[OKDXA] Jean Shepherd, K2ORS (SK) on NPR

[Nelson Derks]

Shep was a fairly amazin' guy, especially by today's standards.

When he was on WOR in NYC it was late at night and his job was to tell 
stories for an hour or so. I was in Philadelphia at the time going to 
school during the days and working nights and had a button on the car 
radio set to 710 kHz. We used to drive home together.

Anyway, from time to time he'd get going on a story and run long. The 
board op wouldn't cut him and if the show ran an extra five minutes or 
so it just did. They'd both get a memo the next day but you'd never, 
ever hear that today. Another thing he was famous for was pulling little 
stunts whenever the station was thinking about moving or replacing his 
program. He'd make a little mention on the air asking his listeners to 
pick up something like a bar of castille soap or a new set of shower 
curtain hooks the next time they went shopping. No particular reason, 
just told the audience he'd appreciate it if they would.

Two days after he did the castille soap pitch a friend of his mentioned 
it in his column in the NY Post. You couldn't find a bar of castille 
soap in any store within a 75 mile radius of NYC. They were all sold 
out. That was his way of letting management know that he had an audience 
and just because the sales guys weren't sure how to pitch the show 
didn't mean he wasn't doing his part. There were also nights when they 
blew past the local news at the bottom of the hour 'cuz the news guy had 
a case of the giggles and the story was too good to interrupt. He had 
that problem in taking pauses for commercials, too. When he was on a 
roll, he was on a roll.

It was a unique show, and there will probably never be anyone else who 
can do what he did. As a general rule radio hosts present themselves to 
"the audience".

Shep was talking to YOU and that's the only person he cared about... ;)