Tag: WWVA

June 26, 1914: Musician Doc Williams Born in Cleveland

Musician Doc Williams was born in Cleveland on June 26, 1914. Williams and his Border Riders band came to Wheeling radio station WWVA in 1937. With only slight interruption, he was associated with the Wheeling Jamboree radio program for the rest of his career.

The Border Riders at times included Doc’s fiddle-playing brother Cy, blind accordionist Marion Martin, wife Chickie Williams, and such comedians as Froggie Cortez, “Hiram Hayseed,” and Smoky Pleacher. Doc and Chickie’s daughters, Barbara, Madeline, and Karen, periodically joined in with the band.

Here’s a clip of Doc singing “Memory Lane”:

Over more than 70 years, Doc kept alive the traditional style of country music. From the 1970s to 1998, he operated his Doc Williams Country Store across Main Street from Capitol Music Hall.

Doc and Chickie Williams were inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Doc Williams died at his home in Wheeling in 2011 at age 96.

TWWVH_Jun26_2020.mp3

December 13, 1926: Wheeling Radio Station WWVA Goes On The Air

Wheeling radio station WWVA went on the air on December 13, 1926. The 50-watt station broadcast from the basement of John Stroebel, a physics teacher and wireless pioneer. By November of the next year, WWVA had established studios in a Wheeling office building and boosted its power to 500 watts, which, on some nights, could transmit its signal halfway around the world. Early programming on the station included contemporary recorded music, informal announcements, music by local amateurs, and children’s shows.

  

In 1933, WWVA launched a program that would become a mainstay. The Wheeling Jamboree was broadcast to 17 other states and six Canadian provinces. The show soon moved to Wheeling’s Capitol Music Hall, where it was performed before a live audience of more than 3,000. The Jamboree is still on the air but no longer on WWVA. It’s the nation’s second-oldest radio program, behind the Grand Ole Opry.

WWVA also pioneered other live music shows, such as It’s Wheeling Steel, with songs and routines performed mostly by employees of the Wheeling Steel Corporation. Today, WWVA features mostly news, talk, and religious programming.

June 25, 1939: Musicians from Wheeling Steel Perform to 26,000 at New York's World Fair

On June 25, 1939, musicians from the Wheeling Steel Corporation performed at New York’s World’s Fair before 26,000 listeners. The performers, selected from Wheeling Steel’s extended family, had become the surprise sensation of the late ’30s. It was all the brainchild of Wheeling Steel’s advertising director, John Grimes, as a way to promote the corporation’s image and products.

Grimes launched It’s Wheeling Steel on WWVA radio in 1936. It featured light classics, popular songs, and show tunes, performed by an orchestra of local musicians and amateur headliners. The program was an instant success and was picked up nationally by the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1939.

In 1941, It’s Wheeling Steel jumped to NBC and rose to fifth in the ratings. During World War II, the show encouraged listeners to buy war bonds, generating $663,000 in bond sales in just one program broadcast from West Virginia University’s field house. In 1944, at its peak of popularity, the show was discontinued, primarily due to John Grimes’s failing health. The show’s arranger, Lew Davies, would later develop Lawrence Welk’s TV variety show based largely on the format of It’s Wheeling Steel.

January 7, 1933: Jamboree Airs on WWVA

On January 7, 1933, the Jamboree first aired on WWVA radio in Wheeling. Along with other radio shows of the day—like the Grand Old Opry, the Chicago Barn Dance, and the Louisiana Hayride—the weekly Jamboree helped make country music an international sensation. At its peak, it could be heard across much of the East Coast and even in parts of Canada. Its listenership went national for a while in the ’50s, when CBS radio picked up a portion of the broadcasts every third week.

Over the years, Jamboree regulars included country music legends Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Doc and Chickie Williams, among others. In 2008, after a 75-year run, WWVA stopped broadcasting the Jamboree. But it was immediately picked up by WKKX-AM. Known as the Wheeling Jamboree, it now airs from the Wheeling Island Hotel, Casino & Racetrack. It remains West Virginia’s premier live-audience country music program. And it is one of the most successful shows of its kind in the nation. Today, the Wheeling Jamboree and the Grand Ole Opry endure as the only survivors of country music’s early radio days.

April 4, 1980: Musician Red Sovine Dies in Nashville

Musician Red Sovine died in Nashville following a car crash on April 4, 1980. He was 61.

Born Woodrow Wilson Sovine in Charleston, he was influenced by local radio musicians Frank Welling and Buddy Starcher, who were known for their sentimental monologues.

Sovine’s early radio career on WCHS in Charleston and WWVA in Wheeling was slow to take off. So, he took a factory job in the Putnam County town of Eleanor while performing on radio. After World War II, he pursued a full-time musical career in Montgomery, Alabama, Shreveport and finally Nashville.

Joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1954, he became famous for his recitations, especially ‘‘Giddyup Go,” “Phantom 309,” and this number-one hit from 1976:

Red Sovine was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

RedSovine_TedyB.mp3
Teddy Bear by Red Sovine
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