Whitey & Hogan and the Briarhoppers

 

 

I found a Whitey & Hogan LP in the used bin. The DAHR reports [SOURCE] the duo was active for 66 years which was strange because I didn't recognize their names: Roy "Whitey" Grant and Arval Hogan. They were born in 1916 and 1911 respectively.  But Grant was born in Charlotte (Mecklenburg county) . Even in 1916 that was a city: population around 35,000. Hogan was from Robbinsville population was around 400 then. Robbinsville (Graham county) peaked in the 1970s and has fallen to a population of around 800 today. By comparison, Grant was the city kid. I had to do some reading to realize what I had in my hands.

They met in 1935 working at the Firestone cotton mill in Gastonia, NC. It was also called the Loray Mill and nicknamed the "Million Dollar Mill."  It's about 30 miles from Charlotte. At its peak in the early 1900s, it employed over 750 workers. The building abutted he south side of the Southern Railway tracks. That building is still standing today but as a mill, it closed it's doors in 1993. Today it's a hipster office space today owned by the Thrasher Group. But back in 1935 it was the largest mill in the south. [SOURCE] All of that to say Whitey and Hogan were 24 and 19 when they met at the Loray Mill.

They began performing as a duo, playing mandolin and guitar locally. Initially they played under the name The Spindle City Boys, no doubt for the textile boom town they worked in. Then their radio debut was on WSPA in Spartanburg, SC on Scotty the Drifters weekly program. Scotty is fairly obscure because he also recorded as the Singing Soldier. His real name was Benny Borg. He recorded about 17 sides, less than half were issued. He was still on WSPA as late as 1942. 

Whitey and Hogan eventually got their own sponsorship from Efird's Department Store and a radio spot at WGNC radio in Gastonia in 1939.  There is a small confusion in the timeline in 1939 as the book The WBT Briarhoppers by Tom Warlick has Whitey & Hogan on the Rustin Radio Show in Gastonia, the show was sponsored by Rustin Furniture. The show was broadcast from the main storefront at 278 West Main Ave. (That building is also still standing, and was renovated into condos in 2023.) The book does not cite the station, but in 1939 in Gastonia that had to be 1420 WGNC-AM. There was a prior station application in Gastonia, WJBR which was granted in 1937 and deleted over it's CP and delayed construction. I do not think WJBR was ever actually on air.

 

1939 was a big year for Whitey & Hogan. They recorded sixteen sides for Decca Records in one marathon session on November, 8th 1939 in the Decca New York studio. They eventually recorded a total of 30 for Decca. It was at WGNC they met another even more popular act, The Briarhoppers. At the time the Briarhoppers had 8 members "Dad" Johnny McAllister, Jane "Minnie" Bartlett and Billie Burton, Homer Drye, "Big" Bill Davis, Clarence "Elmer" Etters, Thorpe "Zeb" Westerfield and Don "Ham" White. (Don was actually named Walden "Don" Whytsell)  That's not the only line up but that's the troupe that Whitey and Hogan joined in 1941. 

The original Briarhoppers were put together by Charles H. Crutchfield in 1934 as a platform to sell snake oil tonics and quack medical treatments. He too had previously been at WSPA but also WIS-AM in Columbia, SC.  They claimed in Billboard that the Brirarhoppers increased ad sales 18% on WBT. That program was so successful that Crutchfield was named WBT's program director in 1935, having only been at the station for 2 years.

The Briarhoppers were big before 1939. Their show ran from 3:45 to 4:45 in 1937. They sold a lot of ads and a got a big write up in 1937 in The Mirror (below) and another in Billboard.  Billboard was a bit classist about it and wrote "[The] redeeming condiment is announcer Charles Crutchfield, WBT program director, whose suave comments and humorous ad libbing prevent the program from being just another hillbilly affair..."  The Mirror write up was more even handed:

Way down South in Charlotte, NC everybody agrees upon one thing. That is an old saw which, when set with new teeth, goes like this: Versatility, thy name is Briarhopper. And to prove it, in case you seem skeptical or perplexed at their assurance, they simply tell you to tune in WBT at four o'clock any afternoon and judge for yourself. And then is when you agree they are right. At five o'clock, we mean, after you've spent an enjoyable hour listening to WBTs Briarhopper Band. Led by Dad Briarhopper, Johnny "Mac" McAllister, these eight hill billies just don't give a hoot which instrument they happen to fish out of the pile before the program starts, because any Briarhopper can play any instrument well, and does before the program is over. And if that isn't proof enough of their versatility, they all sing in the same gifted manner. The mature-voiced male members can step to the microphone and do a pleasing job whether the script calls for a twanging hill billy rendition, a quartet part, solo, or opera. While the girls' voices are surefire in any type of song, in both solo and combination singing. Who are these talented Briarhoppers? Well, there's Dad and Minnie and Billie and Homer and ...but why not take a peek at the picture and really meet the folks. Fans, the Briarhoppers. 

