John Brandt
Augusta, Maine |
Joined: March 04, 2001 |
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Shep fan since: 1966
Discovered Shep:
Guest No: 490
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Bud Hall
Augusta, Maine |
Joined: May 07, 2007 |
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Shep fan since: 1962
Discovered Shep: On the Radio
Guest No: 2030
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Comments:
It's 1961. Hackensack, NJ. I'm 12. And... I'm tuning through the band on my new pocket size RCA transistor radio hidden under my pillow. That's so my parents wouldn't know I was still awake. Then I hear a voice, distant at first, quick...tune it in better. It's not music; not mindless, but with a beat. It's different, a real voice, like a window on the world. Entertaining, but demanding, no..commanding attention. That was my first experience with a talk show, and I was hooked on Shep!! He was talking to me, just for me!! To this day my mom doesn't know who Shep was. That's as it should be.
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Frank "Louie" Johnson
Bangor, Maine |
Joined: July 23, 2001 |
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Shep fan since: 1962
Discovered Shep:
Guest No: 649
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joseph nunez
bangor, Maine |
Joined: December 24, 2007 |
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Shep fan since: 1961
Discovered Shep: On the Radio
Guest No: 2652
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Comments:
as a kid i'd listen to him with a transitor radio under my pillow.
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David Ramsey
Brownville, Maine |
Joined: February 05, 2016 |
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Shep fan since: 1967
Discovered Shep: On the Radio
Guest No: 2925
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Comments:
Dad was a HAM and beat cop on patrol with a small radio and a piece of wire to attach to a drain pipe to get WOR. I was 12 and supposed to be sleeping and had a short wave radio and found Shep's show. Neither knew the other was listening to Shep till many years later.
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Beth Warner
Kennebunk, Maine |
Joined: January 09, 2005 |
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Shep fan since: 1964
Discovered Shep: On the Radio
Guest No: 1421
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Comments:
My father and my sister who is ten years older were both rabid Shep fans. Most evenings when ten fifteen rolled around, Shep's voice along with hysterical laughter from my family listening would drift into my bedroom and keep me awake. I couldn't figure out what they were listening to or what was making them laugh so hysterically. I probably was not more than five or six years old. My mother, a John Gambling Senior and Junior fan never really "got" Shep but she didn't listen to the radio much at night anyway. Looking back I realize she was probably too tried from doing ironing for three girls and other housework. Her evening entertainment ended early and consisted of the Newark Evening News. (I grew up in the "most urbanized state in the union" i.e. NJ)
By the time I hit high school I listened to Shep but not on the kitchen radio. I had this funky brand new Toshiba transistor radio, in a brown leather case that I could prop up next to my ear. This allowed me to tune in while I lay in my bed in the dark. Sometimes when I hadn't gotten through my homework I would listen to Shep on my green Zenith clock radio on my desk in my room. Once in a great while my dad and I listened to him together, usually on Saturday nights when Shep broadcast from the Limelight.
Speaking of the Limelight, when Shep's book came out "In God We Trust All Others Pay Cash" I purchased my own copy and went to a book signing event Shep held one Saturday afternoon at the Limelight. There must've been at least a hundred or more adolescent boys there. I stood patiently in line and when Shep saw me he grabbed my book and signed it "To Beth....a girl!" I was the only girl at the signing.
I kept that book and loaned it out to different people over the years but much to my chagrin, it mysteriously disappeared back in the late seventies/early nineteen eighties. At first I thought it was just misplaced but after repeated hunts I realized that it was really and truly gone and that I would never locate its whereabouts.
I have been enjoying listening to recordings of Shep that an old moldy also a Shep fan friend sent to me last year. When the Red Sox won this year I found Shep's conclusions about being a fan of a losing team delightful and can really see his dad booing the Yankees and Lou Gehrig in particular until Gehrig hit those balls that made Shep's dad stop booing.
EXCELSIOR!
Beth Warner
p.s. sometimes Shep was annoying when he didn't have a good night or a topic of interest but I forgave him and still do to those shows when he resorted to playing the kazoo or other nonsensical stuff.
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David Sysko
Lewiston, Maine |
Joined: November 12, 2004 |
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Shep fan since: 1972
Discovered Shep: On the Radio
Guest No: 1343
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Comments:
I love the site! It has all the elements I remember, listening each weeknight at 9:15 on WOR: the opening (and closing) music, making fun over the commercials (all sponsors gotten out of the way early with haste, humor and derision),
frenetic storytelling (enough to produce Dad in the hall saying it's time to go to sleep), philosophical meanderings and
subversive advice to children (so that's where I went wrong).
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Jim Craig
Mechaic Falls, Maine |
Joined: January 02, 2004 |
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Shep fan since: 1959
Discovered Shep: On the Radio
Guest No: 1187
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Comments:
Lifelong fan and devotee of Shep. I've now passed the infection onto my 17 year old son who has memorized a scary number of passages from "In God We Trust..", "Wanda Hickey's Night.." and the movie "Christmas Story". Long live Shep! Excelsior you Fatheads!
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Charles Mitchell
Millinocket, Maine |
Joined: May 30, 2001 |
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Shep fan since: 1967
Discovered Shep:
Guest No: 586
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Bobbi Jolda
Old Orchard Beach, Maine |
Joined: March 31, 2005 |
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Shep fan since: 1970
Discovered Shep: Read one of his books
Guest No: 1456
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Comments:
This site is a great pleasure. Thanks!!
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shane mckenna
s.china, Maine |
Joined: June 02, 2004 |
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Shep fan since: 2001
Discovered Shep: Saw One of His Movies
Guest No: 1262
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Comments:
he is the coolist man in the united states
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James Kossuth
Saco, Maine |
Joined: March 05, 2001 |
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Shep fan since: 1964
Discovered Shep:
Guest No: 491
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Bob Dziadzio
Saco, Maine |
Joined: July 23, 2008 |
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Shep fan since: 1961
Discovered Shep: On the Radio
Guest No: 2767
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Comments:
Like others, I found him by randomly searching the dial while in bed. After hearing him for the first time, I was hooked. I was living in Western MA at the time and had to depend on the skip wave from WOR to receive him. He'd fade in and out, but still was fun to listen to. A friend from CT and I traveled down one Sat night to see him at the Limelight. Guess seeing him in person didn't have the same effect as his radio presence. Left for college in the Midwest in '66 and didn't return until he had left the airwaves. Got to see him a few times on PBS and his movies.
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Rev. Michael Lowry
Scarborough, Maine |
Joined: February 29, 2000 |
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Shep fan since: 1973
Discovered Shep:
Guest No: 27
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Tim Leise
Sullivan, Maine |
Joined: April 23, 2005 |
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Shep fan since: 1966
Discovered Shep: On the Radio
Guest No: 1467
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Comments:
ahhhh, yes...The Seven Deadly Sins...concrete New Jerseyites stabding by concrete 1964 Dodge Darts, proudly displayed on lawns throughout Mexico...live show at Metuchen H.S. ("never throw anything at a star, kid!!")...everyone kisses Johnny Carson (Ed McMahon in several places)...Route 22...The Phantom of the Open Hearth..."More doubles, Gentlemen?"...
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Max Henke
Topsham, Maine |
Joined: January 19, 2003 |
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Shep fan since: 1957
Discovered Shep: On the Radio
Guest No: 787
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Comments:
I miss that rat. 'Rat' you say? Yea, Rat, for leaving us!
I hope God is letting you work, be something to look forward too.
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