DJ Shorty Fincher

I bumped into Shorty Fincher before, reading about Lucky Lang. Shorty was actually named Luther Clark “Shorty” Fincher and he was born in 1899 in Iukia, MS according to his biography in this song book. I am aware of one other Fincher song book and it's dates with a signature to 1941. [SOURCE] At that time he was on WORK in York, PA. I suspect my song book is the older of the two, being more plain, having possibly a 1937 or 1938 publication.

As is often the case his obituary reveals more information than any other source. He died in 1958 and was 58 years old so his year of birth is accurate. Had he lived to the following November he'd have been 59. At the time he was operating Valley View Park in Hallam, PA. He was also a DJ on WGCB in Red Lion. The obit is probably the source for the alsobooks.com information stating the following

"Fincher came to York county in 1940, and his large car with steer horns on the radiator soon became a common sight. For a time he had a music group called Shorty Fincher and his Prarie Pals. He was heard on WORK and WNOW radio in his early years."

It gives the town he was born in as Iuki, MS which is not what the song book says. I am assuming they're both spelling variations of Iuka, MS. Regardless the family moved to Anniston, Alabama, when he was one year old. He was survived by his wife Alexandra "Sallie" Fincher, four sons: James, Fred,  and Donald; and a daughter Nellie named for his mother. the obit goes on to name all his siblings but hiding his sisters names behind their husbands as a Mrs. so they're not worth including. it was more interesting that many still lived around Anniston, AL but some were local to York or Philadelphia. More here.

One of 14 brothers he and two others started a band, The Cotton Pickers, in 1932. The Cotton Pickers included Shorty, his brother Hamilton (who performed as the comedian "Rawhide"), Alexandra Kaspura as "Lonesome Valley Sally," Florence "Yodeling Flo" Morosco, Dolph Hewitt and Ted Buchanan on guitar.  The Cotton-pickers relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they had a regular program on KQV-AM. Around then he recorded four sides for Columbia records as the "Crazy Hillbillies Band". [SOURCE] That name is due to a sponsorship from Crazy Water Crystals. He also recorded under the name Colonel Jack [Brinkley] and Shorty's Crazy Hillbillies, as well as six other sides for Okeh. 

If you didn't know, crazy water crystals were a laxative. It was disturbingly popular. The company sponsored radio programs all over the South. The Crazy Mountaineers, Dick Hartman's Tennessee Ramblers, The Crazy Hickory Nuts, The Lone Star Quartet, Shorty's Crazy Hillbillies, The Crazy water Crystal Gang, [SOURCE]  and the Crazy Water Crystal Program itself. Their ads and sponsored programs were aired on WBAP, WPTF, WBT, KRBC and several border blasters as well.

From that 1932 group Dolph Hewitt (aka Adolph Edward Hewitt) went on to a career of his own. He got into WWVA at the age of 16, over a year before Fincher. His first performed with Frankie More and his Log Cabin Gang. In the 1940s Dolph moved to St. Louis and performed at KMOX. That went well and he graduated to an ABC Radio Network slot with Pappy Cheshire’s Ozark Champions. In 1946 he joined Radio Station WLS with the Sage Riders on the National Barn Dance. He recorded several sides for Kapp and Victor records. More here.

Back in Pittsburgh, Hamilton Fincher was hired by Doc Williams as a comedian for his band, the Border Riders. Williams and the Border Riders went to Wheeling, West Virginia, along with Hamilton. Shorty Fincher followed them shortly thereafter with the Cotton Pickers and joined the WWVA Jamboree, which was broadcast on Saturday nights over WWVA from Wheeling. Through WWVA, Fincher also co-hosted his own show, the Shorty & Sally Fincher Jamboree Show, with Lonesome Valley Sally. 

 Some sources report that Shortly was operating an amusement park at Dreamers Beach in Delaware in 1949. But a 1949 issue of Billboard reports that the first Wisconsin folk music park began operation that May in West Bend, WI.  That's about 30 miles from Milwaukee. The issue specifically says that "Valley View Park, which was operated last year by Shorty Fincher, will run this year with Nemo Lippert, of the Range Riders."  That note would put Shortly in Wisconsin in 1948. Nemo Lippert was another country artist from PA. His range Riders performed on WNOW in York. He was later on WTPA-TV in Harrisburg.

