I met Shep at a show at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford, NJ perhaps in 1969 or 70. Got to ask him what his brother Randy was doing. I listened to him on WOR for years and years. I was wondering, are you selling your book personally? I ask because I'd like to buy it from you directly and also perhaps have you autograph it? Thanks. Fred KO4AWW
Hi, Fred. Glad you got to talk to Jean. His audience on WOR was spectacular, but he had trouble holding advertisers. He actually lost money for the station even though he was as good as it gets on radio. Sure, I can send you a personally signed copy of the book as long as I have some copies. Please send a note to my email address here on QRZ and I'll respond right away. I'm at the beginning of media publicity for the book; just did WABC Radio last night. But as long as I have copies, I would love to do this for you or anyone else. 73, Quin, K8QS
Many recordings of his radio program are uploaded to YouTube. I enjoy listen to a good yarn about his adventures, especially building great, while working on my own projects. https://youtube.com/@greenteablend?si=n5hWjWjV5630MDZ8
Right, Jim. Much good stuff is being remastered and posted. If you have an Audible sub, you can listen to my book for next to nothing: Quin, author of "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out! Life Lessons from the Movie 'A Christmas Story'"
That any many other Shepherdian antics, Bob. I recall Jean once making fun of one of his few ongoing advertisers, Miller -- the champaign of bottled beer. After an ad, he said something like, "There you go, gang. Get a snootful of that stuff and you'll forget about all of your problems." Q
I grew up in Elizabeth New Jersey not far from the 50 KW WOR transmitter. I listened to Shep many nights on my little 2 transistor Lafayette radio. After falling asleep several nights and waking up to a dead 9 Volt battery, I built a crystal set. Never had to worry about buying batteries again. That little crystal set was great. I could pick up 3 stations. WOR being the strongest. It was actually my big sister who turned me on to Shep. Although I wasn't licensed till 1969, I can credit my interest in ham radio to Shep. I only worked him one time in 1989 when he was on his boat on the inland waterway somewhere in the South. Excelsior! Tom WA4ILH ex WB2NPO
Thanks, Tom. I don't recall Jean having a boat or even liking sailing, so this is new to me (although my memory is not the greatest, either). In Chicago, I could listen to a couple of local AM stations with just a diode and headphones, using the telephone ground. No good for WOR in New York! Q
Among his many other achievements, Jean Shepherd invented the flash mob, decades before the Internet. The following is an excerpt from an article in the Washington Post. “ One summer night in 1956, at Shepherd's direction, for no special purpose, his listeners gathered. He called it The Milling. He issued instructions about when and where, and they came in the hundreds to a Manhattan street corner, and, as he told them to, they milled.” They hung around for some time, it was reported, until the police arrived, and they thereafter peacefully dispersed.
My first encounter with Jean was through "Tune in the World with Ham Radio". A book my mom ordered through the JC Penny catalog (upon me circling it in a red marker) for my 14th birthday. It contained a cassette tape with Jean introducing the curriculum of learning morse code. His last words I remember were "...Concentrate... ha ha ha... just concentrate". From there it was history as I learned morse code and went on to pass my novice test soon after. He had a voice that instilled to all ages!
Great, Mark. I am so old that I used a record to learn the code. ;} I did include in the video a shot of the Shepherd code cassette. Quin, author of "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out! Life Lessons from the Movie 'A Christmas Story'"
