RADIO AND THE ROOTS
OF COUNTRY MUSIC
By John F. Schneider W9FGH
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RADIO AND THE ROOTS
OF COUNTRY MUSIC By John F. Schneider W9FGH |
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www.theradiohistorian.org Copyright 2023 - John F. Schneider & Associates, LLC (Click on photos to enlarge)
 “The
Radio Rubes”, NBC network, 1932.
 Unidentified Western
band, WCMB, Harrisburg PA,
1950’s.
 Zeke Manners, "The Jewish Hillbilly", was a popular singer and disc jockey in New York City. In the 1940's, he appeared daily on WINS, WHN, WNEW and WMCA. He composed "The Pennsylvania Polka", among hundreds of other songs.
The Louisiana
Hayride, KWKH, Shreveport, LA Click Here For
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Beginnings:
Today’s Country Music genre had its
beginnings in the 1920’s
with the popularization of two types of music: rural
white Bluegrass or “Hillbilly” music, and “Western” or “Cowboy”
music. The two styles eventually merged
in the 1940’s and 50’s to become “Country and Western” music, or what
is today
simply called “Country”. Perhaps the
most important catalyst in the popularization of these music styles was
radio
broadcasting. It’s possible that,
without the influence of radio, today’s Country music would not exist. Notwithstanding the networks’
disinterest in rural music, it
was individual radio stations across the country that were responsible
for
bringing the various genres of country music into mainstream of
popularity. Unlike the national networks,
they only had
to please the audiences of their local regions. Most
of these were Midwest and Southern stations that targeted rural
working-class audiences. The “Barn Dance” Shows The earliest venues for country music
were the immensely
popular “barn dance” programs on several powerhouse Midwestern stations
in the
1920’s and 30’s. The first of these
was
“National Barn Dance”, which premiered on WLS in Chicago in 1924 under
the
direction of George D. Hay. In 1925, Hay
took the concept to WSM in Nashville, which began the amazingly
successful run
of the “Grand Olde Opry” (1925-present). Other
important programs in this genre were the “Iowa Barn Dance Frolic”
on WHO in Des Moines (1931-53); the “Renfro Barn Dance” on WLW
Cincinnati
(1939-57); the “KSTP Sunset Valley Barn Dance” in St. Paul MN
(1940-57); and
the “WWVA Jamboree” from Wheeling, WV (1933-2007). The
WLS “National Barn Dance” was so popular
that Paramount even made a movie about it in 1944. Many
decades later, the barn dance format was
revived for the popular “Prairie Home Companion” radio show. The “Hillbilly” music genre was also
promoted by hundreds of
less powerful stations in smaller communities -- stations like KMA in
Shenandoah, IA, WDZ in Tuscola, IL, KGVO Missoula MT, and KTRB Modesto
CA. Early mornings on these stations were
often
directed towards the farm audience, with country music interspersed
with commodities
reports. Weekend evenings were the best
times for the jamboree-type programs, which were often broadcast
through regional
hookups of multiple stations: “Dixie Jamboree” was heard over WMC
Memphis, KARK
Little Rock, KWKH Shreveport, and WSMB New Orleans; and the New England
Radio
Network broadcast the “Down Homers” early mornings over WBZ Boston,
WCSH
Portland, WJAR Providence, WLBZ Bangor, and WTIC Hartford.
Another radio boost to white rural
music came from the
“border blasters” – the high-powered Mexican stations that were heard
across
the U.S. each evening. The biggest among
these was XERA in Del Rio TX, who famously introduced the Carter Family
to
American audiences for the first time. Its not surprising that many stations
turned to Hillbilly or
Cowboy music to attract local audiences. Of
the 738 stations on the air in 1938, 437 were in cities under 100,000
population, and 246 served less than 25,000 people.
An FCC study that same year showed that just
29.2% of the nation’s radio broadcasts came from the networks, compared
to
30.8% featuring live local talent. The ASCAP Music Boycott One of the biggest boosts for the
growth of country music
took place in 1941. Since the first days
of broadcasting, radio stations had been paying ASCAP (The American
Society of
Composers, Authors and Publishers).a blanket annual fee of 5% of
advertising revenue
for the rights to perform their licensed music. But
in 1940, ASCAP announced it was tripling its music fees for radio! In September, 1940, industry leaders
met at the NAB convention
in San Francisco and resolved that all radio stations and networks
would boycott
ASCAP music. On January 1, 1941, more than
1 million ASCAP tunes disappeared from the airwaves.
