| Today, WSM's Grand
Ole Opry stands as both the premium country music showcase and the longest running, live
radio show in history. On the air now for over 70 years, the Opry combines the pace and
charm of a 1930's big-production radio show with the excitement of modern country music.
Every Friday and Saturday night hundreds of thousands of radio listeners across the
country and thousands more in the Opry House audience savor this unique blend of the old
and the new.
Certainly one reason the Opry is so popular is the caliber of performers it
has attracted over the years. Whether it was Opry members from the past like Roy Acuff,
Minnie Pearl, Hank Williams and Bill Monroe, or contemporary members like Garth Brooks,
Ernie Ashworth, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire and Alan Jackson, being part of the Opry cast
has always been considered the highest honor and the crowning achievement in a country
performer's career.
By late 1932, WSM had joined a small, elite group of maximum-power, Class 1-A,
clear-channel broadcasters. The stations new 50,000 watt status, coupled with the low 650
kilocycle frequency, made WSM a nation-spanning giant. (Clear-channel status meant it was
the only station in the entire U.S. permitted to broadcast on the 650 frequency.) At the
heart of this expansion was a diamond-shaped,vertical antenna which was 878 feet high, the
tallest tower in North America at the time.
Another favorite recording location was the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. A side
from being known as the Mother Church of Country Music,the Ryman is also world-famous for
its extraordinary acoustics making it an ideal locale for live recording, a practice which
continues there to this day. The initial success of WSM's early recording efforts was
enough to convince others that Nashville had a viable future as a music industry center.
It wouldn't be long before record labels set up shop in Nashville on what was to become
"Music Row", marking the beginning of an expansion which would eventually earn
the city the nickname "Music City USA". In fact, it was WSM personality David
Cobb who came up with the nickname. And the man generally considered the father of Music
Row's recording industry was WSM's former musical director Owen Bradley.
The First Commercial FM Station in America
By the late 1930s, the communications industry was in the throes of rapid change.
WSM's Chief Engineer "Jack" DeWitt had been following the progress of "high
frequency" broadcasting closely, as he had an eye on eventually expanding the
station's holdings. Finally, in 1941, WSM continued its role as an industry trailblazer by
giving America its first commercial FM station at an assigned frequency of 44.7 megahertz.
DeWitt, who had manned the audio controls at the first Opry broadcast, was the driving
force behind this new venture. WSM's FM operation first went on the air under the
designation "W47NV." The call-code was a combination of the "W"
(radio) prefix, the number forty-seven for the last two digits of the assigned frequency,
and the letters NV representing Nashville. The station operated with an effective radiated
power of 65,000 watts and cast a healthy signal into Kentucky and Alabama. In 1947, the
Federal Communications Commission reappraised its pre-war rulings and moved the commercial
frequency modulation to 100.1 MHz. In the process, the station re-designated itself
"WSM-FM". Four years later, DeWitt saw greater promise in the new medium of
television and WSM-FM and its all-classical programming format went off the air.
Continued Growth
WSM's absence from the FM airwaves, however, was temporary, for in 1968 WSM
purchased an existing station, WLWM-FM, and used the frequency to return to the FM band at
95.5 MHz. Soon after WSM AM and WLWM-FM's move to the Opryland complex in 1982, WSM Radio
and the Associated Press launched the Music Country Radio Network (MCRN). MCRN was a
late-night programming service broadcast via satellite. WSM became Nashville's first AM
stereo station on December 6, 1982 before WSM-FM made its debut as "Nashville 95 FM -
"The New Country" the following month. WSM was founded on the principles of good
will and public service, and it continues to uphold those same standards today, over
seventy years later. Many radio stations have come and gone since 1925, but WSM remains a
nationally-known leader and major influence in the broadcast industry. WSM...three letters
that stand for the best radio has to offer.
An early photo of the Ryman Auditorium c.1904
Introduction
A House of History
To those of who love country music, walking into Nashville's Ryman Auditorium is
like walking on hallowed ground. As the home of WSM's Grand Ole Opry for over 30 years,
the Ryman is the Mother Church of Country Music. You can almost feel the presence of the
country legends who've graced its stage. But decades prior to the likes of Hank Williams,
Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl having filled the hall with song and laughter, the Ryman had
already played host to some of the most important figures of the day including President
Theodore Roosevelt, John Philip Sousa, Will Rogers and Enrico Caruso. Nashvillians also
enjoyed Shakespeare, Broadway road shows, symphonies, ballet and vaudeville at the fabled
auditorium. The story of this grand old building begins with two larger-than-life figures
who conceived and built it as a tabernacle/revival house and the remarkable woman who
turned the Ryman into a cultural wellspring, helping to make Nashville the "Athens of
the South".
The Grand Ole Opry House
The Mother Church of Country Music
George D. Hay began broadcasting his WSM radio show, The Grand Ole Opry, from a
small studio in a downtown office building in 1925. When fans of the show started crowding
the halls, the executives of National Life and Accident Insurance company learned just how
powerful their radio station was. It was decided that the Opry needed more elbow room, so
the show was moved to a theater in south Nashville. Later the Opry set up shop in a
tabernacle across the river before shifting over to the War Memorial building downtown. No
matter how many people the Opry made room for, it seemed even more came. Finally, in 1943,
the Opry moved to the biggest auditorium south of the Appalachians but even the Ryman and
its 3,755 seating capacity couldn't handle all the people who wanted to see the show.
Saturday nights found people lined up around the block four abreast, eating their dinners
from a paper sack as they waited to get in. And once inside things weren't exactly
luxurious. The old Ryman wasn't air-conditioned -- the only air movement came from funeral
parlor fans and the occasional lace handkerchief. While attending the Opry at the Ryman
could often be trying, performing there was every country singer's ultimate ambition. The
Opry's years at the Ryman saw all the major streams of country music come together on its
stage. Roy Acuff brought mountain music up from the Smokies. Bill Monroe came down from
Kentucky with his bluegrass sound. Hank Williams gave his country music a southern blues
flavor and Pee Wee King taught country music how to swing. The great Ernest Tubb gave the
Opry honky tonk and The Jordanaires shook the rafters with gospel songs.
Lots of young performers came to learn from the legends as well. Patsy Cline and
Kitty Wells helped open doors for women singers while Marty Robbins taught the newcomers
about showmanship. For his part, Jim Reeves showed the young hopefuls how to perform with
dignity and class. Saturday night at the Ryman was a show inside a show. Although WSM
listeners across America heard all the Opry's music, introductions and commercials, one
needed to see the show from a Ryman pew to take in the antics, sight gags, and costumes.
People danced across the stage, told jokes, posed for pictures, swapped stories or signed
autographs, all in plain sight of the audience. While Opry announcer Grant Turner read a
commercial, Cousin Jody and Bashful Brother Oswald would sometimes do comedy bits out on
center stage.
During the show, and especially during the commercials, members of the audience
would come to the lip of the stage to pass notes to the performers or sidemen. Often the
notes were song requests, other times birthday or anniversary mentions. Occasionally they
were marriage proposals or straight-ahead love notes. It was like a three-ring circus,
with all three rings going at the same time. The performers made the Opry entertaining,
but the backstage staff held it all together. Former WSM bandleader Vito Pellettieri was
brought in by Judge Hay to be the show's stage manager in 1934, and he ruled with an iron
hand for over forty years.
Roy Acuff may have been king on stage, but "Mister Vito" was the ramrod who made
sure the acts started and ended on time, in addition to overseeing music clearances.
Gaylord Entertainment Company.
For Opry Tickets & Information
CALL: (615) 889-3060.
|
