunion

On his January 20, 2004 radio program, Scharpling had been derisively talking about the VH1 show Bands Reunited. This discussion led to Scharpling facetiously declaring his goal of reuniting the beloved (though relatively unknown) 1980s Boston indie-rock band Big Dipper. In the following weeks, the concept of a "Big Dipper Reunion" had become a recurring in-joke on the program. Scharpling began calling the members at home to convince them to reunite. He first reached bassist Steve Michener, who was surprised that there would be any interest in a reunion. Eventually, other members of the band called in, all speculating on whether or not such a reunion would be a good idea.

In 2008, Scharpling's quest to reunite Big Dipper was finally achieved. In advance of several reunion shows in April 2008, Merge Records released the 3-disc Supercluster: A Big Dipper Anthology on March 18th, featuring liner notes by Scharpling.