Del Sharbutt

Del Sharbutt
Sharbutt in 1955.
Born	Delbert Eugene Sharbutt February 16, 1912 Cleburne, Texas
Died	April 26, 2002 Palm Desert, California
Nationality	American
Occupation	Announcer

Del Sharbutt (February 16, 1912 - April 26, 2002) was an American radio announcer. The son of "a circuit-riding minister in the Texas panhandle," he was born in Cleburne, Texas, and died in Palm Desert, California.

Sharbutt attended Texas Christian University, initially planning to study law. After he became involved in drama and music there, however, he changed his career plans. His first appearance on radio was in 1929 as a singer on WBAP in Fort Worth, Texas. He soon became an announcer and from that point on, he made his career in broadcasting. Sharbutt's obituary in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted that he spent "four decades as an announcer, newscaster and company spokesman."

A 1943 article in Radio Mirror magazine summarized Sharbutt's progress from local station WBAP to his then-current role at CBS:

[At WBAP] Del was a one-man radio station, singing, acting and announcing at $25 per week. After several years of working stations all over the Southwest, he ended up at $19 a week. Not satisfied with this progress in reverse, he went to Chicago and, after starving for two weeks, took a job singing in a Presbyterian Church. There he met a man who steered him into his first break as an announcer on Chicago's station WJJD. Del stuck at that for a year and a half, then came to New York. He arrived without a single contact and, three days later, beat out 50 competitors for an important job at CBS.

Old-time radio shows for which Sharbutt was an announcer included The Man I Married,Lavender and Old Lace, Guy Lombardo, Jack Pearl, Ray Noble, Bob Hope, The Song Shop, Hobby Lobby, Myrt and Marge, Hour of Charm, Melody and Madness, Colgate Ask-It-Basket, Lanny Ross,Amos 'n' Andy, Club Fifteen, The Jack Carson Show, Lum and Abner, Your Hit Parade.,The Campbell Playhouse,Request Performance.,Meet Mr. McNutley and Meet Corliss Archer.