I worked at WOR in the 70s but not for Jean Shepard. A friend of mine was his engineer and friend. He and his wife loved him. I never heard a word against him - and he was no has-been. His radio show was wonderfully popular but it was a different time - most radio was local, not national. Of course, A Christmas Story has simply solidified his place in culture. He’s in the movie; I just saw it last night in its nice blu-ray edition.
Not only had he had a great radio show, was a well known author, but in the '80s, he had a wonderful show on PBS; so was nationally well known before this fantastic movie was being made/came out.
I listened at night to Shep as a kid on my short wave radio and primitive ear phones. I would start laughing and mother would yell at me for not being asleep. The radio was so cool I could get Radio Moscow on it at night, listening to a show called Moscow Mail Bag. Lol