Final Years
Despite his popularity, Jepko did not significantly profit from his work. According to a former colleague, his Nitecaps show had been financially successful, but his deal with Mutual was not to his advantage. Where he and his staff had done all the selling of commercial time on the KSL program, the Mutual network insisted on doing the selling for the syndicated show. That would have been fine if Mutual understood how to sell late night radio, which was (and still is) largely driven by direct-response advertising (rather than ratings, or cost-per-point appeals). There were problems almost immediately, resulting in on-going friction between the way Mutual wanted things done and how Jepko thought things ought to be. Jepko ended up convinced that Mutual did not understand his unique audience. Mutual, on the other hand, faced with challenges gaining affiliate clearances for the show (only 70 or so of MBS's over 500 affiliates ever carried the show) decided Jepko's audience was too old, too rural, and not large enough to bring in a profit for the network. As Jepko perceived it, Mutual betrayed their original contract with him and gave up on the show. By the time Jepko's contract ended, Jepko had lost whatever money his original Nitecaps show had brought him. (5)
Jepko's youngest son, Herbert Earl Jr., died of AIDS in 1992. Jepko's health sharply declined after that, and there is anecdotal evidence from former colleagues that he had a drinking problem (6), which escalated during this time. The cause of his death was given as "liver failure." (7)
Some of his former listeners still recall him fondly as proving that a talk show could be kinder and gentler and still attract a wide audience at a time when radio was becoming more controversial and talkers more angry.
Herb Jepko was posthumously inducted into the Utah Broadcaster Association's Hall of Fame in 2003, and there is an effort to establish a Memorial scholarship fund in his name at the University of Utah, see www.nitecaps.net link below.
Read more about this topic: Herb Jepko
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