 In this part of their career, Shorty and Sallie operated their own amusement park in Hellam, PA. Purportedly the park became more of a flea market in the 1960s after Shorty died. In 1953 The Emmitsburg Chronicle of Maryland puts Shorty Fincher and Sallie at a Firemen's carnival and ox roast. The York Dispatch has them at another Firemen's carnival in July of 1954. They were playing the country version of the oldies circuit, but I'm sure they had a good time. I found one obituary that stated Shorty was a disc jockey and salesman for radio station 1440 WGCB-AM in Red Lion, PA. The station signed on in 1950 so that narrows down the time frame. While Shorty died in 1958, Sallie lived until 1987 operating the park for decades after his passing. Joan Concilio of the York Dispatch has been writing a series of articles about the park's history that are highly recommended. [LINK]

DJ Ray Myers

Raymond Robert Myers was born in 1911 in Lancaster, PA. He was steel guitar player who performed on radio around the region. He was the fifth in a family of nine children and started in music in high school with the trombone then harmonica, only later transitioning to a Hawaiian steel guitar.

He began playing it at local events in churches and amateur contests. With the toes of his left foot he held a steel bar to note the frets and with his right foot he held a custom pick to strum the strings. Did I mention he had no arms?

Playing guitar with your feet has a certain way of attracting attention and though his mother had avoided putting him on a side show,  in 1933 he contacted Robert L. Ripley and in short order Ray was performing at the World's Fair in Chicago, IL. More here.

He returned home to where his family now lived in Paradise, PA. Local radio station in Lancaster, WGAL-AM gave him a slot where he continued to do programs remotely for Ripley which were nationally syndicated on NBC. At the time Ripley was the host of The Baker's Broadcast from 1935 to 1937. A performer from the WWVA-AM Jamboree named Cowboy Loye Pack heard Myers and wrote him a letter. Two weeks later Ray sang his first song on WWVA in Wheeling, VA.

His performances on WWVA spread his fame as a novelty musician in ways that the side-show Ripley program couldn't.  Next year, 1938 found Ray playing on WEEU-AM in Reading, PA with Uncle Jack Nelson into 1940. In 1939 he had a short stint at WHAS-AM in Louisville, KY but returned to Reading within months. But he went on to perform on WSVA-AM in Harrisonburg, VA, WKBN-AM in Youngstown, Ohio and WCHS-AM in Charleston , WV. Some of those dates he played with Radio Dot and Smokey. IN 1943 he had his own show again, this time on WHIS in Bluefield, WV. He remained there less than a year before returning to Pennsylvania. His own mother gave an account of his touring and is the primary source for that information here.

The trail goes cold for almost a decade but Myers had a daily show over radio station WPDX-AM  in Clarksburg, WV as a trio with the Mays Brothers and Cindy Coy. It is probably the same group known as the "Cindy Coy Trio" on WILE-AM in Cambridge, OH in 1949. They signed to Donnett Hit Records that year and were never heard from again. Myers is known to have been playing on WLAC in Nashville as late as 1963. He died in Gordonville, PA, in May 1986.

Doc Williams on WWVA

I had some real difficulty researching Doc Williams, despite his career longevity.  Early this year he died. The plethora of obituaries filled in some long standing blanks. Doc was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914, and grew up in Tarrtown, PA about 35 miles North east of Pittsburgh.  His real name was Andrew John Smick, his family were Slovak immigrants.  He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to start his first band with his brother Cy and a neighbor, Joe Stoetzer. He'd already been working in the coal mines with his father and had different long-term plans. He began his radio career in Cleveland in 1932 on "The Barn Busters" at WJAY-AM in Cleveland, OH. More here.  The barn Busters was a bit of an amateur show, but his charisma there led to a gig with a bigger band, Doc McCaulley and his Kansas Clod-Hoppers.

