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Long before Jean Shepherd wrote "A Christmas Story" - the movie about Ralphie wanting a Red Ryder BB Gun, despite his mother's fears he'll shoot his eye out - the humorist got his start a DJ on three Cincinnati radio stations.
He worked for three (WKRC, WSAI, WCKY) because they kept firing Shepherd for talking too much, and not playing enough records, from 1947 to 1951. That's what I learned researching Jean Shepherd's Cincinnati for our Sunday history page.
"I developed my style here, but it wasn't easy," Shepherd told The Enquirer during a visit in 1982, a year before "A Christmas Story" premiered in theaters. Shepherd died in 1999 at age 78. ("A Christmas Story" airs 6 p.m. Sunday on TNT, and there's the TBS marathon Christmas Eve & Christmas Day).
"Shep" developed a cult following for his late-night radio broadcasts from Shuller's Wigwam in College Hill and Lunken Airport's Sky Galley. He also worked for WLW in 1953-54 doing radio ("Mission Midnight" and hosting Cincinnati Operas from the zoo) and doing his first TV, a late-night show called "Rear Bumper."
Shep in 1958 in New York
By the time he landed in New York in early 1955, he had developed his conversational storytelling which made him popular for 22 years on WOR-AM and led to a concurrent career writing for the "Village Voice," "Playboy," and "Car & Driver" magazines; writing novels; and producing public TV shows. His 1940's Christmas tale first appeared in his 1966 novel, "In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash."
My story includes Shepherd's remembrances about working almost around-the-clock at WSAI and how he was fired by WCKY. When hired by WKRC in 1949, he made it clear to The Enquirer's John Caldwell what he would do and not do on radio at 11:30 p.m.:
"There will be no limit as to the type or style of music selected, as I intend to play anything from jazz to excerpts from classical, if I deem them sufficiently interesting or listenable. I will definitely shy away from much of the mediocre music that is palmed off as ‘commercial' by song (promoters)… who are mainly interested in making a fast buck.
"Requests will be honored only if the music requested fits the calibre of the show. There will be no dedications, as they cheapen the show, and appeal only to children anyway.
"The patter is planned to be light and mainly humorously cynical satire and definitely of adult understanding, the theory here being that the lower age groups should be in bed by air time."
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