WEST LEBANON — “A man walks into a bar” can be the opening line of a bad joke but when Bob Sherman walked into a White River Junction bar decades ago, it marked the beginning of a long, successful and rewarding career in radio.

Sherman had graduated college from in the late 1970s and after a promised job fell through, spent his summer traveling to radio stations in Vermont and New Hampshire trying to land work.

“I could not get a job. As a matter of fact, people said to me, ‘your voice isn’t that good,’ ” Sherman said to laughter from his guests at a retirement party in West Lebanon on Thursday.

Sherman’s luck began to change when he walked into Studio 27, which has since closed, and tried to make the acquaintance of a woman at the bar.

“She only had eyes for the bartender and it turns out, he was her boyfriend and her boyfriend was actually the program director at WTSL,” Sherman said.

Across the room was a disc jockey spinning records who was the afternoon announcer at WTSL and a third person there did morning sports and sales for the radio station. Sherman became acquainted with them that evening and when the receptionist at the station left to have a baby not long after, Sherman was hired.

“I began as a receptionist. That is how I got my foot in the door,” said Sherman, who grew up in Hartland and has lived in Lebanon for 34 years.

From that humble beginning, Sherman went on to hold just about every conceivable job in radio, except owner. On-air sports, news, afternoon drive, music programming, promotion, sales, sales manager, general manager, program director, Sherman did them all at one time or another. While the Upper Valley has been his main area of employment, he also worked in Burlington and Cape Cod.

Area business owners who have worked with Sherman for 20 years or more, and his colleagues in radio were on hand to congratulate him last week.

“His passion for radio is infectious,” said Bob Lipman, who has known Sherman for about 40 years and continues doing local news. “People who have gotten to know and work with Bob Sherman over the years believe in so much what radio is all about.”

Many of those at the retirement celebration agreed that Sherman knew how to grab the listeners’ attention right away with copy and the client’s voice.

“He makes me sound good and feel comfortable,” said John Rescigno, manager of Lebanon Paint and Decorating who has known Sherman for four years.

Sherman said writing commercials was his strong suit.

“Concise messaging. That is where I live,” said Sherman. “If you don’t hit people right away, you lose them so you have to make it memorable. I’ve been writing ads for some of these people for 20 years and I guess I was doing the job well enough where they keep asking me to come back.”

Sherman has lived and worked through a lot of changes in radio from the production side — using a razor and splicing tape to the digital world for editing — to audience demographics, and said he never really considered another career.

“I enjoyed what I was doing and found value in it,” he said. “You don’t wake up one morning and decide you are going to do something for 50 years but I really loved radio as an industry and there were always opportunities.”

Sherman also gave credit for his career to his wife Pam, by saying that for 39 years he has been living on “wife support.”

“She has been my cheerleader, my coach, in my corner and the mother of my children,” Sherman said. “I could not have done it without her.”

In addition to Pam, Sherman said it was the people he did business with that made the storytelling successful.

“Great advertising is great storytelling and my ability to tell a story is really in large part to the people I’ve done business with,” Sherman told his guests after opening some gifts. “I can’t tell that great story and make it successful and memorable without that. And the key is I have to bring trust and you people have given me more trust than I deserve.”

Sherman knew how to develop a personal connection.

“People like to do business with people they like. He has so many relationships and it is all about relationships,” said Wendy Mays, executive director of the Vermont Association of Broadcasters, who drove from her home in northern Vermont to attend the party. “I really enjoy his company. He is just a good person to be around. I wanted to be here to congratulate him. He is easy to be friends with and he also happens to be really good at what he does.”

Anthony Roberts runs a networking group that is part of the Upper Valley Business Alliance and has benefited from the knowledge and “local intel” he has received from Sherman.

“He has had a real impact on our networking group and the business professionals in the area,” said Roberts, who works for isolved HCM, a payroll solutions company. “I call him the mayor of the Upper Valley because he knows everything that is going on before anyone else in town. He might talk about a new restaurant or a restaurant changing hands. He throws out this intel and we can use it in our business. I have had a handful of opportunities because I’ve had intel from him in a meeting.”

Sherman is a pro at helping businesses craft their message to grab people’s attention, even to the point of not mentioning the products, Roberts said.

“There was a convenience store with a dog for a mascot and the ad told people to come and see the dog,” Roberts said. “He has a great wit.”

Though he is retiring from full-time sales duties, Sherman, whose awards include the 2017 Distinguished Service Award from the Vermont Association of Broadcasters, isn’t walking away from radio completely. He will still host an oldies show for two hours on weekday afternoons on KOOL FM - 106.7 FM.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.