With the support of the NAB, broadcasters organized
BMI (Broadcast Music, Incorporated) as the industry's own music
licensing agency. BMI sought out new
unknown composers who weren't
contracted to ASCAP and then released this new music to stations at a
much more
favorable rate. Genres that the elitist
ASCAP had always considered beneath their dignity to license - Latin,
"Hillbilly" and "Race" music - were a sizeable part of this
new library. Once again, it was the individual stations that spearheaded the move to country music, as the national networks only further eliminated country music from their schedules. Since much of the music came from unidentifiable sources with unknown copyright risks, CBS, NBC and Mutual stayed away from the genre. To fill their airwaves, local broadcasters relied on BMI and public domain songs, but they also tapped into another source of music: although the big country artists like Gene Autry were ASCAP members, dozens of little-known territorial bands were not, and they often wrote their own music, not licensed by any organization. Broadcasters were more than happy to broadcast this license-free music, and they found that the programs drew listeners and advertising dollars. In 1941, Vaudeville performer Lee Trissell began efforts to organize a new performing rights group of Hillbilly bands, called the American Composers, Entertainers & Songwriters. He told the media that ACES would promote “real American folksongs”. “ASCAP says membership is not available to mere aspirants and sets itself up as the sole judge of who is a ‘qualified’ composer, author, artist or publisher. Yet the world’s greatest music and most successful songs are the products of ‘aspirants’.” ACES will “take in the real Americana, the hillbilly musicians, the authors of the real American folksongs, the entertainers who present them. We’ll see to it that their songs are published and disseminated. ASCAP can go hang, till they hang themselves.” ACES attempted to license its music
through the new BMI organization, but when it also refused to license
country music, ACES disappeared. A third licensing organization, SESAC,
jumped into the fray. Originally principally a licensor of gospel
music, it added 1,200,000 western, cowboy, hillbilly tunes to its
catalog in 1941, and signed 63 new stations, bringing its licensee
total to 738 commercial stations. Coinciding with the radio boycott, the
Department of Justice
began investigating ASCAP for monopolistic practices.
Finally, facing the combined pressure of broadcasters
and the government, ASCAP backed down. By
summer’s end it had signed an agreement for 2.75% of revenue on network
broadcasts
and 2.25% for local station programs - less than half of what it had
been earning
before 1940! The boycott officially ended in October
of 1941 and America's
pop music standards returned to the airwaves. But something had changed
- American
listeners had been exposed to new music genres and they liked it. "Hillbilly" music gradually morphed
into the more refined "Western" music that was immensely popular on
radio
in the 40’s. "Race" music became
Rhythm and Blues, later merging with jazz to became "Rock and Roll". In just ten months, radio had demonstrated its
great ability to shape popular music tastes. Indeed, it became clear that the
public’s taste in music was
broader than previously assumed, and varied from region to region. A survey in Texas revealed that 38% of
farmers prefer “Hillbilly” music. A 1948
AMC survey of 4,200 families around the country found that 54.7%
appreciated
old favorites and folk tunes, and 37.8% liked “Cowboy” and “Hillbilly”
music. Even in large metropolitan
cities, 33% “occasionally enjoyed Hillbilly music”.
Nonetheless, the 1940’s saw a shifting of
music styles away from “Hillbilly” music in favor of “Western” tunes. This change was driven by the romantic image
of the old west cowboy, popularized by the Western movies of the era. The Regional Bands As country music grew in popularity in
the 1940’s, it seems
that every radio station in the country had to have its own live cowboy
music
program. Hundreds of small regional
bands popped up around the country, playing live shows on their local
stations
to promote their personal dance appearances and recordings. There were such colorful names as “The Cook
Crick Boys” (KWK St. Louis and KWOS Jefferson City MO); “Larry
Gondringer and
His Prairie Swingsters” (KHAS Hastings NE); “Yodeling Johnny, the
Wandering
Cowboy” (KROY Sacramento); “Radio Dot and Smokey” (KWKH Shreveport);
“The Cumberland
Ridge Runners” (WLS Chicago); The “Mountaineerfuls” (WRRC Clinton NC);
and the “Dude
Ranch Buckaroos” (WFAA Dallas). There
were all-girl bands like “The Saddle Sweethearts” (WNAR Norristown PA);
“The
Montana Sweethearts” (WDZ Tuscola IL); and “The Texas Bluebonnets”
(KMOX St.
