With Jon Wurster, a drummer for Superchunk and other rock bands, he began performing seemingly spontaneous (but in fact carefully scripted) comedy routines in which Mr. Wurster phoned in under various annoying guises.

Perhaps their most famous bit was their first, “Rock, Rot & Rule,” in which Mr. Wurster played the author of a book that, in frustratingly arbitrary manner, classified pop artists into those three categories. (The Beatles rock, but do not rule because “they wrote a lot of bad songs”; David Bowie rots because he went through “too many changes.”) Mr. Wurster said in a telephone interview that in spite of the “curmudgeon-osity” of Mr. Scharpling’s radio persona, he is “a super-caring guy” in real life.

“People are annoyed by random, inconsequential things, and they love to hear him comment on that,” Mr. Wurster said. “There’s no one who addresses those little aggravations as well and as comically as Tom does.”

In 2000, Mr. Scharpling created “The Best Show,” which he and Mr. Wurster populated with characters who live in the fictional New Jersey town of Newbridge.

With this format, Mr. Scharpling became one of the most popular personalities on WFMU’s roster.

The exact number of listeners for the show, either on the radio or the wfmu.org website, is difficult to measure. The longtime station manager, Ken Freedman, said that Mr. Scharpling was probably its biggest fund-raiser, who alone could generate $250,000 in contributions in two days during pledge drives. But Mr. Scharpling said he was worn out from expending energy on those drives and was frustrated that he could not make money by doing “The Best Show” for the station. Mr. Freedman said in a phone interview that Mr. Scharpling’s departure was inevitable.

“His show had become such a phenomenon, and it was interfering with his ability to do other work,” he said. “Meanwhile, he was watching other comedy podcasts get sponsors and turn into full-time jobs.”