By Bob Gibson
Veteran New York broadcaster Dick Shepard is gone.
Better known to his legion of listeners on WNEW at different times in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s as Shepard Richard A, Dick passed away Monday after being hospitalized in south Florida for a week. His wife of nearly 65 years, Judy, told me he was taken to the hospital in Boynton Beach on Tuesday, October 9th after complaining of not feeling well.
Dick. who also worked at WABC Radio in the late 50s and during part of 1960. also appeared as a commercial, on-camera announcer on some ABC Television game shows in the 50s, and was a busy voice-over talent during parts of five decades in New York.
Sadly Dick and I just got together to celebrate his 90th birthday early last month and Ed Brown was in the process of posting a picture and a story about that when he was alerted to Dick’s passing.
Dick and I kind of worked together at WEVD in the ’70’s. He was working afternoons and I was doing “Jazz Through The Night” from a studio in my Upper East Side apartment. We spoke a couple of times and he encouraged me to take a shot at a job at WNEW. Much later, after I moved to Florida, I was invited to partake in “Radio Lunch.” Dick was one of the participants and he made a point of telling me how happy he was that I finally got the job. Lunch was great…lots of funny stories. Just last week I was thinking of him and when we’d have another get together.