Sherry Westbrook wearing her former KZ95 jacket after we met for lunch on Oct. 3, 2026. Photo: Danielle Vinson
For the first time in more than three decades, I saw Sherry Westbrook, who was a mentor to me as I was starting my radio career. And I had something to give her. But first, some background.
While I was in high school in 1989, I met Sherry when she was the nighttime DJ at the short-lived Little Rock rock station KZ95 (KZLR-FM 94.9). At the time, I was working my first radio job at a rundown AM station in Benton and was in awe of the professional Little Rock stations I listened to.
Sherry was 10 years older than me and started letting me join her in the studio while she was on the air. We’d also go out to lunch, and she’d tell me about her experiences in the industry. It meant a lot to have someone established in radio take an interest in my career.
KZ95 aggressively targeted rival rock station Magic 105. The station had jackets with its logo, and each DJ had one with their name embroidered on it. I remembered Sherry’s. After about a year-and-a-half, when it became clear KZ95 wasn’t going to overtake Magic 105, the station changed formats to oldies and became Cool 95, with Sherry moving to middays.
AUDIO: “Your nighttime rocker” Sherry Brooks on KZ95, March 10, 1988. She used a slightly modified version of her last name on the air.
AUDIO: An aircheck of Sherry Brooks on Cool 95 from April 1991. This includes her all request lunch hour and live commercials.
At some point in the early 1990s, she was hired at number one-rated KSSN 96 as music director, and once again I’d go up and join her while she was on the air. I was fascinated seeing how different radio stations operated.
When I created a website about my career in 2002, I included audio from a couple of airchecks that Sherry had given me and wrote about how influential she had been to me.
Sherry Westbrook’s KZ95 jacket.
Fast-forward a few decades to last December. Shelli Poole, a longtime friend of mine who worked with Sherry at KSSN, texted me to say she’d spotted Sherry’s old KZ95 jacket for sale at a flea market in Benton. Years earlier, it had been hanging at a used record store in North Little Rock. How it got from there to the flea market, I have no idea.
Shelli asked if I knew how to get in touch with Sherry. I didn’t. We hsd long since lost contact. But I didn’t want the jacket to disappear, so I asked Shelli to buy it, and I started searching online for Sherry, without any luck.
Then, a few weeks ago, Sherry’s daughter, Danielle Vinson, happened across her mom’s old airchecks on my website and contacted me on Facebook. She knew nothing about the jacket, she was simply reaching out to say hello. We talked by phone, and Saturday, Oct. 3, the three of us met for lunch.
It was a joy talking with Sherry for the first time in so long. And that jacket had been such a random thing to come across. After having it for the past 10 months, I was very happy to finally return it to her.
She put it on, and it still looks good!
Veteran reporter, editor and manager at newspapers, radio and television stations. I’m also a photographer, historian and author, having written the 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