They had a 15 minute show each morning at 8:10 AM. McCaulleywas a West Virginia native, and pretty well set the young Mr. Smick on the path so to speak. He then formed his own country band, the Alleghney Ramblers still with his brother Cy, and Curley Sims on mandolin. In 1935 they left Cleveland tor a gig on KQV-AM in Pittsburgh with a new name as well, the Cherokee Hillbillies. Just a few months later they picked up Miss Billie Walker as a singer and became the Texas Longhorns and traveled to WWL-AM in New Orleans.Sometime between 1936 and 1937 Andy Smick became Cowboy Doc, then eventually Doc Williams. The book Mountaineer Jamboree by Ivan M. Tribe covers this in fantastic detail.

By 1937 they were back up north on WJAS-AM in Pittsburgh, simulcasting on KQV-AM and WHJB-AM in Greensburg, PA with a 8:30 AM program. This was when Doc Williams band became the Border Riders. Some biographies claim they were already the border riders while in Louisiana, this remains in contention. Later that year they auditioned at WWVA-AM and got the 2:45 afternoon slot. they also started performing on World’s Original WWVA Jamboree.  the program was later re-named Jamboree USA. It was the second-longest-running live country music show. He signed off every show with the words "Keep your chin up and keep smiling."

According to legend in 1940 he even turned down a job at WSM-AM in Nashville on the Grand Ole Opry.Doc has spent most of his long country music career at WWVA-AM, except for brief periods at WREC-AM, Memphis, Tennessee, and WFMD-AM, Frederick, Maryland also around 1940. That year  WVA-AM increased its power from 5,000 watts to 50,000 watts in 1941. Despite all that success, he only began touring in 1949.

Williams outlasted everyone, he was on the Jamboree for 61 years. In 1984 he was inducted in the Wheeling Hall of Fame. Williams officially retired in 2005 the WWVA-AM Jamboree ended. He published his autobiography, Looking Back, in 2006. [Link]. Today 1170 WWVA-AM is a news talker. The most  amazing thing about his career is that he never had a national single, and never recorded for a major label. That 78 above on Wheeling records, his own label founded in 1947. In Canada they released a dozen or more sides on Quality Records. If you want any of it today you have to buy it on his website docwilliams.com. He died just this winter, on January 31st 2011. He was 96 years old.

Red Sovine

Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine was born in 1918, in Charleston, West Virginia and is known today as an early singer of country music. He sang about pick up trucks, barns and loyal dogs, the epitome of country music. His biggest single was his 1976 number one hit "Teddy Bear".

As a teenager he joined the WCHS-AM "Old farm Hour." It aired out of Charleston every Friday night. His first venture into music was with his childhood friend Johnnie Bailes, with whom he performed as "Smiley and Red, the Singing Sailors" in the country music revue Jim Pike's Carolina Tar Heels on WWVA-AM in Wheeling, WV. Johnnie Bailes left to perform as part of The Bailes Brothers. Sovine formed The Echo Valley Boys and went on the road. More here.

After a year of performing in West Virginia, Sovine moved to Louisiana. There he got a morning show on KWKH-AM in Shreveport. But he also guested on nationally famous "Louisiana Hayride". He met Hank Williams there, and it was Hank who pointed him at gig on WFSA-AM in Montgomery, Alabama. But he came back to KWKH later that year to replace Hank Williams as host. Williams had just moved over to host the Grand Ol' Oprey on WSM in Nashville.

In 1949 he signed a deal with MCA and cut the first of his 28 singles with that label forging his own national career. In 1954 he signed a deal with Decca. He recorded at least 50 sides with them during the 5-year deal. In the 1960s he started cutting cheesey songs about trucking and found a 3rd wind in his career. He died in 1980 of a heart attack while driving his own tour van. He was 62.

North Carolina Ridge Runners

The Great Depression drove many families from the Appalachians into Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland looking for work. Ola Belle Campbell was house-keeping in Nottingham, PA after one such relocation. When her brother Alex returned from WWII they both joined the North Carolina Ridge Runners. Ola Belle picked banjo, he played guitar and fiddle. More here.

The Ridge Runners were not based in North Carolina, but many members were refugees of that area. They were based around Maryland and Delaware. they played dances and carnivals and of course at radio stations. They played on WEHC at Henry College, WHIS in Bluefield WV, WRVA in Richmond,WEEU in Reading, WORK in York, WDEL and WILM in Wilmington, and WLAN in Lancaster.

