John Shepard III
John Shepard III (March 19, 1886May 11, 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.
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