Louis). This phenomenon wasn’t just limited to
the Midwest and South. Stations in major coastal cities also
featured their own bands; like The Texas Outlaws of KFWB Los Angeles;
The Wild West Revue Gang on KSFO San Francisco; and Zeke Manners on WHN
in New York City. Bands often migrated from one station
to another to find
better booking opportunities. Some bands
had regular gigs on stations in different cities, sometimes using a
different
name in each city. And many bands traveled the country, playing shows
and
county fairs, also performing on local stations as they passed through. Sponsors found these local radio shows
were a good way to
target rural audiences, and they underwrote programs on a number of
stations. Crazy Water Crystals, a
laxative product from Mineral Wells TX, specialized in advertising
“Hillbilly”
programs on stations like WBT in Charlotte NC and XERA in Del Rio TX
starting
in 1934. Peruna Tonic, a patent medicine
sold until the mid-1940’s, sponsored programs on WLS (“The Cotton Queen
Program”)
and KMOX (“The Peruna Ozark Mountaineers”). Other
bands took the names of their radio sponsors, such as “The
Lightcrust Doughboys” (KPRC Houston) and “The Argotane Entertainers”
(WMC Cedar
Rapids IA). In some cases, it was the radio
stations themselves who
helped promote the live appearances of their local bands, generating
income for
both the stations and musicians. WDZ in
Tuscola IL formed an artist’s bureau with booking agents to promote
their
bands’ live shows. The station even had
a portable tent that it set up for shows in different cities within its
coverage area. As the disc jockey format began to take
shape in the 1940’s,
these bands cross-promoted themselves in distant cities by sending
their
records to the deejays. KTBS in
Shreveport broadcast its “Cowboy Jamboree” every night at 11:00 PM, and
all of
the records played were either donated by bands or audience members. WNOE in New Orleans had the “Jukebox
Jamboree”, and WJJD in Chicago featured Randy Blake, the “Hillbilly
Deejay”. These DJ programs moved into the
mainstream as
radio adapted to the television age in the 1950’s, although live Cowboy
band broadcasts
were still quite popular. The first
all-country station appeared in 1953 - KDAV, Lubbock TX.
This set the stage for the single-formatted
C&W stations of the 1960’s, moving into the FM band in the 1970’s.
Today,
there are more country music stations in the United States than any
other
format (an estimated 2,100 stations), and country music popularity is
at an
all-time high. The radio industry is
riding a huge wave of commercial success that was, in great part, of
its own
creation.
This article
originally appeared in Radio World Magazine's Virtual Issue , May 2024 NOTABLE
RADIO JAMBOREE PROGRAMS:
By the 1930’s, 50,000-watt WSM was
being heard in 30 states,
and the Opry became a four-hour Saturday night extravaganza. NBC started broadcasting an hour of the Opry
in 1939. Outgrowing its own studios,
Opry moved to the Ryman Auditorium in 1943. The
Opry was the springboard for the careers of many big-name country
stars: it’s where Hank Williams made his
debut. Roy Acuff, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Jeannie
Seely, Elvis
Presley and Dolly Parton all performed there. Johnny
Cash met his wife June, and during one
infamous show, broke all of the footlights at the front of the stage. The Renfro Valley Barn Dance was
a two-hour live country
music stage and radio show broadcast Saturday nights over WLW in
Cincinnati, first
heard on October 9, 1937. It was hosted by
John Lair, Red Foley, Cotton Foley, and Whitey Ford. The
program first originating from the Cincinnati
Music Hall, moved to the Memorial Auditorium in Dayton, and then in
1939 to Mt.
Vernon, Kentucky. Starting that November,
the show was being broadcast by WCKY Cincinnati, WHAS Louisville, and
the NBC
Network. The
name was later changed to the Renfro
Valley Gatherin', broadcast over WHAS
from 1943 to 1957. It is still heard
today over station WRVK (1957-present) and Sirius-XM. The Louisiana Hayride originated
over KWKH in Shreveport
LA from 1948 to 1960. The
three-hour extravaganza was first
broadcast on April 3, 1948 from Shreveport’s Municipal Auditorium, and
within its
first year it was being carried on the 25-station Universal Network in
the
Southern US. It was even carried overseas
by Armed Forces Radio. The program
was
created by station manager Henry Clay, and produced and emceed by
Horace Logan. It
is notable for launching the careers of many country stars, including
Hank
Williams, Johnny Cash, and a young singer named Elvis Presley. Elvis
first appeared on the program October 16, 1954, and he returned weekly
to the
show until March, 1956. The WWVA Jamboree was heard
Saturday nights over WWVA
in Wheeling, WV. The first broadcast
took place on January 7, 1933, from the WWVA studios, and it was moved
three
months later to the Capitol Theatre where it performed in front of a
live
audience. The program changed venues
several
times before landing at the Market Auditorium in 1935. From
1939 to 1942, the program also went on
the road each year broadcasting from nearby towns in Ohio and
Pennsylvania. Live audience performances
ceased in 1942
because of World War II, and WWVA raised its power to 50,000 watts that
same
year. After the war, live audience
performances resumed, now from the Virginia Theatre until 1962, then
moving to
the Rex Theatre, and finally in 1969 back to the program’s original
location,
the Capitol Theatre. During its long run, the Jamboree
relied principally on its
own cast of regular performers, with only occasional guest stars. The Jamboree was always a good fit for WWVA’s
program format, especially when it was a full-time country music from
1965 to
1997. Even afterwards when WWVA broadcast
a news/talk format, it continued to carry the Jamboree on Saturday
nights until
2008. The program then moved to another
station, WKKX, and was made available in syndication.
It continues to operate today as a stage
show, and now broadcasts over a low-power FM station.
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