Patsy Cline's Funeral

Without getting into her life story, let's begin with Patsy Cline died over 50 years ago, but her legend lives on.  If that's your cup of tea, Ellis Nassour wrote one of the best Patsy Cline biographies out there Honky Tonk Angel. I read it, the radio detail that caught me was that of her six pallbearers, five were disc jockeys. The sixth was a Nashville area producer of little renown. Patsy's career rose in an era when personal relationships with DJs could make or break a career. She made it.

Joltin' Jim McCoy - WJEJ-AM, WHPL-AM, WEFG-FM, WINC
Jim actually had a long radio career in Virginia. His first gig on the radio was as a performer with Bud Messner and his Saddle Pals on WJEJ-AM in Hagerstown in about 1945. He developed a taste for radio and by 1946 got a 30 minute Saturday morning slot on 1400 WINC-AM in Winchester, VA —Patsy's home town. It was that year a 14-year-old Patsy Cline (the Virginia Hensley) played on his program. In 1960 he became a weekday morning show host on 610 WHPL-AM across the street. He cut some of his own country tunes and later had a late night talk show, heavenly Hot Line on gospel station 102.5 WEFG-FM, again in Winchester.  More here.

Sammy Moss - WRFL-FM, WINC-AM
Richard F. Lewis, Jr. launched WFVA-AM in Fredericksburg in 1939. Two years later, he built 92.5 WRFL-FM in Winchester, which was one of the first FM stations in the nation. WRFL later became WINC. Sammy led Sammy Moss and the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys in the late 1940s. He later had a program on WINC at the same time as Jim McCoy. WINC-AM and WRFL-FM simulcast 50% at that time so it's unclear which station he was on. In all likelihood it was both. In the book Mountaineer Jamboree, Ivan M. Tribe wrote that Patsy played his show as well.

Bill Allison - WINC-AM
Bill was a much more obscure character. He's listed as press at 1400 WINC-AM in 1965. Prior to that the only reference I find is at 690 WNNT-AM in Warsaw, VA

Dick Dovel - WFTR-AM
Apocryphal. There are no references to Mr. Dovel outside of the Nassour book. The radio station 1450 WFTR signed on prior to 1951 on 1450 AM in Front Royal, VA and continues today as a Dial Global satcaster.

Eddie Matherly - WKCW-AM, WICO, WDVM
WKCW in Warrenton, VA was the "Big K" in that era. He was also on 540 WDVM-AM in the late 1950s.  He hosted a morning show Hits From The Hills, and an afternoon country show the Delmarva Jamboree.In 1959 he moved to WICO-AM in Salisbury, MD. He worked as far west as KRES-AM in Moberly, MO in 1961. He only started at 1420 WKCW-AM shortly before Patsy Cline's death in 1963. He died of a heart attack just a year after Patsy. More here.

Radio Free Nashville Jumps

It was only this December that the radio program "Nashville Jumps" wrapped it's last broadcast from the studios of WRFN. After being ousted from WRVU along with the whole student body, I thought host Pete Wilson had found a new home at WRFN. He wrote the following only a few weeks ago:

"I've decided to retire from my WRFN radio show, Nashville Jumps, after the Dec. 13 (Thursday, 8 to 10 PM) broadcast. As I said in a post on the Jumps fan page: This may turn out to be a Brett Favre-like retirement, but right now I don’t anticipate a return in the near future. I have enjoyed doing Nashville Jumps, on both WRVU and Radio Free Nashville, since January 2000, and I will miss it. But I also think it is time to call this effort complete and look back on it with pleasure. While I appreciate the hospitality of Radio Free Nashville, doing Jumps has honestly never felt the same to me since WRVU died on June 7, 2011. I am grateful to have been able to continue the show for over a year longer--with two breaks, one between WRVU’s demise and my September debut on WRFN, and another from March to August 2012 because of my mother’s illness and death--but I find that I miss WRVU more and more as time goes on, to the point that it makes me sad. I’m starting to get a little burnt out and I believe it may be time to pursue another hobby or two. I am very grateful to everyone who listened to the show, at WRVU or WRFN, live or from archives, and to everyone who supported me on Facebook. I hope you’ll listen to the final show on Dec. 13. I’ll play songs that I think are among the best from the repertoire. Thanks again to everyone. (If you haven't listened to WRFN yet but would like to, see the attached link to their home page. Unfortunately WRFN is a very low-power station and can be heard only in parts of Nashville's west edge, but there are links down the right side of the page that you can use to listen online."

He will be missed senor.

LEX to SDF

Directly south of Cincinnati is Covington Kentucky, though if you take 471 South you wont' even notice it for the deep hills and valleys that peak above the clouds and dip far below the pavement. On the other hand, the whole town is only 5 blocks long so you might miss it anyway, but the billboard for the BrASS is hard to ignore. Classy neighborhood.

South of that I started to get WMKY the infamous Morehead State Public Radio. Americana Crossroads was on. Bob Dylan sang "sad Eyed Lady" then a little Johnny Cash, then something by the Old 97s followed bunch of other cuts I didn't' recognize at all. It was a nice varied play list like it should be. I recognized some, and was surprised by all.

I heard a little WRFL while in Lexington proper. Their signal covers the city and really nothing more. That was enough for me to hear DJ Sally Evans rock a little Bauhaus and Nick Cave. It turns out WRFL has actually gotten the nod from the FCC to crank up the juice from their current 250 watts to 7,900. It seems like a small deal, but really the conversion could cost a quarter million dollars so why not donate to the cause? More here.

I hustled right out of Lexington to Louisville where I listened to a little WFPK. An old AAA stand by that's not faltered in their purpose. They were ironically playing the Philly-based World Cafe program but I'll let them slide on credibility. I left Louisville for Peoria, but in the boonies in between I heard very little, and in fact it's a fund-raising week for NPR so much of what I did hear was continually uninterrupted by pleas for your dollars. This is in stark contrast to the religious stations that alternately grovel, and threaten 365 days a year. so yeah, I can put up with 14 days of this a year in order to get real news: actually fair, actually balanced like the word "NEWS" itself intimates.

I eventually fell back on the handful of CDs I brought making a nice afterdark rotation of NIN's With Teeth, Paw's Dragline, We Ragazzi's Wolves with Pretty Lips. By the time I landed deep in Illinois I'd played them out and would need to stop to restock.

I also discovered the local beverage Ale-8-1. it's made in Kentucky, and available nowhere else as far as I know, and tastes wonderful. Its smooth like a ginger ale but much heavier on the ginger without burning your throat. It's nice. I think I drank 4 of them. They've been keeping it from the Yanks since 1922. More here.