2005

SG History 101 - SG Partners, Music & Radio

This month, rather than a detailed study of a particular artist, I thought I’d take a broad but fond look back at the relationship between southern gospel and radio …two entities that developed almost hand-in-hand, and remain key partners to each other!

Most students of SG history concur that the genre was birthed in the beginning largely through the efforts of James D. Vaughan in the early 20th century. Although there had always been singing, the tradition of shaped note singing that began in the late 19th century inspired Vaughan to go into the music publishing business, to spread the technique and style of singing that was predominant in the South at that time.

By 1910, Vaughan had come upon the idea of forming a professional quartet to travel and help sell his many songbooks …so with that, the professional gospel singing business began! The early Vaughan sponsored quartets were so successful at selling the songbooks and the style of singing, by the 1920s, aspiring singers who loved the music began to consider professional gospel singing as a way to make a living!

About that same time (the early 20s), the country was discovering a new medium …called radio. It was distinctive because, unlike the telephone, it did not require wires to send sound. When Vaughan learned of the new medium, he immediately sought ways to use it to market his product. With the help of Fred Green, an acquaintance he had struck up after World War I, Vaughan set out to build a radio station of his own. By 1922, the station was on the air …it was given the call letters WOAN.  It was Tennessee’s first radio station, licensed to Nashville. Although only operating with 250 watts of power, within two years, it had increased to 500 watts. Since at that time there were no other stations on 600 kilocycles, the signal spread as far north as Minnesota, into Pennsylvania and New York, and westward as far as Texas and Oklahoma.

Soon, others followed Vaughan’s lead …Hoyt Wooten’s WREC entered into a time-sharing agreement with Vaughan, and his Memphis-based station broadcast on that choice 600 dial position, and broadcast there when WOAN was off the air. Such arrangements were common in broadcasting’s early days.  The station helped spread the popularity of the new music far and wide.

Unfortunately, by 1929, WOAN was forced to fold. But just 40 kilocycles down the dial, an even more powerful station which had been on the air for four years, WSM, was doing well with its programming, and before long allowed Vaughan to buy time for his best quartet on the air there.

This quartet, with such stellar performers as pianist Dwight Brock and bass singer “Big” Jim Waites, really helped to put the relatively new music “on the map.”

The success of the Vaughan quartets and the Stamps quartets (offshoots of the Vaughan groups) showed that radio was indeed a key to launching professional gospel groups, and promoting interest in them. Before long, other aspiring singers sought spots on radio stations as being keys to them getting launched professionally. In time, groups like the Blackwood Brothers (WHEF), the Speer Family (WSFA), the Rangers Quartet (WHAS), the Chuck Wagon Gang (WBAP) and the LeFevres (WGST), became well known by obtaining airtime on stations, and consequently being invited to sing far and wide.

For years afterward, until the advent of television, up and coming quartets saw radio gigs as keys to establishing themselves. Hovie Lister even went so far as to be a DJ for Atlanta’s WCON to eventually launch his Statesmen. The Blue Ridge Quartet became well-known for their broadcasts on Spartanburg’s WSPA, the Rebels Quartet in Florida were on Tampa’s WFLA and a Mutual Broadcasting System show (“America Calling”). Even in California, the Weatherford Quartet was launched on Long Beach’s KFOX …moving to WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana in the early 1950s. The Sunshine Boys became affiliated with the prestigious Saturday Jamboree shows on Wheeling, West Virginia’s WWVA …that was a major coup for a gospel quartet, for the Jamboree ranked just below the Grand Ole Opry on Nashville’s WSM in terms of accomplishment.

When television arrived, radio’s role in entertianment changed accordingly, becoming more music-based as television took over some of radio’s previous functions. Still, people enjoyed the music of people such as the Harvesters (on WBT in Charlotte), Wally Fowler’s All-Night Sings (again on WSM in Nashville), and still, the Blackwood Brothers (by the 1940s on KMA in Shenandoah, Iowa, and by 1950 on WMPS in Memphis).

In fact, some local groups did quite well in their areas through radio. In Fresno, CA, ex-Blackwood Brothers bass singer Don Smith secured daily airtime on the city’s leading radio station, KMJ in 1947 …and continued to broadcast there daily into the 1960s.  Eventually, his program was limited to Sunday mornings, and instead of his Gospelaires Quartet performing live, he played records of them and other artists. The notable thing about Don’s show is that it remains on the air today, after 57 years, still on KMJ! With Don having to retire due to Alzheimer’s Disease in 1998, his daughter Earline and yours truly carry on the program …and believe it to be the longest continuously running SG-based music program in the United States.

As radio became more fragmented in the latter 20th century, several stations in many cities went to majority gospel programming, or even exclusive gospel programming, and despite ever-changing public tastes, still survive today with gospel-based formats.

But in response to technological developments, radio broadcasting of southern gospel has tried to keep up with the times and changes.  In 1980, a veteran PA radio personality named Paul Heil developed a syndicated radio program devoted to southern-style gospel music called The Gospel Greats and after nearly 25 years remains the most popular syndicated radio program devoted to southern gospel in North America. Other over-the-air networks devoted to gospel music include Solid Gospel and All-Quartets Radio, formatted to satisfy their intended audiences.

The even more recent phenomenon of internet radio has even included southern gospel music. The efforts of outlets such as the Gospel Station, sglive365, SGM Radio, and a few others attempt to embrace the internet age with southern-style gospel music that attempts to compete with other online outlets for listener attention and approval.

A difficulty that stations programming southern gospel style music have encountered has been garnering enough revenue to afford the latest technology, and staff that can program such outlets so they can remain competitive in the intensely competitive atmosphere of modern radio…over-the-air and online. But fans remain hopeful that their music can survive on radio in the same manner it has in the marketplace for the almost 100 years of its’ existence. The challenges remain, but there have always been those who have arisen to conquer such challenges…not only in the southern gospel field itself, but in radio as well.

So as we enter the 21st century, the outlook remains forward for those who love southern gospel music, and southern gospel music on the radio.