Welcome to
Nitecaps.net

A website devoted to preserving the
history and spirit of the

Nitecap Radio Network
and
its founders Herb and Patsy Jepko

28 March 2008

Monday will mark the 13th year since Herb's passing. A couple of weeks ago I visited his gravesite here in Salt Lake City, Utah. It's a quiet peaceful place. Herb died too young, too soon.

Patsy remains in good spirits and in good health.

I've produced a Partial Index to the Wick which I hope you'll enjoy and find valuable.

Please contribute to the Scholarship Fund at the University of Utah as you are able. I hope to create some cafepress Nitecap items in the near future, to use for fundraising. Stay tuned.

Joe

 

2 January 2008

It's been a challenging couple of years (more details on that later) and part of the impact of that was my failure to renew www.nitecaps.org. Now some web reseller wants $1,750 for it! Guess they think there's a big market for online "night cap" sales. So I've moved things here, to nitecaps.net. Sorry for having things disappear for over two years.

The scholarship fund at the University of Utah continues to grow (please donate! See details below). All but about $100.00 has come from my wife Cindy and I. It's now a bit over $5,000.00 but $10,000.00 is needed before it will become a permanent, named scholarship. We've been donating $100.00 a month and covering the (minimal) expenses for this site since it was first established.

Patsy Jepko Brown is in good health. Sadly her husband, and dear friend of ours,Woody Brown passed away in April 2006.

Look for more updates over the coming months, and drop me a note to let me know you've found the new site.

Joe

nightynitecaps@gmail.com

 

 

28 March 2005

Thursday March 31st will mark the 10th anniversary of Herb's passing.

Craig Wirth, Tim Larson and I will be gathering to remember Herb and his contributions at the University Park Mariott Lounge from 7:00pm to 8:30pm or so. We'd like to invite all interested Nitecaps to join us then. We'll share our memories, stories and gratitude for the difference Herb made to radio and in the lives of millions of listeners, including us, and doubtless raise a glass or two to Herb's memory. We hope you can join us.

 

11 February 2005

Forty-one years ago, on February 11th 1964, Herb Jepko opened a microphone into a crisp Rocky Mountain night blanketed by the 50,000 watt signal of KSL radio to begin what would become a 30 year adventure and ultimately create the first ever network talk show.

From Larry King to Art Bell and Donahue to Ellen, Herb was the pioneer who opened the way for countless others to create their success in this medium.

In celebration, I've updated the Last NiteStand Page (latest update: February 25th 2005) with all the best wishes from Nitecaps who have found this site over the past three years. (Thanks to Rollye James (www.rollye.net), Don Barrett (www.LAradio.com) and the National Radio Club (www.nrcdxas.org) for their links to this site.)

If you’ve not sent us a message yet, please drop us a line. There are dozens of Nitecaps who would love to hear from you!

Joe

nightynitecaps@gmail.com

February 11th 2004 marked the 40th anniversary of the first "Nitecap" broadcast on KSL radio.
Rollye James dedicated an hour of her show that night to memories of Herb.

The February 10th 2004
Rollye James Show
broadcast of
a TRIBUTE TO HERB JEPKO
was a HUGE SUCCESS!

 

LISTEN to the February 10th, 2004 ROLLYE JAMES SHOW tribute to Herb Jepko broadcast here

 

The Utah Association of Broadcaster's inducted Herb Jepko into their
Hall of Fame on Tuesday June 3rd 2003

The ceremony was attended by Herb's widow, Patsy Jepko Brown; their daughter Kitty Brown; former editor of The Wick, Marie Springer, other Nitecaps and fans of the show. One of the highlights was a five minute video documentary produced by students in the communications program at the University of Utah. Copies of that documentary are available in return for donations to the Herb Jepko Memorial Scholarship at the University of Utah.

PHOTOS and additional information about Herb's Hall of Fame induction can be found by clicking HERE.

 

Also now available on the website is the audio portion of a ten minute documentary on the Nitecap show which aired on KUTV's news magazine program titled "EXTRA." It appears to have been produced in early 1979. Craig Wirth writes, "The host introducing the piece is Lucky Severson - who went on to be NBC bureau chief in Japan and now does work for NPR and a show on PBS called Religion and Ethics. He lives in Virginia. . . . The producer of that piece is Judy Hallet, who now lives in Washington, D.C. It was one of her few on air appearances."

To hear the audio portion of this documentary, go to our Nitecap Audio Clips page below.

 

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My first job in radio was running the board for The Nitecap Radio Network from midnight to 6:00 a.m. on 250-watt WXVW AM 1450 in Jeffersonville, Indiana. I remember those long, lonely nights well; listening to Nitecaps from around the country interact with Herb, discuss the activities of their Nitestands, the latest article in The Wick, their grandchildren, recipes (often with Herb's pal "The Crusher"), and opening a window to what was, truly, a radio family.

