WLAC: CHANGED A NATION

(WHAT FOLLOWS IS A MAJOR POST---AT LEAST FROM MY VIEWPOINT. I WISH I HAD TIME AND MONEY TO WRITE THE DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT OF THIS HISTORY MAKING RADIO STATION.)

WLAC: The Radio Station That Changed America

I am not sure when I first heard the 50,000 watt WLAC radio station in Nashville, TN. My best guess is about 1955 or 1956. I do know where: The upstairs bedroom of my very close cousins Ed and Tony.  Ed was almost a year older than me and Tony was almost a year younger than me. At night Ed would tune an old tube radio to 1510 on the AM dial. What I heard was nothing short of amazing.

My own musical tastes had been centered on WAKY, WHAS, WLOU all in Louisville, KY, WSLM, Salem, IN, WOCH, North Vernon, IN, WIBC, Indianapolis, IN, WSM in Nashville, TN, KOMA, Oklahoma City, OK and WCKY in Cincinnati, OH. It must be noted that most of the above stations, and thousands of others, have since changed their call letters and program format. I liked the emerging sounds of Rock and Roll, Country (long before it was cool and video driven), and Gospel Music. But WLAC was a whole new ballgame. I heard what sounded like African-American announcers playing something called Rhythm and Blues. The music was different, the announcers were different, and the commercials were almost as entertaining as the music.

Artists such as Bobby “Blue” Bland, Joe Tex, Muddy Waters, Lighting Slim, Lonesome Sundown, Bo Diddley, Larry Birdsong, Sonny Boy Williams, Howling Wolf,Guitar Slim, Little Al, Laverne Baker, Etta James, Little Junior Parker, and Lula Reed sang and played music that first seemed to be aimed only at a black audience. As I listened more closely,  I found the songs were about people and very intense emotions: The good, the bad and the ugly. For a rural teenager who only had limited contact with blacks, I discovered the music world was not just Elvis, Pat Boone, Buddy Holly, Ernest Tubb, Bill Monroe, Dottie West, Hank Snow, the Blackwood Brothers and the Chuck Wagon Gang. Maybe the real and lasting discovery was that blacks were not really that much different from me. The songs were about love, love gone bad, (as a teenager I was beginning to know that girls were not weird, or stuck up, just different. And what a difference!)  hard times (running water and indoor plumbing came to our house in 1965) and working for the “Man” (my father worked as a tenant farmer by day and a machinist at Cummins Engine Company in Columbus, Indiana at night).

The night and early morning WLAC announcers were not the standard “cookie cutter” vinyl spinners of the day. John R (it was years later I learned his full name was John Richbourg) to me was the voice of WLAC. His deep tones were modulated by a personal smile I could hear and almost see. The intro to his shows each night was very predictable yet always seemed as if I was hearing it for the first time. “Hey, John R whatca gonna do? Come on John R, man, play me some Rhythm & Blues!” This voice over had a hard driving Rhythm and Blues band, complete with saxophone. (I started to lose interest in the traditional Rock and Roll when the saxophone disappeared from the bands) John R would come in with a voice that seemed aimed right at me. “Alright there my friend, I gotta do it. John R way down south here in Dixie.”

Gene Nobles had a voice and speech pattern that one and the same time seemed sophisticated, yet very much in tune with the rapidly changing cultural and musical world.

His program engineer was “Cohort” to Gene and the millions of listeners. To keep listeners, and Gene, on their toes “Cohort” would occasionally slip in the Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan call. Gene would sometimes get his playlist out of sync with what was actually going out over the air. To me, it seemed just another way to keep listeners wondering what he might do next. Some brief histories of this era have alleged Gene was nursing a nightly bottle of Seagrams V.O. Regardless, he held your attention. Gene’s lead in theme song each night was “Swannee River Boogie”

Bill “Hossman” Allen had a voice that sounded as if you could loan him money and expect to get it back. I remember him pitching several Gospel Music artists. I have read he hosted many gospel programs, even appearing on some recordings that were simulated as “live.”

As a freshman at Purdue University, fall 1959, I brought my extra powerful Heathkit AR-3 Am & Shortwave radio with me. This was the second radio I assembled while in high school. I introduced several dorm residents to WLAC and the wonderful sounds produced by the music and the announcers. One student, David Mills, one-time  world record holder of the 440 yard dash, tagged me “Hossman.” I considered it, then and now, as one of the most complimentary nicknames ever given to me.  

“After Hours” by Erskine Hawkins was the theme song for Herman Grizzard’s post-midnight program. Of all the “Big Four” WLAC announcers, I remember the least about Herman. I was never a night owl and would often fall asleep during his program. Herman had a “fatherly”, yet animated voice. He sound the least black of all the announcers. Somehow, Ed got information that they were all white and just sounded black. It was like learning Santa and the Easter Bunny got rubbed out on the same night! Years later I would see photographs which confirmed Ed’s inside information.

The entertaining commercials were the icing on the cake. The main sponsors were three mail order record companies in Tennessee. John R touted Ernie’s Record Mart in Nashville.  Remember, 45 rpm records were the only way to have your favorite songs played when you wanted. Specials offers would often contain the song just played. If you ever heard John R promote Ernie’s Record Mart you will recall his trademark “They got records galore in that store!”

Randy’s Record Shop in Gallatin, Tennessee, no street or box number, just simply Gallatin, Tennessee. Night after night listeners would be urged to order song played on Gene Nobles’ program.  Gene was at his best hawking Randy’s many record specials.

Herman Grizzard was the pitchman for Buckley’s Record Shop. His commercials sounded very similar to Ernie’s and Randy’s. I even thought they were all owned by one man. Truth is they were really three different stores.

My favorite was John R telling listeners we could have fried chicken about anytime we wanted if we would order live baby chicks. A hundred chicks would be sent to you for $3.00 plus postage and COD charges. The Post Office to this day still handles live baby chick shipments.

White Rose Petroleum Jelly and Royal Crown Hair Dressing commercials gave the WLAC platter men the opportunity to improvise and even make oblique sexual references. In the 1950’s this was very risqué and many parents would have considered it over the line.

One more WLAC story. I built and listened to a lot of radios in my teenage years. My antenna was a 175 foot long wire about fifteen feet above ground positioned in a north-south direction. I took a crystal set and modified it and could hear WLAC from my bedroom in Jennings County, Indiana. Then that was comparable to talking to the International Space Station on a baby monitor today.

Over the years I have met many people who shared my WLAC listening enjoyment. Two that really stand out was a black man in Fort Worth, TX who worked with me in a large warehouse. He was amazed that a white rural Indiana teenager was listening to the same radio station he thought was mainly for black people. The other, also a black man, was in Shawnee, OK when we both worked for a telecommunications company. He doubted my story until I rattled off many of the artists I heard on WLAC. The clincher came when I identified Bobby “Blue” Bland. He later told me he told his wife, my accounts were true because I included the “Blue” between Bobby and Bland!

The complete history of this epoch making radio station during the 1950’s is yet to be written. Here’s a free title for an enterprising writer. “Way Down South In Dixie---How a radio station helped change America” 

Glenn <><

Just West of Yesterday