“Scoop” Nisker is fondly remembered for his innovative audio collages and news commentaries on the “Jive 95” KSAN in the late 60s into the 70s. He reprised the act in the 80s and 90s on KFOG.
Nisker was well known for his catchphrase, “If you don’t like the news … go out and make some of your own,” which he also used as the title for a popular 1994 book, one of several he wrote about the news and his career.
A Nebraska native, Nisker moved to San Francisco in the late 1960s after studying at the University of Minnesota and Columbia University in New York. “I went to San Francisco in order to be a beatnik but I was too late, so I was assigned to the hippies,” he often said.
He was the founder and co-editor of the international Buddhist journal Inquiring Mind and taught at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County.
Scoop Nisker died in 2023 at age 80.