Tesh Market

Spencer Patterson

Friday, April 15, 2005 | 8:34 a.m.

Any idea which object in a hotel room hosts the most potentially harmful germs?

John Tesh, "Entertainment Tonight" anchor-turned-new-age musician, wants you to know the answer.

"It's not the light switch. It's not the toilet. It's the TV remote," Tesh said in a phone interview from his Los Angeles office last week. "It has 50,000 germs on it, because the maid never cleans it. You pick that thing up and then touch your nose and guess what?"

How about a song that gauges the proper amount of time to brush your teeth?

"You can do either 'Yellow Submarine' or 'My Favorite Things'," Tesh said. "That was invented by a dentist."

Those sorts of quirky bits of advice Tesh calls them "Intelligence For Your Life" minutes are sprinkled nightly into the nationally syndicated "John Tesh Radio Show."

On Saturday, Tesh will also bring them to the Suncoast's Grand Ballroom as part of his "Music and Intelligence For Your Life" concert. The four-hour event, which includes lunch, begins at 10 a.m.

Though Tesh, a keyboardist who has released more than three dozen albums since 1988, has toured behind his music over the years, the Las Vegas happening marks his first combined discussion-and-music concert.

Or at least, the first official one.

"Even at my music concerts ... so much has happened to me that a lot of people can relate to that I end up talking for half of it anyway," Tesh, 52, said. "So this is really the next step for me."

Tesh chose Las Vegas for his first such gathering due to his success on local lite -rock station KMZQ100.5-FM (Lite 100.5), which picked up Tesh's radio show in March 2004.

The show, which airs nightly from 7 p.m. to midnight and reruns again beginning at midnight each night, is rated No. 1 in the market among women from ages 25 to 54.

"The audience there is really our core demographic," Tesh said. "This program was created for people like my wife (actress Connie Selleca), who's turning 50 this year. She's an actress, a mother and a business woman and she doesn't have any time to read Prevention magazine or Women's Fitness or whatever. That's who the radio show was created for."

Tesh called Saturday's live version "a place where mostly couples can come and be inspired together, get out of the house and actually learn something."

Topics are slated to include money and finances, relationships, goals and dreams and health, fitness and longevity.

Tesh stressed the goal realization aspect of his motivational speaking.

"You see somebody out there and they've got all this talent, yet they're afraid of taking that next step. And then they're 90 years old and they're on their deathbed going, 'Why the heck didn't I do this?' " Tesh said.

"The simple way I put it is, if the guy who used to read the celebrity birthdays on television is sitting behind a grand piano, you need to go home and get your clarinet right now, because anything can happen."

Saturday's event will also feature psychologist Dr. Perry Buffington and comedian Isaac Witty. Both will take turns onstage, providing Tesh with opportunities to interact with fans in his audience.

Many are likely to ask similar questions.

"I get a lot of, 'Are you out of your mind? Why did you leave "Entertainment Tonight" when you were making seven figures?' Or, 'How does a kid who left college as a junior end up anchoring the news in New York at 23 years old?' " Tesh said.

Tesh explained that for him, the answers are threefold.

"If I ever write a book, it will be called something like 'Hard Work, Risk and Prayer,' " he said. "That's really the way I try to live my life, and I think if you're missing any one of those three then you probably won't get where you want to go."

But though faith is an important component of Tesh's life -- he has even released several Christian-themed worship albums in recent years -- he said Saturday's show will be distinctly nonreligious.

"Some people don't want to hear that component, which is fine," he said. "It's not like I'll be preaching. It's definitely a secular concert, the same way the radio program is a secular radio program, but people know it's hosted by a Christian."

If Saturday goes well, Tesh said he might try a similar discussion and music format at other locales at some point.

"We've had a lot of interest from cruise ships and destination areas," he said. "Disney also wants to do something."

Don't look for Tesh to allow his latest venture to eat up a significant chunk of his time, however.

"I don't really ever do anything unless it's useful and a lot of fun, so I'm not really interested in doing another one of those 65-city tours," he said. "I have a 10-year-old daughter at home."

Instead, Tesh will continue focusing on his radio show, which reaches more than 60 cities across the country. And, of course, on his "Intelligence For Life" minutes.

"Did you know if you have a pet, especially a dog, you can take 40 points off your blood pressure score?" he said. "People who have pets have a lower blood pressure. It's true."