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Shepherd of the Hills
Born:  April 12, 1911
Died:  December 19, 1976
WIBW Kansas Roundup
WIBW Topeka, KS

About The Artist

The Shepherd of the Hills was a singer on radio station WIBW in Topeka, Kansas back in the late 1940s when we first find mention of him. He was a native of Petrolia, Kansas, later the family moved to Elmont, Kansas, a town about ten miles north of Topeka.

It seems that he lived the life of a typical boy, had a sling shot or two, liked to fish and hunt and found school a problem. A neighbor talked him into getting a guitar for an orchestra that he said, "didn't make the grade".

But he kept up with the guitar, said he learned "three or four chords" so he could at least play for himself. But as fate would have it, one of his teachers at Seamn Rural High School heard of his talents and actually drove him to an interview with "Big Nick" Nickell, who was the manager at WIBW back in 1928. It was Big Nick who also gave him the tag, "Shepherd of the Hills" and he was on his way to entertaining folks.

The old WIBW Round-Up magazines (they were half-sized booklets in fact about 16 pages each) were written in a friendly manner as if they were sitting across the dinner table telling you the latest goings on. The articles about some of the artists appear to have been written by the artists themselves or perhaps written in a style that made it sound like they were writing to the fans. Let's "listen in" as the Shepherd of the Hills relates a story of how another member of the WIBW Kansas Round-Up got his start.

"I remember one program in those early days when Jim Parks would gather folks into the studio while he told stories on a show titled, "Truthful James." On one program, a fellow on the front row gave a good stout laugh now and again throughout the show. After the program Big Nick asked this fellow into his office. Said Nick, "Son, your voice certainly carries on those mikes, I'll pay you to sit in on every program and laugh at the stories of "Truthful James."

Evidently Nick found also that the boy could fiddle, because in addition to laughing he was assigned to a tune now and again on still another program. His name is Keen, but you know him today as Ezra Hawkins."

He mentions that he and Ezra became good friends over time and in their spare times, went fishing together and relive some of the old times at the station. There was one incident he recalled that was 'real' but folks thought that it was one grand production. The studios at one time he said were in the National Reserve Building. They called the stufios affectionately at the time, "The Bungalow on the Roof". Now it seems they had some rules in the studios, one of them being "No Smoking". He said they would light up once in a while and when the cigarette was done, toss them out the open window.

Well, they were broadcasting the "Dinner Hour" show as they did each day and someone finished their cigarette and tossed it towards an open window. But, it didn't make it out the window, landing instead behind a radiator and then began to burn up the carpet. The draft from the window took the smoke through the paneled wall and started showing up through the light fixtures. They called the fire departement of course, but being the entertainers they were, the "Dinner Hour" show also went on and they would make mentions of the smoke and fire at times during the show. One of the guys tried to take a five-gallon water cooler and put out the flames, but in the end, the fire department folks had to put it out.

And you could have imagined the fun they had convincing folks it was not an act! Shep tells the WIBW audience that after the broadcast, the station switchboard was buzzing with folks calling and saying how real the fire sounded. Reality TV? Back then they were doing Reality Radio!

Credits & Sources

  • WIBW Round-Up; February 1949; Published by WIBW Round-Up; Topeka, Kansas