At the height of the Briarhoppers’ fame there were two touring versions of the band, dubbed Unit One and Unit Two, at different time including Marty Schopp, Sam Poplin, Fred Kirby, Garnett B. "Hank" Warren, Shannon Grayson, Hank Warren and Claude Casey to name a few. In 1945 WBT started their own Hayride-style jamboree called the "Carolina Hayride."  It broadcast coast to coast on CBS. It was succeeded by the Dixie Jambouree and Carolina Calling all of which included in some form, the Briarhoppers. The Briarhopper show finally ended its run on WBT in 1951. Before it wrapped, Whitey and Hogan recorded more sides for Sonora records in 1945 and Deluxe in 1947. (Sonora also did some Fred Kirby sides in 1946.)

In the dust of the Briarhoppers Whitey and Hogan stuck together and both worked for the post office.  Then in the 1970s, seeing a resurgence in the popularity of country music, Whitey and Hogan reformed the Briarhoppers as a 5-peice band. That line up included Shannon Grayson, Don White, and "Fiddlin’ Hank" aka Garnett Warren. An LP compilation of their Decca sides and unreleased transcriptions was released in 1977 on Homestead records. That record must have sold OK because it was followed by two volumes of new recordings; releasing Vol I in 1981 and Vol II in 1984. JEMF regular, Ivan M. Tribe wrote the liner notes on all three. Lamon records released two other Briarhopper LPs "It's Briarhopper Time!" came out in 1980 and Hit's Briarhopper time Again in 1981. 

In 2003, Whitey and Hogan, along with Don White, as the only surviving former members of the Briarhoppers received the North Carolina Arts Council Folk Heritage Award. The book The WBT Briarhoppers came out in 2007 and while assembled from a mountain of original research and interviews, already enough folks had died that  we don't know what happened to several members. Tom Warlick has done more research than anyone else alive and his blog remains a great source: https://wbtbriarhoppers.blogspot.com/

Clarence Etters died in 1960, he was only 59. Johnny McAllister died in 1967, born in 1903 he was only 64. Homer Drye died early in 1983, Bill Davis in 1989, then Shannon Grayson died in 1993, Fred Kirby in 1996, Hank Warren in 1997, Charles Crutchfield in 1998, Claude Casey in 1999, Sam Poplin died in 2000, Arval Hogan in 2003, Don White died in 2005. Marty Shopp in 2009, and then Roy Grant in 2010. But despite the great power of the internet, the fates of Jane "Minnie" Bartlett, Billie Burton, and Thorpe Westerfield remain unknown.

DJ Freedom Fries

In France they're pommes frites.  The same taters in Spanish are patatas bravas. Italians call them patate fritte. In Poland they are placki kartoflane.  In England they call them chips, and the rest of their former colonies call them hot chips, finger chips, steak fries, french fries, and potato wedges to name a few. ...Except in the USA in 2003. That year, freedom fries was a political euphemism for French fries in the United States. For that particular lexicographical misdemeanor we can thank DJ Jerry Agar.

On March 11, 2003 Republican U.S. Representatives Bob Ney and Walter B. Jones directed the three cafeterias serving the House of Representatives to change all references to "French fries" and "French toast" on menus, and replace them with "Freedom fries" and "Freedom toast."  I am sure the head fry cook thought they were kidding the first time they asked.

Our key man here, Jerry Agar isn't even American. He's Canadian and was born in Gilbert Plains, Manitoba actually. Unsurprisingly, he spent his early radio career in Canada. His first gig was in 1973 fresh out of high school at at 730 CKDM-AM. In 1976 he went to 980 CJME-AM in Regina, Saskatchewan to do morning traffic and a midday two hour show. Just a couple years later he went to 880 CKLQ-AM in Brandon, MB for the PD slot at the long-time country music station. More here.

