By Brett Matthew West
(This will be a multi-part expose that provides the backstory of how the Grand Ole Opry, the home of Country music, came into existence.)
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..."For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry."... - George Dewey Hay
It's a story as old as time. Well, at least almost 98 years in the making anyway. November 28, 1925 to be precise. Thanks to a Radio Personality named George Dewey Hay, and the National Life and Accident Insurance Company. Oh, and a 1000 watt radio station called WSM (We Shield Millions), one of the biggest radio stations in the South.
The story probably began even before that venture occurred. Merriam-Webster defined genealogy as an account of the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or from older forms. I am not quite sure if the word genealogy is the adequate phraseology in this situation. Allow me to explain.
Let's go back to 1920, and what is recognized by most sources, as the beginning of licensed commercial radio, the 50,000 watt, clear channel, KDKA Radio in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The oldest surviving radio station in the nation. KDKA can be heard in West Virginia, Ohio, New York, and Maryland during the day. At night, the majority of the Eastern United States receives their transmissions.
Known as the Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World, KDKA's first broadcast occurred on November 2, 1920 with the Warren G. Harding-James M. Cox Presidential election. This was the first election after the end of World War One, the first election after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment that gave women the right to vote, and the world's first regularly scheduled radio broadcast.
Interestingly enough, KDKA was the offshoot of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, of East Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to expand the business's commercial operations in the radio industry and connect communications with its branches in Newark, New Jersey, Cleveland, Ohio, and Springfield, Massachusetts.
Licensed by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Navigation, who regulated radio stations of the time, KDKA Radio is credited with creating the modern radio studio design. They broadcasted live concerts by Westinghouse employees from a local auditorium. In so doing, the microphones used for the concerts echoed from the walls and caused severe distractions. They then tried moving the performers outside to eliminate the echoes.
This successful, they pitched a tent on the roof of their building. Unfortunately, the tent was blown down in a storm. The company moved the performers inside and used the tent material on the walls to deaden the echoes. This useful noise-absorbing material, that they called monk's cloth, was burlap. These are the reasons why the walls of Modern Day radio station studios are lined.
Some sources checked cite the Department of Commerce issued the first broadcasting license on September 15, 1921 to WBZ Radio in Springfield, Massachusetts. They were the first radio outlet to state the station would be used exclusively for broadcasting and transmitted on 360 meters. As designated by the Department of Commerce on December 1, 1921, this became the standard "Entertainment" wavelength. The Department of Commerce listed KDKA as the fourth radio station in the United States.
Regardless of which radio station was actually created first, and there remains several controversies surrounding this topic, within four years of the establishment of KDKA Radio, 555 other stations popped up around the United States. How did they attract listeners? By one of the oldest traditions in the book...mixing music and commerce. Specifically, traveling medicine shows became abundantly popular, a tactic instrumental in the formation of the Grand Ole Opry.
As I progress through this expose the dots will all be connected from the founding of KDKA Radio to the establishment of the Grand Ole Opry. I invite you to tag along as I present this information about my all-time favorite pastime, Country music, a topic I could easily talk, and write volumes about, endlessly.
(Next time I will detail a little bit about one of the most bizaare traveling medicine shows ever and how they fit into the progression chain that led to the creation of the Grand Ole Opry.)
| Author Notes |
Do You Know how to play this?, by avmurray, selected to complement my expose.
Part 2 stars "Doctor," (and I use that term extremely loosely) John Romulus Brinkley and his infamous implanting of goat testicles into males. If that topic offends you then you may choose to wait until Part 3 is posted to continue following this expose. However, the way I have the different parts of this expose arranged each one of them blends into the next part. |
By Brett Matthew West
(Though not on FanStory much these days, due to circumstances both on and off site, did find an old chapter I had not previously posted.)
..."For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry"... - George Dewey Hay
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In Part 1 of We Shield Millions, I examined radio station KDKA in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. KDKA is considered the Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World. Most sources list this station as the first commercial radio station in the United States. Whether it was or not is not really relevant. However, KDKA played an enormous part in the progression chain that eventually led to the establishment of the Grand Ole Opry, the longest continuously running radio program in history.
