John Shepard III
| John Shepherd III | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 19, 1886 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | May 11, 1950 (aged 64) Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Retail store owner, radio station executive |
| Known for | Radio pioneer, founder of the Yankee Network |
| Parent(s) | John Shepard Jr. and Flora Martin Shepard |
John Shepard III (1886 – 1950) was an American radio executive and merchant. Among his many achievements, he was one of the original board members of the National Association of Broadcasters, having been elected the group's first Vice President in 1923. Shepard co-founded a New England radio network, known as the Yankee Network, along with his brother Robert, in 1929-1930. Shepard was also an early proponent of Frequency Modulation or FM broadcasting: he established the first FM network, when he linked his station in Massachusetts with one in New Hampshire in early 1941. He also was an early experimenter with home shopping, creating perhaps the first all-female radio station, WASN, in early 1927; the station broadcast some music, but mostly focused on shopping news and information about merchandise that listeners could purchase. Additionally, he created a local news network to serve New England, the Yankee News Service, and was instrumental in getting radio journalists the same credentials as print journalists.
John Shepard III was born in Boston on March 19, 1886; his father's name was John Jr. and his mother's name was Flora. John III also had a brother Robert, who was born in 1891. A third brother, Edward, was born in 1889, but he died suddenly at age twenty-one, in 1910. Along with his family, John III spent his early years in Providence before returning to greater Boston, where his family owned a home in Brookline. He graduated from Brookline High School. John Shepard and his brother Robert were born into a family of merchants. Their grandfather, John Shepard Senior and business partner Henry Norwell founded Shepard-Norwell, a Boston dry goods and retail store, in 1865. That business later expanded to include a store in Providence, and the two companies became known collectively as the Shepard Stores in 1911. John Shepard III's father, John Shepard Junior, assumed operations that year, when John Sr. retired. By that time, the Shepard Store in Boston had become one of Boston's most popular department stores. The large building, located at 30 Winter Street, occupied most of the city block created by Winter Street and Winter Place.
John Shepard III tried unsuccessfully to enroll at the U.S. Naval Academy, but was rejected due to poor eyesight. Rather than try to attend a different college, he chose to enter the retail trade of his father and grandfather. In 1912, John Shepard III married Mabel E. Fletcher of Providence, with whom he would have three daughters. By 1917, John III had worked his way up to a department manager at the Shepard Stores, becoming the third generation to go into management there. Meanwhile, his brother, Robert, became the manager of the Shepard Store in Providence.
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