Then his career changed. He married an American woman and was able to emigrate to the USA and begin working in radio stateside. His first US gig was at 1480 WFXW-AM in Geneva, IL (now WSPY) In the mid 1980s he moved over to his first FM station, 96.7 KKSR  (now KZRV) in St. Cloud, MN. In his own recounting, he got fired a lot. So he relocated again for a morning slot in Toledo at soft rock 1470 WLQR-AM. He was fired again and ended up part-time at 107.9 KQQL in Minneapolis. He relocated all the way to Tucson, AZ for a full-time gig at 94.9 KMXZ in 1996, and was fired again.  From there he went to 102.1 WMYU-FM in Sevierville, TN (they did a call swap with 93.1 WWST in 2001)... anyway he was fired again.

It was in January of 2000 that he was hired by 680 WPTF-AM in Raleigh, NC for an afternoon slot. This is where the sliced fried root vegetable hit the fan. It started with a small, local, right-wing publicity stunt. Innocently enough, a Prof. Crystall at UNC-Chapel Hill warned her studnet, Tim Mertes, in an email for  harshly criticizing homosexuals in class. The Professor rightly stated she would not tolerate "racist, sexist and/or hetero sexist comments in class."  Unknown parties shared that email.  Mike Adam, a Heritage Foundation alum, and UNC Wilmington professor and his pal Rep Walter Jones, began milking a politically correct professor for political capital. It became a meme in the war against political correctness.

While it can be excessive, political correctness is just another word for courtesy and politeness. It's the heart of the golden rule, reciprocity, the foundation of civilization. But in a culture war right and wrong are just ideas used to exploit the politically ignorant. Jerry Agar jumped on the story like a hungry DJ with a bad resume. He interviewed student Tim Mertes on air. Rep Jones heard the interview and sent a bitchy press release and a letter to UNC's chancellor.  Agar milked the story from every angle. He even interviewed Neal Rowland, the owner of Cubbies restaurant in Beaufort, NC because he changed his menu to read "Freedom Fries" as well.  Cubbies fared worse than Agar, they are listed as closed on Yelp. More here.

In response most Americans yawned. A 2005 Gallup poll 66% of respondents called it "silly." By 2006 Rep Jones was regretting his escapade, he commented in one interview "I wish it had never happened." The House cafeteria menu was quietly changed back. Nonetheless Jones remains in his 3rd district seat today. In 2004 Agar left for 980 KMBZ-AM in Kansas City, and in 2006 he relocated to Chicago for a morning slot at 890 WLS-AM in Chicago. There he managed to also do an evening show for WABC in New York from studios in Chicago. He did a stint at WGN-AM around then as well.

But Agar tired of our American way of life and the unending French Fry jokes. He moved back to Canada in February 2010. There Agar joined 1010 CFRB-AM in Toronto to host The Jerry Agar Show on weekday mornings. He remains there today, but the Toronto Sun quietly took down his nutty blog in 2014.

DJ Chet Atkins

Born in 1924, Chester "Chet" Atkins is known today almost entirely for his country guitar picking.  He was also a lifetime radio man and that is no exaggeration. He was an ARRL member, and earned a Ham Radio General class license in 1998. His first call sign was WA4CZD, but he traded that in for a vanity call sign contianing his initials W4CGP in 1998.  That's a radio man.

He was born in  Luttrell, TN on the distant outskirts of Knoxville. He landed his first radio gig on WRBL-AM at the age of 17 in 1941. It was a 30 minute Saturday morning program at 10:00 AM, hosted by Parson Jack, a local preacher. Parson Jack had actually heard Atkins playing on at a farm and spontaneously invited him to perform on the program.

He next appeared on the radio closer to home, at WNOX-AM on the Bill Carlisle program. He played for Jumpin' Bill Carlisle regularly and became a studio musician for the station. There he met the Carter Family and became their guitarist.  In 1945 he relocated to Cincinnati to play on WLW. His reasons for leaving are unclear but one biography said he lost his job to "cut backs." In his autobiography he just flatly said he was fired. Regardless, he lasted only six months and moved on to Raleigh in 1946 and WPTF-AM. That was short lived as well and he moved on to WRVA in Richmond and played the Old Dominion Barn Dance. He lost his job too, this time due to missing work over asthma attacks.

He auditioned in Chicago, for Red Foley, and later made his first appearance at the Opry in 1946 in Foley's band. The Opry gig wasn't a stayer so Atkins moved on to KWTO-AM in Springfield, Missouri.  There VP Si Siman nicknamed him "Chet." Apparently it stuck. In 1947 Chet went back to Knoxville and had a regular slot on the WNOX programs the "Tennessee Barn Dance" and the "Midday Merry Go Round". Two years later he left

WNOX to re-join the Carter Family back on KWTO. He was briefly fired there was well and ended up playing with Saddle Rockin' Rhythm on KOA-AM in Denver. The Carter Family, then including Chet, relocated to Nashville in 1950. Atkins began performing on WSM-AM regularly and became a member of The Opry thereafter.  In his later years he went back to radio, appearing on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio program, and other public radio programs. He died of cancer in 2001.

