Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City
Search in google:
How WSM put Nashville on the map of American entertainment Henry L. Carrigan Jr. - Library Journal The mother of all Nashville landmarks, WSM, or 650 AM, introduced country music to the world when it launched The Grand Ole Opryover its airwaves in 1927. Nashville-based writer and filmmaker Havighurst's fast-paced chronicle of the rise of the station and its contributions to Nashville's economic base and cultural identity recounts the challenges, the personalities, and the music. In 1925, the National Life and Accident Company started the station with radio guru Jack DeWitt at the technical helm and Edwin Craig as the first broadcaster. By 1930, WSM (which stands for "We Shield Millions," a slogan for National Life and Accident) was so popular that it was one of five stations that the Federal Radio Commission permitted to grow to 50,000 watts, thereby increasing its audience from Nashville to as far north as the Arctic Circle. Havighurst includes snapshots of early Opryperformers such as Uncle Dave Macon, DeFord Bailey-the only African American on the show-and Minnie Pearl, as well as performers such as Dinah Shore and Pee Wee King, who got their starts on WSM. Havighurst's superb book belongs in every library's country music collection.
Acknowledgments xiIntroduction xiiiOn the Very Air We Breathe 1The Ears Are Eyes 18A Pleasing Spectacle 41Air Castle of the South 61We Must Serve These People Tonight 88Guts and Brass 104One of Our Boys Shoots the Moon 121It Helped Everybody in the Long Run 138The Balance of Power Has Shifted 159Jack, We Got a Real Problem 178A Code and a Concern 205The Whole Complex Is a Studio 224Epilogue: Signal Fade 244Notes 251Bibliography 261Index 265
