The AM Forum

Came across a great YouTube channel featuring a very large collection of some of the best Jean Shepherd (W9QWN and the original K2ORS) WOR broadcasts, site is called silentshep,  here are a few of the ham radio related ones, I have not heard any of these before on other internet sites:


https://youtu.be/22fl5JtoZXU

Ham Radio Part 1

https://youtu.be/uR46E_WV6vc

Ham Radio Part 2

https://youtu.be/akyTVNorXQ8

Lightning Hits the Ham Radio

https://youtu.be/wInxW9Ux_KA

Ham Radio Bootleggers

and many many many more!

One about him “fixing” the old man’s Oldsmobile was a real classic!
The audio is accompanied by slide shows of related to the topic, the ham ones are of lots of classic boatanchors.

Chris, there's a website that has all of his broadcasts archived for download as MP3... fyi.
I presume it still exists.

                         _-_-bear

No I did not know that, I do remember a site something like schmidco.com
had a lot of MP3s or podcasts.  I don’t remember seeing any if the ones I
posted YouTube links to up the thread, though.

When I started the thread, I was wondering what to title it, and remembered on one of his shows, Shep was taking about the phrase “Flick Lives”, something about using it as a secret password of sorts among his faithful listeners...

Just found out there’s actually a
Shep web site with that name....

http://www.flicklives.com/

OK youse guys, roll call time, which of you miscreants used to stay  up late, risking falling  asleep in English class the next day, and planting your face in your doodles of Apaches Mohawks and Gold Dust twins, to listen to Shep on WOR?

Warren and Carl, you’re already checked in!

Remember that song Shep always played. It was a parody of the Andrews Sisters' hit "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" and was called "The Bear Missed the Train."

Could the song possibly be Bei Mir Bist Du Shoen ?

 I don't know the song but my high school German thinks that title makes more sense.

You were close,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bei_Mir_Bistu_Shein

Originally written in Yiddish, English/German version by the Andrews Sisters, parody version The Bear Missed the Train came out in 1964, that was the one that Shep played.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bear_Missed_the_Train

https://youtu.be/Yg54k7kBXNc

Now that is interesting.

Growing up in central New Jersey, WOR 710 was the strongest AM station around.  I did not use dad's HRO or SX-28 to listen to Shep at night.  No, I used a crystal set and one transistor amplifier with headphones under the sheets.  I had trouble getting up to go to school in the morning, but I rarely ever missed Shep's monologue.  My favorites were "Stealing Batteries". and the two-part series he did on Wanda Hickey!

I Guess We started something on last Week's Vintage SSB Net Chris,
when I was Living and Working in Maine in the late 70's I recall Hearing " k2ors Mobile" looking for Contacts through the Local 2 Meter Portland repeater, unfortunately no One Replied.   (Jean Owned a Camp in the Region)

Shep was such a talented guy. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to sit in a radio studio for an hour a night, five nights a week, and tell stories? Yet he was able to do it and keep us enthralled. He had such a great radio voice and a terrific sense of how to build drama and suspense. For my high school buddies and I, nothing was better than cruising around on a summer night and listening to Shep (and stopping at the Stewart's Root Beer stand for two cheeseburgers and a root beer, which cost the grand sum of a dollar even).

There was a book about him that came out a few years ago. It was called "Excelsior, Your Fathead." I have it around here some place, and I'll have to dig it out.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb67a2tWXcmqSd-T2X7kd3nFvTtM6w77s

“Heising Modulation”

Young W9QWN builds his first AM phone rig and becomes obsessed with clearing up the heartbreak of downward modulation.

Well it looks like the above link is a playlist that includes a number of Shep’s ham radio related episodes, Heising Modulation included.  Have fun listening!

Chris,

I've heard about Shep for years and even talked with him once on 75M when he was out west.  But I never heard his broadcasts.

Those recordings are really entertaining and quite funny. My favorite ham version is the Heising Modulation one. It reminded me of myself when things don't go quite right and the world revolves around your bummed out thoughts.   I will work my way thru most of his on You-tube.   

Thanks for the post.

T

Shep was my first 2m QSO the week I got my General license.  I was stationed in the navy in Jacksonville Florida and he was driving South on I-95.  

We chatted and I recognized his voice but not his callsign.  He mentioned he had done code tapes for the ARRL.  Bingo!    He mentioned he had a new movie coming out in two weeks, and that I might enjoy it.  "A Christmas Story".   I have fond memories of Shep every time I watch the show.  :)

I found the book about Shepherd: Eugene B. Bergmann, Excelsior, You Fathead! The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd (New York: Applause, 2005). It's not a biography but more of a scholarly analysis of Shepherd's work. It's very dense, but what saves it is a lot of excerpts from Shepherd's radio shows. It also has a section that notes the importance of ham radio in Shepherd's life.

I listened to Shepherd in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so it was interesting reading parts of his shows from a decade earlier.

I had the pleasure of meeting Shep and spending some time talking with him while a graduating college senior. He was the guest speaker at our senior dinner and had us ROTFL all the while. After the dinner was over I walked up to him and introduced myself as a fellow ham, and he came over and sat with me and a couple of friends for awhile. Pleasant memories.