RADIO station WOR granted a reprieve last week to Jean Shepherd, a nocturnal broadcaster scheduled for dismissal when he failed to attract enough sponsors. Executives of WOR were perplexed by the week's developments. They had not anticipated any widespread protests over the scheduled sacking of Mr. Shepherd. His Program, consisting of original and unorthodox comments on a wide range of subjects, interrupted occasionally by recordings, had been presented on the station for six months from 1 A. M. to 5:30 A. M. seven days a week. Sponsors, apparently proceeding on the premise that listeners available during those hours were weak in numbers and strong in sales resistance, were reluctant to subsidize Mr. Shepherd's rather specialized talents. A spokesman for the station summarized the situation in the following official language: "We like the guy personally and-we like the guy talent-wise. We think he has a very lovely class of people listening to him. Unfortunately there aren't enough of them.'' Assembly Mr. Shepherd's final broadcast was to have taken place last Monday morning. The night before, 400 of his followers met to protest his dismissal. Like Mr. Shepherd himself, his followers are not ordinary. They are members of his cult of Night People who function after sundown when the conventional Day People have retired. Their number includes students, artists, performers and just dreamers. Some of them are admittedly impractical fellows who regard the do-it-yourself movement with loathing. They met before the shell of the burned-out Wanamaker Building in downtown Manhattan because of the "Charles Addams feel" of the location. Their passive protest caused no serious problem for the police. After hearing a mildly worded talk by Mr. Shepherd about the baleful results of commercialism, they dispersed quietly. The meeting drew headlines in last Monday's newspapers. At WOR, the reprieve was quickly decreed. Mr. Shepherd was to continue his pre-dawn show for another week. Meanwhile, efforts were made to place him on a new broadcasting schedule. The station had made arrangements for a successor in the 1 A. M. to 5:30 A. M. period - a former vaudevillian, called Long John Nebel, who recently has been conducting auction sales in Parsippany, N. J. Mr. Shepherd, who does not arise until 2:30 P. M., was disinclined to enter directly into palaver with the station. He turned his case over to an agent from the Music Corporation of America. It is expected that the issue will be joined soon. Mr. Shepherd's reprieve will end at 5:30 tomorrow morning. The Shepherd broadcasting style has a quicksilver quality that leaves few of his listeners neutral. One of the Day People who heard him by accident one morning during a spell of insomnia, listened briefly and said "The guy's just nuts." But his followers find his stream-of-consciousness remarks fascinating. As an example, there was the Shepherd story about a chap he knew who could tell the makeand the year of a refrigerator by tasting its ice cubes. He'd stand at a bar and order a bowl of ice cubes and when they came, he'dsavor one, roll it over his tongue, think a moment and say, "Ah, let's see, that's a Kelvinator 1936. Right?" "Nope." ''No? Well it's a Kelvinator, right?" "Kelvinator, Kelvinator, ah, Kelvinator 1939. Right?" "Checko." Then he'd go to the next bar and taste a batch of Frigidaire 1947's. Never missed, Seems every ice cube has a flavor peculiarly its own. Shepherd concluded. The originator of this monologue is a 33-year-old Chicagoan, who holds a Master of Arts degree in psychology from Indiana University. He has been active in radio since he won his "ham" license at the age of 14. During World War II Mr. Shepherd served in the Army for three years. His sardonic reflections on military life are calculated to delight Old Soldiers in his audience. Before joining WOR he did similar shows on WSAI in Cincinnati and KYW in Philadelphia. His first WOR programs were heard by unappreciative Day People. He was on the air from 5:30 to 5:45 P. M. from Mondays through Fridays and from 3 to 6 P. M. on Saturdays. Then he was switched to his after-midnight spot. Now Mr. Shepherd wants to stay with his friends in the darkness.