At the end of the July 4th holiday weekend of 1953, Shep and three partners opened in Cincinnati a firm named Foreign Car Sales and Service, which sold and serviced all current cars from Germany, as well as from France, England and Italy. The Volkswagen "Bug" had first been exported from Germany in 1949, and was fast becoming popular among certain buyers in the United States and Canada by the time the dealership opened.
The only one of the dealership's four partners who seemed to have any prior experience in such a venture was William Malion, who had been a foreign car service manager in Philadelphia. Given that Shep had recently returned to Cincinnati to work at WLW after leaving KYW, it may be surmised that Shep probably came in contact with Malion while working and living in Pennsylvania. Malion was stopped for speeding in Cincinnati several times later that year, and had his license suspended at least twice by that December. And in January, he was sued for $15,000 in damages while doing business on behalf of the enterprise. Nothing can be readily located about the venture after 1954, at which time it may have folded. Malion later became a race car driver.
On his October 4, 1965 WOR show, Shep does a commercial for Rover and he talks about the Foreign Car dealership he owned in Cincinnati. (An audio clip can be heard above) There is also another show from September 11, 1970 where he talks about "Thefts at his Dealership" for which I do not have audio.
