Billed as "The World's Greatest Disc Jockey," Sherwood spent most of his career hosting a 6-9 a.m. weekday program on KSFO in San Francisco (560 kHz, 5000 watts), which was then owned by the singing cowboy actor Gene Autry.
[1] At KSFO, Sherwood did more than play recordings on his broadcasts; he made fun of the commercials, used sound effects (with the help of a talented engineer named Charlie Smith), occasionally imitated popular singers, and presented a number of regular comic features including "Just Plain Rosita," in which he pretended to translate the story of a Spanish language radio soap opera (actually dialog from a Spanish-language instructional record).
He had a number of sidekicks over the years, including newsman Aaron Edwards (who later was a television news reporter) and fellow disc jockey Carter B. Smith (later heard on KNBR).
On one memorable 1960 broadcast (preserved on tape by http://bayarearadio.org), comedian Bill Dana surprised Sherwood by trying to do the reports from Harper's plane.
However, Sherwood would insert a pause after the question, then add something else (often totally unrelated to the commercial), before playing the cow sound effect, which was often distorted.
The station, owned and operated by ABC (since its debut in May 1949), wanted Sherwood simply to interview visiting entertainers and other celebrities and to avoid politics or other controversial subjects.
Also beginning on January 15, 1955, Don hosted a one half hour television show called "The Belfast Pop Club" with Bill Anderson until June 13, 1955.
[3] Later, when KTVU (Channel 2) in Oakland, California began broadcasting from studios in Jack London Square (in 1958), they invited Sherwood to host a similar program on their station.
He did appear on KGO Radio with talk show host Owen Spann late in his life and, despite poor health, still displayed considerable wit and wisdom.