Ola Belle stayed with the Ridge Runners until 1948 when they disbanded. The following year she married Ralph "Bud" Reed. They went off performing together with Alex. This led to a regular program on WASA in Havre de Grace, MD. Campbell's Corner was a weekly half hour program of country and mountain music. The Louvin Brothers performed, as did Bill Monroe, Stoney Cooper and the Stanley Brothers. In 1960 they moved the program to WCOJ in Coatesville, also performing on WBMO in Baltimore. A few years later they moved again to WWVA, a 50k watt station reaching a dozen states. More here.

The Campbells stayed musically active for decades. Alex retired from performance but started a radio show out of WGCB in Red Lion, PA that at it's peak was syndicated to 200 radio stations. Ola Belle suffered a stroke in 1987 and was was unabel to perform thereafter. She died in 2002. Many of her notes, clipping and recordings are archived at the Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

WV

There are a number of oddities in West Virginia I could mock. They have the highest percentage of toothlessness per capita in America. They have a very ironic town named Vegan. They are one of three states unimaginably named after other states...

But today I discuss their very unique ease in naming calls for themselves. They are one of only five states which name their call signs after their state abbreviations. Wisconsin, Wyoming, Kansas, Kentucky, and West Virginia that's: WI, KS, KY, WV, and WY.

But uniquely West Virginia is obsessed with the usage. There are only 194 radio stations in West Virginia, 30 of them begin with, end with or otherwise contain the sequential WV state abbreviation. That is 15%.

For comparison WI was at 6%, KS at 11% , WY at 6% and KY at a very excusable 3% considering they are on the wrong side of the Mississippi River to work about a third of the combinations. On June 30th, of 1922 there were only three radio stations in West Virginia out of the 378 licensed US stations. These were WAAO, WAAR, and WHD; notice there is no "V".

The first WV call precedes radio. It was the Merchant Steamer Vigilancia. It's calls were simply WV. It operated at 350 meters way back in August 1, 1907. But the first in West Virginia was WWVA-AM in Wheeling. http://earlyradiohistory.us/FCC2705a.htm

Hadacol and radio

One of the FTC's least favorite "customers" during the summer of 1950 was a Louisiana state senator named Dudley J. LeBlanc, an opponent to the infamous Huey P. Long. He had a scheme, involving the massive power of radio advertising and Hadacol. It became the most popular snake-oil [non-homeopathic ] product ever.

It proved to be an elixir of 12 per cent alcohol, plus some of the B complex vitamins, iron, calcium, and phosphorus, dilute hydrochloric acid, and honey. he claimed the alcohol was a preservative. LeBlanc mixed the first batches in big barrels behind his Abbeville, Louisiana, barn, nearby farmers' daughters stirring it with boat oars. He charged $3.50 for a bottle of Hadacol. (With 12% alcohol by volume In some areas of the South, dry by local option, druggists sold Hadacol by the shot)

Dudley decided to bombard rural America with Hadacol advertisements and endorsements on the radio. Hadacol sponsored Hank Williams on Health and Happiness shows, broadcast daily across the airwaves in the early 1950s. The senator boosted sales for his own product throughout the Cajun country by reading testimonials in French over a radio stations like KAOK. LeBlanc even guested on Groucho Marx's radio program...

Half a dozen bands were "inspired/bribed to write odes to it. Country music recording artist Slim Willett wrote a song about Hadacol Corner, about an Upton County, Texas town supposedly almost named for the elixir. Bill Nettles and his Dixieland playboys wrote a big band tune about it as well. The Treniers wrote Hadacol (That's All), Professor Longhair wrote Hadacol Bounce, Little Willie wrote "Drinking' Hadacol", the Cajun artist Harry Choates even wrote a tune in french called Valse de Hadacol... you can hear that one here: http://npmusic.org/Happy_Fats_Valse_de_Hadacol.mp3

In entering new markets, LeBlanc blanketed the area with radio spots before he shipped any of Hadacol to the city. He ran a radio contest, which required the listener to identify "Dixie," and winners were sent coupons good for a bottle of Hadacol...