Long before the Internet, "real-time chat," and the "world-wide web" there was the old-technology, radio-net, cyber-family of the Nitecaps.

This website is dedicated to that spirit of broadcasting -- bringing people together, creating a true "brotherhood of man." -- Joseph G. Buchman, Ph.D.

---------------------------------------

Please Donate to the Herb Jepko Memorial Scholarship Fund
established at the University of Utah in December 2002.

Donations can be made via checks made payable to "The University of Utah Scholarship Fund for Herb Jepko" mailed to:

The University of Utah
Development Office
201 President's Circle, Room 304
Salt Lake City, UT 84112

or by credit card:

800 716-0377 (581-6825 in the SLC area)

or via the University of Utah's secure website:

https://umarket.utah.edu/development/form.tpl

(Type "Herb Jepko Scholarship Fund" under the option for, "If none of the above, specify.")

______________________

UPDATE: As of 28 March 2005, $2,905.00 has been raised for the Herb Jepko Scholarship Fund at The University of Utah.  

My wife Cindy and I have donated $2,800.00 of that amount in addition to funding the (relatively minimal) costs of hosting this site.

To date $105.00 has been contributed by three other donors.

I believe all of us would enjoy knowing that Herb and the Nitecaps will be remembered by students of radio for years to come.

For that to begin, for the first annual scholarship to be given, the scholarship fund must reach a minimum of $10,000.00.  

Cindy and I would very much like to see that amount raised before the end of this year. Therefore we are pledging an additional $1,000.00 toward that goal. Will you assist us in seeing that a deserving student receives the first annual award in May 2008, for the 2008/2009 school year?

We invite you to donate an amount that reflects in some way the value of your experience as a Nitecap.

Please contribute your Herb Jepko Scholarship donation today.

______________________

After making a donation, drop an email or landmail to me and I'll be pleased to send you the complimentary Nitecaps Highlights CD or cassette tape.

 

Vote for Herb to join the Museum of Broadcast Communication's
Radio Hall of Fame

The Radio Hall of Fame has announced its nominees for induction into the Radio Hall of Fame in November 2003. Sadly Herb, after appearing on the ballot in 2000, was not included among the 12 candidates this year. So we are starting our campaign to seek Herb's nomination for the 2006 ballot. We especially need industry leaders who remember Herb to write to the Radio Hall of Fame urging them to place Herb on next year's ballot.

Send your letters to:

The Radio Hall of Fame
The Museum of Broadcast Communications
Chicago Cultural Center
Michigan Avenue at Washington Street
Chicago, Illinois 60602 - 4801

Click Here! to join the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
One year's membership, which includes voting privileges, costs only $15.00.
Click on "Memberships" and then "E-Membership."

I am a Nitecap:

I believe in the Nitecap movement as a great vehicle to make the sentiment of the "brotherhood of man" among all nations, creeds and races a fact . . . not merely a saying.

I believe it is my obligation as a Nitecap not to carp and criticize, and to support and encourage my fellow Nitecaps to this end.

I hereby pledge myself to the building and support of the Nitecaps International Association (NIA), its founder, Herb Jepko, this Nitestand and every sincere Nitecap.

I will seek and exalt the good I find in all persons and seek to overlook their errors and weaknesses, just as I trust others will accept me with my strengths and weaknesses.

I will do all in my power to help build the Nitecap organization and to carry out all its projects designed to lend friendship, comfort and pleasure to all persons, particularly the ill, aged and unfortunate.

Click on the record cover to enter our NIA Audio Library. You can listen to Don Ray sing the "Nitecap Song," "The Nitecap Lullaby," and my personal favorite, "The Ballad of Herb."

You can also listen to a 1978 call to Herb from the Gold Coast Nitestand secretary, and the MBS intro.

Requires mp3 compatible player

Click HERE to order a copy of the book, Sounds in the Dark: All Night Radio in American Life, by Michael C. Keith from Iowa State Press. Mike's book includes a short essay I wrote on the history of the Nitecap International Association and has lots of other comments about Herb from Rollye James, Larry King and others. You can find Mike's other books on his website at michaelckeith.com.

Click on the Sounds in the Dark book cover to read a slightly longer history of the Nitecap Radio Network than what was published in the book. (Requires Adobe Acrobat.)

The Wick was published by Nitecaps Radio International from June 1965 to 1979.

Patsy Jepko generously made her complete collection available, and we now have photocopies or originals of every issue.

We are interested in obtaining originals of all issues, for donation to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.

Please write if you come across any original copies of The Wick, or if you would like us to look up a specific issue for you.

Joseph G. Buchman, Ph.D.
175 Paradise Road
Park City, Utah 84098

Copyright (C) 2008