Ever since AM Talkradio became the domain of screamers, malcontents, alarmists and trolls, something got lost in the translation as to what constituted entertainment via Radio.

Jean Shepherd is mostly known today as the guy who wrote "A Christmas Story" and not much else. But he was a successful author with several books to his credit, a frequent contributor to Playboy Magazine, made periodic appearances on PBS and was generally acknowledged as one of the great wits and humorists of the 1950's and 60's who had a daily radio show on WOR in New York and had a massive following. He was a story teller and something of an iconoclast with a somewhat surreal sense of humor.

Here is one of his daily shows over WOR, which was syndicated around the country. This one is from December 4, 1967 and gives you an idea of what he was like on a daily basis.

If you remember him, you know. If you have no idea, check him out and remember there was a time radio wasn't there to scare you to death or turn you into a psychopath. You could actually hear something interesting. And Jean Shepherd was certainly interesting.

(Jean Shepherd - Occupation: Cheerful Chaos Merchant)

Living on the West Coast, I didn't have the opportunity of experiencing Jean Shepherd as so many in New York did. I got it by way of rumor, his album on Elektra and his syndicated radio show that periodically ran on KPFK. I heard he was good friends with a lot of the Beat Generation poets, and growing up with a well-thumbed copy of "A Coney Island Of The Mind" in my high school notebook, anyone who was anywhere near that scene had to be a hero of mine.

Years later, I ran across a collection of tapes which featured his live shows and a bunch of his studio shows from the early 60's, which this is one.

Shepherd is pretty much known today as the guy who wrote "A Christmas Story". And even though it's achieved a kind of "classic Americana" status - it doesn't really explain who Shepherd was and why he was so loved by everyone who heard him. His was a skewed vision of the world, often darkly humorous and completely iconoclastic.

To a 16 year old mind, he was just what the doctor ordered.