Sherry Remembered for Community Service, Leadership

When it came to serving the community, Richard Merle Sherry didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk.

Known as “Dick” to family, friends, and colleagues, Sherry believed those who worked for the local radio station owed it to the community to serve the public interest as a public trustee, and for 37 years, he did exactly that.

Dick Sherry, who was 82, died Monday.

The Punxsutawney native first joined WDAD’s sales department in 1967, while the station was under the ownership of Clearfield-based Progressive Publishing, locally doing business as Indiana Broadcasters, Inc. Progressive Publishing also had broadcast holdings in State College, Clearfield, Latrobe, and Florida. One year after Sherry joined WDAD, an FM station was welcomed into the fold, WQMU 103.1 FM (now 92.5).

Two years after joining the stations, Sherry joined the Indiana Fire Association, serving as assistant Fire Chief from 1979 to 1985. He also served the association as President, Vice President, Lieutenant, Captain and Dive Master. According to Bill Simmons, the association’s current president, and current mayor of Indiana borough, Sherry was well-known for his leadership.

“We learned a lot from him,” said Simmons. “Rather than dictating things, what he would do is say ‘well, what do you think we ought to do’? So I always appreciated him as a great leader.”

Sherry later became sales manager, and then general manager, after Ray Goss left the station in 1981 to start what would later become AM 1160 WCCS.

Through the 1980’s, Sherry supervised many changes as the station prospered, including the 1984 move from rented space at Leininger Hall to an owned facility at 21 North Fifth Street, where it would remain for the next 20 years. The following year, Sherry also oversaw the construction and activation of a new transmitter facility on Elkin Avenue in the Chevy Chase Heights section of White Township, overlooking downtown Indiana, giving the stations much better signal coverage.

When Sherry learned that Progressive was putting the Indiana County stations up for sale, he acted fast to ensure that the station would stay locally owned. He formed the group RMS Media Management, and purchased the station in October 1988 for $2.4 million. The sale became final in April of the following year.

Also in 1989, Sherry added television as a medium with TV44, a character-generated news channel which aired on the Adelphia basic cable system at the headends in Indiana and Blairsville. The channel allowed radio listeners to follow the news of the day 24 hours a day in these pre-internet years.

As conflicts were heating up the Persian Gulf at the start of the 1990s, Sherry, in a recorded message played on both stations, implored listeners to support American troops overseas by flying their flags. Listeners who didn’t have a flag but wanted one were encouraged to call the station for assistance. Sherry also acknowledged soldiers from the area in “Hometown Heroes” broadcast over WDAD.

Sherry also introduced Rush Limbaugh to Indiana County listeners in 1991 by broadcasting his syndicated midday talk show over WDAD, the first station in the area to do so.

Joshua Widdowson, an Indiana native who first joined the station in the late 90’s as a part-time board operator, said he was inspired to consider his future at the stations due to it being very much a family business.

“My family had a jewelry and gift shop business in Downtown Indiana for many years, so it was not unusual to see multiple generations of the same family working there,” Widdowson said. “Coming to work there and seeing his family there also made it feel like I was in the store with my parents and brother when they were working.”

Sherry’s sons Don, Mike and Mark all worked for the stations in varying capacities, as did his wife Lisa.

Sherry decided to retire in the spring of 2004 and sold WDAD and WQMU to Pittsburgh-based Renda Broadcasting. Renda Broadcasting’s president, Tony Renda, is an Indiana native whose parents ran a grocery business during his childhood, thus keeping the stations locally owned.

Sherry also served on the board of directors for the Indiana County Fair and the Salvation Army. He was also a member of the Masonic Lodge and Elks Lodge 931. Dave “Digger” Rairigh, who owns two funeral homes in Indiana and Clymer, worked for the stations under Sherry during the 1980s. Rairigh said that the “Teddy Bear Fund Drive” was one of Sherry’s proudest accomplishments.

“That was dear to his heart,” said Rairigh. “He always looked to Indiana and the Indiana community first.”

The Teddy Bear Fund Drive, which originally began as the “Children’s Hospital Fund Drive”, helps fund child health care at Indiana Regional Medical Center and UPMC Children’s.

The Rairigh-Bence Funeral Home in Indiana is in charge of arrangements for Dick Sherry. No visitation is planned, but a Celebration of Life service will be announced at a future date.

PHOTO: Dick Sherry (seated at right) poses in front of the WQMU automation system in the WDAD/WQMU lobby at the 21 N. 5th Street studios, with then-Indiana borough mayor George Thompson and station administrative assistant Mary Ann Ballard.

CREDITS: Tom Peel, Indiana Gazette; provided by Chauncey Ross