Herb Jepko (March 20, 1931 - March 31, 1995) was an influential radio talk show host in Salt Lake City from 1964 to 1990. He was the first radio talk show host to do a nationally syndicated, satellite-delivered program.

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, Herb Jepko was born in Hayden, Colorado to a single mother named Mary Irene Parke. [1] He was originally named William, but when he was adopted by Metro and Nellie Jepko of Prescott, Arizona, they renamed him Herbert Earl Jepko. Metro and Nellie's marriage was not a happy one. After they divorced, Metro got custody, but he was a wounded World War I veteran, and he soon took ill. With his father unable to care for him, Herb had to spend time in foster care off and on. He attended school in Prescott, but then his father got healthy enough to take care of him again, and in 1949, they moved to Phoenix. Herb graduated high school there, and briefly attended Phoenix College, which was then a small two-year college and is today flagship of the Maricopa Community College system. [2] He hoped to become a doctor, but soon ran out of money and was drafted into the Army. (1) It was during his time in the military that he discovered his life's work—radio, working in Radio-Television Operations while serving in the Korean War.