The Hadacol bubble began to expand enormously, growing out from the romantic delta land to cover the broader South. Lafayette became a boom town, as LeBlanc tore down houses and a school to enlarge his plant. Experts at promotion were hired from major proprietary concerns in the East. And as sales grew fast, LeBlanc's advertising campaign grew faster. Toward the end of 1949, he found he owed a tremendous tax bill which be did not have the ready cash to pay. So LeBlanc told his advertising manager to wipe out the bill by plunging the whole sum in new advertising. LeBlanc's advertising bill ran to a million dollars a month running ads on as many as 528 radio stations including WCIC, WSM in Nashville, WWVA in Wheeling, WCKY in Cincinnati in addition to a slew of stations in LeBlancs own Arcadian backyard.

Toward the close of the year, LeBlanc's advertising bill ran to a million dollars a month, taking in about 700 daily papers and 4,700 weeklies and 528 radio stations. Then Leblanc sold the whole company to the cash to run for Governor of Louisiana against Huey Long. More Dudley here.

The blind twins of WWVA

Radio stations strive for something unique to hook listeners with. WWVA had a wildly popular blind singing duo named the Newcomer twins. Top that!
In the year 1925 in Jeanette, Pennsylvania, Maxine and Eileen Newcomer were born. They sadly lost their vision gradually by the age of four. But they were bright, and talented and despite their blindness, they did well in school. They learned to sing in harmony and in 1941, they got a contract with the radio station WWVA.

Today WWVA is just another news outlet. But back then the Wheeling, West Virginia based radio station was a force to be reckoned with. Their 50,000-watt signal could be heard clearly throughout the East Coast. Their Jamboree was known coast to coast as well as the Grand Ol' Opry as the place to go for country musicians. The Newcomer Twins appeared on WWVA during the 1940's, and appeared on the station's live Jamboree many times. At the height of their fame, the Newcomer Twins received thousands of letters from fans throughout Appalachia. They were considered one of WWVA's biggest stars.

When the Newcomer Twins died in the 1980s in their belongings were found hundreds of homemade acetate records. These were live recordings of them on WWVA. since these are masters of live performances, each of these acetates are one-of-a-kind recordings by Bing Crosby and Gene Autry and Spike Jones and the Andrews Sisters; and acetate recordings of WWVA regulars like Len Clawson and Don McNeill and Elmer Squeezix. There were news reports of the World War II Japanese surrender; and of the wedding of England's Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. And every record was carefully labeled on the jacket as to its contents and the performer and the date of recording. and the kicker? It's all printed in Braille. The LPs are currently in the hands of the Country Music hall of fame in Nashville.

The girls had purchased a Presto disc cutter, and had been quietly making records for decades. More WWVA history here and here.

The Radio Merit Badge

Honestly I am not sure I could pass this test. I have sampled some of the questions for the Boy Scouts of America Radio Merit badge exam below. click my header for the full test in PDF or
go here: http://www.meritbadge.com/mb/093.htm

1. Explain what radio is. Include in your explanation: the differences between broadcast radio and hobby radio, and the differences between broadcasting and two-way communicating. Also discuss broadcast radio and amateur radio call signs and using phonetics.

2. Sketch a diagram showing how radio waves travel locally and around the world. How do the broadcast radio stations, WWV and WWVH, help determine what you will hear when you listen to a radio?

3. Do the following:
a. Draw a chart of the electromagnetic spectrum covering 100 kilohertz (kHz) to 1000 megahertz (MHz).
b. Label the MF, HF, VHF, UHF, and microwave portions of the spectrum on your diagram. Locate on your chart at least eight radio services such as AM and FM commercial broadcast, CB, television, amateur radio (at least four ham radio bands), and police.
c. Discuss why some radio stations are called DX and others are called local.
d. Explain who the FCC and the ITU are.

4. Explain how radio waves carry information. Include in your explanation: transceiver, transmitter, amplifier, and antenna.

5. Explain to your counselor the safety precautions for working with radio gear, particularly direct current and RF grounding.

6. Do the following:
a. Explain the differences between a block diagram and a schematic diagram.
b. Draw a block diagram that includes a transceiver, amplifier, microphone, antenna, and feedline.
c. Explain the differences between an open circuit, a closed circuit, and a short circuit.
d. Draw eight schematic symbols. Explain what three of the represented parts do. Find three electrical components to match to three of these symbols.

holy frijoles.
I want to meet just one boy scout with this damn badge.