1891 – 1983
Claire Crawford became an announcer for Boston’s (and the nation’s) first all-female radio station, WASN (Air Shopping News) back in 1927, owned by John Shepard 3rd, who also owned the Yankee Network.
Crawford was soon promoted to program manager of another Shepard Station, WBIS; and then pursued an interest in sales and advertising.
In an era when women could be either singers or secretaries, Claire Crawford was neither. She became an announcer for Boston’s (and the nation’s) first all-female radio station, WASN (Air Shopping News) back in 1927, owned by John Shepard 3rd, who also owned the Yankee Network.
Crawford was soon promoted to program manager of another Shepard Station, WBIS; and then Shepard encouraged her to pursue her interest in sales. At a time when few if any women were doing that, she was so good at it that by the early 1930s, Shepard promoted her to Assistant Sales Manager for the Yankee Network. After working for Shepard, she next went to WORL, where she became the station’s sales manager; she remained there well into the 1950s.
She also worked for WBOS, before leaving radio to start her own advertising agency in 1960. In addition to her work in radio, she was also an advocate for women who wanted to join the broadcasting industry, and was active in the New England chapter of American Women in Radio & Television. Over a sales career that spanned three decades, Claire Crawford was a role model for women in sales.
MASSACHUSETTS BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION
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