Smith-Douglass Vs. Eleanor Roosevelt

In February 1950, the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a newspaper column about her recent tour of southern states. You can read the whole article here. Allow me to quote the first paragraph.

"There is a charm about the South. The smell of magnolias, the lavender-and-old-lace feeling, still exists there. People are less hurried; they have more opportunity perhaps for the grace of living. But underneath it all I am not so sure that there are not some signs of poverty and unhappiness that will gradually have to disappear if that part of our nation is going to prosper and keep pace with the rest of it."

Her comments went over poorly, but it didn't hit all at once. It was more like a rolling snowball. Newspaper syndication then was different than now, some newspapers didn't run her article the following November. Roosevelt  as a capable writer and had published works as early as 1921. [See here] She praised the charm and scenery down south, but backhanded them a few times about little things like corruption, poverty and racism.

The south responded in print surely, but also by radio broadcast. Their chosen voice was Waldemar Eros Debnam a segregationist, anti-reconstructionist, and general bigot. Debnam did daily news commentaries over WPTF-AM in Raleigh.  He started out there in 1941 and stayed on into the late 1950s. He was a native North Carolinian, born in Wake county in 1898, and was a graduate of University of North Carolina. He was a newspaperman, broadcaster and author. You can listen to one of his broadcasts here.

In response to the Roosevelt column, Debnam wrote a response and broadcast it on WPTF. His own literature said that the response was broadcast on the Smith-Douglass Network, but that wasn't exactly true. It was broadcast, but it wasn't much of a network. Smith-Douglass consisted of WPTF-AM broadcasting on 680 kHz and a simulcast, WPTF-FM on 94.5 MHz. Both stations operated from 410 South Salisbury street right in downtown Raleigh. Debnam then printed up the response as a pamphlet and it sold out four times. The introductory text read as follows.

"This little booklet is an enlargement on a series of two broadcasts over the Smith-Douglass radio network February 8th and 9th, 1950, in answer to comments on the South by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt in her column, My Day, a few days before."

The rest is bigoted crap and I wont quote it here. WPTF-FM later became WKIX-FM and today airs oldies.  WPTF-AM today is a news talker with a sordid history of ultra-conservative commentators.  Debnam went on to broadcast more segregationist drivel and author more bigoted books. After a failed run for federal office, Debnam did some time in TV news. He died in 1968.

Snuffy Jenkins and radio

 Dewitt "Snuffy" Jenkins was born before radio back in 1908. As a musician he started on fiddle and gradually moved to banjo. His 3-finger picking type was a sort of proto-bluegrass. He didn'' appear on radio until he was 26.

He debuted at WBT-AM in Charlotte, NC on the Crazy Water Barn Dance program in 1934. The program was sponsored by The Crazy Water Crystal Company. The 15 minute program ran 5 days a week. Fischer Hendley of The Crazy water Crystal Company also sponsored them on WPTF-AM Raleigh. Crazy water Crystals were a snake oil medicine company. They sold a powder purported to be made from evaporated miracle spring water. In reality it was some kind of laxative. (Rounder records released an LP named for the program in 1976.)

Another band that played the program J.E. Mainer and the Crazy Mountaineers broke up over a dispute with the sponsor. Snuffy took up with a couple members of that band and crossed the street and played gigs at WSOC-AM in Charlotte. In 1936, their new group, J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers began performing at local radio station WSPA in Spartanburg, they dropped the Crazy from their name as they were no longer affiliated with Crazy Water Crystal or laxatives.

In 1937 they moved over to play on WIS-AM in Charlotte. At WIS announcer Bryon Parker sort fo took over the group and renamed them Byron Parker's Hillbillies. J.E. Mainer left the group shortly thereafter. Snuffy hammed it up and the band did minstrel shows, blackface routines and comedy skits. It was at WIS that Byron Parker nicknamed Dewitt Jenkins "Snuffy" because he often wiped his nose on his sleeve. But there was no animosity. When Bryon died in 1948 the band renamed itself for Byrons long-standing nickname. They became "the Hired Hands."

Snuffy retired in the 1960s after a short spin on WIS-TV with the Hired hands. they even did a few shows as late as 1983, one of which was on PBS. Snuffy died in 1990. His home town holds the Snuffy Jenkins Festival annually in Rutherford, NC.