In Part 2, I will discuss one of the most bizarre traveling medicine shows ever known to exist, and Doctor John Romulus Brinkley. He, too, was a link along the progression chain.
Located in the Upper Central Eastern County of Geary, the second-smallest county in the state of Kansas based on land area, the township of Milford is regarded as the "City of Beautiful Sunsets" mainly because of its location on the shores of Milford Lake.
Milford contains almost as many creeks, four of them, as it does residents...well, almost. It was in this out-of-the-way hole-in-the-wall Doctor John Romulus Brinkley amassed his fortune and became one of the biggest quacks in American history.
In 1918, Brinkley opened a sixteen-room clinic in the small town and managed to save several lives during the Spanish Flu global influenza pandemic. Soon you will see why I used the term "managed". Milford was about seven miles from the military installation of Fort Riley, where the earliest documented case of the ailment is believed to have occurred on March 11 of that year. It has been reported upwards of 100 million victims died from the Spanish Flu worldwide.
These actions were not Brinkley's claim to fame. He lacked accredited education as a doctor, and purchased his medicine degree from the "diploma mill" known as the Electic Medical University in Kansas City on May 7, 1915. Brinkley became famous as the "Goat Gland Doctor" in which he performed the transplantation of goat testicles into men as a means to cure male impotence, and a wide variety of ailments. You read that correctly, goat testicles.
Brinkley opened several hospitals in multiple states where he practiced medicine for almost twenty years although the medical community at large discredited his techniques. Hundreds of thousands of people in Kansas liked Brinkley. He also launched two bids for Governor and nearly won election in one of them as a write-in candidate.
Eventually stripped of his medical license in 1923, Brinkley began radio station KFKB "Kansas First, Kansas Best." He broadcasted personally dispensed medical advice, invited listeners to his clinics, and assured them "a man is as old as his glands". Other features transmitted on KFKB included lectures, baseball, national events, crop reports, weather forecasts, as well as live music by "Uncle Bob" Larkan and his Music Makers band. Larkan was an Arkansas state champion fiddler, who once won a fiddle contest that awarded him twelve dollars, a barrel of flour, and 26 chicks he raised in a box by his bed.
Listeners would write into KFKB with their ailments. Brinkley then prescribed medicine for them though they were unknown to him and he went by descriptions of the ailments sent to him. This program was known as "The Medical Question Box."
In addition, Brinkley was credited as the radio pioneer who began the Mexican Border Blaster radio faze. These were broadcast stations not licensed as an external service, and usually located in Southern Texas, that targeted a Mexican listenership.
This was Brinkley's 1000 watt radio station XER in Villa Acuna, Mexico, across from Del Rio, Texas. XER could be heard in cities around the United States, and had a slogan of "The Sunshine Station in the Heart of the Nation."
| Author Notes |
Goats with a Character, by avmurray, selected to complement this chapter.
In Part 3, and next on the progression line, I will highlight radio station KFKB in Shenandoah, Iowa, that was known as "Keep Friendly, Never Frown," and radio station KMA, in the same city, that was known as "The Corn Belt Station in the Heart of the Nation." |
By Brett Matthew West
"For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry"...George Dewey Hay
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In Part 1, I examined radio station KDKA in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania that most sources cite as the Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World and the first commercial radio station in the United States. Whether it was or not is not really relevant. However, KDKA played an enormous part in the progression chain that eventually led to the establishment of the Grand Ole Opry, the longest continuously running radio program in history.
In Part 2, I examined one of the most bizarre traveling medicine shows ever known to exist and Doctor John Romulus Brinkley, who became famous as the "Goat Gland Doctor".
PART 3:
Unique, quirky, and wide listenership were watchwords of early radio broadcasting in the 1920s. Among these stations were KFNF, who's slogan was "Keep Friendly, Never Frown," AND KMA, who claimed to "Keep Millions Advised," of Shenandoah, Iowa. The two "Friendly Farmers," as they were regarded.
Shenandoah is located in Page and Fremont Counties in Southwestern Iowa, along Fourmile Creek and the East Nishnabotna River. The small, rural, town, with unpaved roads, was referred to as the "Mail Order Seed and Nursery Capital of America." Shenandoah held about five thousand citizens in those days. Radio stations KFNF, and KMA, drew thousands of visitors to the area. No less than ten different seed companies operated in Shenandoah, however, probably the best known was the Henry Field Seed Company.
He was a plain-spoken area farmer who developed a booming seed business beginning in 1899. By 1923, Field's operation employed some 600 workers housed in a three-story tall brick building on Shenandoah's north end. Residing not that far from the bustling big city of Omaha, Nebraska, approximately 61 miles or so to be precise, Field traveled there to promote his business over radio station WOAW, which later became the mega-station WOW.
Field's live, popular performances included hymns, Old Time fiddle tunes, and the host detailing the advantages of his life in Shenandoah. (I will explore much more about Henry Field, and KFNF, in Part 4.)
Earl May became another participant in WOAW broadcasting, and Henry Field's chief antagonist in the Shenandoah seed battles. He owned the May Seed Company that he purchased in 1919. May's folksy personality appealed to the local community's customers. They purchased not only seeds from May, but also baby chicks, canned fruits, dried fruits, frozen fish, and other assorted wares.
Like Henry Field, May soon realized the potential radio provided in promoting his seed company and the long stretch the medium offered for communications with customers. (I will present much more about Earl May, and KMA, in Part 5.)
KFNF, and KMA, launched the careers of several Top Named Entertainers including Phil and Don, collectively known as The Everly Brothers, as well as the Jazz double bass player Charles Edward Haden. On KMA radio, where his family performed Country music and Folk songs, Haden revolutionized the harmonic concept of bass playing in Jazz music. Of note, Haden made his professional debut at the ripe old age of two.
By Brett Matthew West
"For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry"...George Dewey Hay
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In Part1, I presented information about radio station KDKA in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania that many sources cite as the Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World, and the first commercial radio station in the United States. Whether it was or not is not really relevant. However, KDKA played an enormous part in the progression chain that eventually led to the establishment of the Grand Ole Opry, the longest continuously-running radio program in history.
In Part 2, I discussed one of the most bizarre traveling medicine shows ever known to exist, and Doctor John Romulus Brinkley, who became famous as the "Goat Gland Doctor."
In Part 3, I detailed radio stations KFNF "Keep Friendly Never Frown," and KMA "Keep Millions Advised," in Shenandoah, Iowa.
Henry Field erected two 218-foot tall towers adjoining his seed house in Shenandoah. These supported a horizontal wire antenna. Afterwards, Field installed a 500 watt transmitter inside the building. His first broadcast on what became popularly regarded as the "Friendly Farmer Station" occurred on February 24, 1924. The program featured discussions on poultry and agriculture. There was "old time music," religion, and homespun folksy philosophy. Field acted as the main announcer.
The uncrowded radio bands of KFNF, and static-free evenings, allowed the radio station to be heard throughout Iowa and several surrounding states. Field's " Missouri English," as homey as it was, endeared him to Midwest farmers who felt comfortable ordering merchandise advertised on KFNF and Field's mail order business flourished quickly. Drawn mainly from the staff of his seed company, performers such as the "Seedhouse Girls," and the "Cornfield Canaries," gained popularity. However, Field was the primary benefactor of KFNF's prosperity.
Thousands of listeners flocked weekly to Shenandoah to meet Field. He began to offer tours of his station's facilities and his seed company. His business boomed. Eventually, Field built his own studio on the south end of his seed house. The studio was replenished with its own auditorium, pew-style benches, and views of proceedings. A dining room, and a kitchen, served coffee and sandwiches. Next came a grand piano and a large pipe organ for live musical broadcasts.
So many tourists arrived in Shenandoah, Field constructed a row of cabins for additional housing for them. In time, Field added an arcade, a soda fountain, a gas station, and a trading post in the small town, as well as seven nearby communities. All of these were supported by KFNF.
Additionally, KFNF celebrated a Fall Festival Weekend in Shenandoah for live broadcasts. These offered attendees free pancakes, carnival rides, and exhibits. By 1939, the jubilees provided by KFNF, and their rival station KMA, totalled in excess of 439,200 revelers.
The listening public of KFNF was enthralled by the radio station, and for the most part, the radio station was more or less a catalyst for publicity for Field's business enterprises.
| Author Notes | Plugged in, by MKFlood, selected to complement my posting. |
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