A Word on Words; 3617; Carig Havighurst

no no no liz from national television studio way celebrating offers literature and ideas for more than three decades this is word on workers with jobs don johnson in the welcome once again the world words our guest today once again as greg editors back to talk about their castle a sound that is him the making of music city the dsm and the making of music city that's what they called air castle of the south fried welcome back ray baxter that unless we left off we talking about it wouldn't crank that the heir to a family legacy erica family business

divisions and take insurance along and promote it for radio or air castles out the mess and fifty thousand watts clear channel one of the few in the country and eat your toast goes and country music really found i think a real sense of its identity as a national artful because that is him through translation so let's go to edwin gray bringing has really go back for a moment as greg o'brien georgia's saw more judge my generation and that's an older generation and george is solvent antiquated down yesterday's the country follow through he had nothing new in broadcasting except gone to be the hen presider ole opry music video more

yes that's true he end and edwin craig recognize that when you heard hey on the radio from chicago just it was a radio fan heard this this voice and this presence and he wanted him or somebody like him to come to nashville the current anchor the us earn and give it the credibility and and the kind of polish that it would need to compete and haiti is spent most of his time is best known in his role anchoring the grand ole opry coming up with the idea to grand whopper the name of the grand ole opry but he had a lot of duties at the station in the twenties and early thirties including that early early on a general manager of moral lesson was a loose job it quite know what they were doing he was not a great manager they knew that they brought in a nashville a young man named harry stone had been training himself while most starting his own radio stations working for some of the very early radio

stations in nashville and proven by his early twenties and he was ready for a pretty big job in and we brought him on board to be the you know to drive business an advertising and communications and making sure they don't miss him work like clockwork and and george hay that point so we can have publicity for the station he would write a lot of the news copy that would go to the dia local and national press describing the backstory recently opry stars and he would write in the car company newsletter that kind of colorful commentary about how to revive his column that he had laid back in memphis is how you judge garland read a book or the first time gave me a sense that the village a while not a manager it was a lot more than seven or so it's a grand ole opry i think for a minute about the army

and are less than you think for men about it music city usa david cobb wasn't thing about country music went on the air he gave that diversity that some replaced athens of the south and in our in our lexicon of legacies but beyond that david was talking about how music city that had created been through dennis him national icon of like dinah shore freddie roach sure most inventive boats that the lancet in the past that he was still their fifty nineteen fifty one it would be there but then he would go on to the national you're hit parade show and the nationally known the tribe and so many others would gain people in national prominence of the blue roadster to one of those it's been overlooked france's prestigious and was working there i guess it unfair to say what a clerical

position but because she was so welcome world and and the i think over the happy face of that is you know what is head of greater impact on them is against international in front of bright and she regret that friends of preston and she goes on to build a new users of the narrative of parlor on the story she you know there's so many important people who were not on the air and were not musicians who shaped the destiny of nashville's music business and she was one that from very early on i needed to be interview need to be in that in the book she was looking for a summer job and got her dad married a summer job is in the mail delivery girl in the national life business and she jokes in the book that she didn't really take their job very seriously as she won't hang around the us and desserts for the action was and she wound up familiar way into being leo receptionist and she was the face of people would see as they get off the elevator on the

floor for many years but she was she a lot more issue too much energy into much smarts to nearly be the person who actually correspondents and greeted people into the telephone she was costly looking for projects so that she could take on freelancing and that included things like developing hosting on on the television that were on the television channel in their new tv channel she would do interviews in the field she'll go those two are the steeplechase and interview people back when you know people hardly knew a television cameras look like and she would create promotions and she would get involved in shows like noontime neighbors and she just was really dynamic and arm as tom us sound begins to develop the bomb for the industry base especially through the disc jockey convention that their launch in the early fifties and begin to become the national hub for country music radio programmers and disc

jockeys to come every fall back at the lessons invitation to this big party this big convention where they get to mix and mingle the opry stars she was there from the very beginning of that working logistics and in reducing people tended to each other and she discovers and get accountable the gap in the weeks progress in that in that in this convention's doings which is that she feels like to be artists are getting all the attention and whether ted williams or hank snow or that the songwriters who are toiling away and in nashville and filling an incredibly important role providing the raw material for the singers to take to the studios to make a hit record she deals like those guys are not getting their due desserts as she cooks up day after wars breakfast and our she gets a breakfast because the one time of the week that isn't already spoken for fines or get serbia my sponsor the sponsored brothers and a surprising number of songwriters come she has a band play the songs

live in that turns into a tradition that still goes on down leaving a big now at nighttime party every few every year awards are handed out the songwriters and from the biggest gala isn't in town and as the glass ceiling fan of b a miner's son some of the tiger win in new york and she becomes a lawyer hear the sea those of the publishing and products that's true for the nhl and she ran up until just a couple of years or less talk about the family legacy sink about anna and i looked at him in the middle of the book there is says fogarty and i get to see the faces of people whose names we recognize that that nbc someone very very young and i saw very young teddy barton an informal power plant say and the wading through with it with a boat and i said judge colleen search on assignment as a reporter i guess that says you know he was out in the

field are there with i'm in uniform but the family ate involvement is in nashville i've continues georgia's best from craig to weaver though we're a son in law walter robinson of some all becomes legal director of the company our and the question is what's this new generation gonna do that receive generation has not done and the challenges of thirty three year pretty intense do with jackie whitt that tower he'd built as a photograph there that little jack wall is still there a dynamic force leadership on but it's interesting that both the know we really became not just of the canadian leader and ceo

of national life but he also the visionary talk a little bit about the bill we move role in that transition billy reid took the company over at a time and then these overarching national anthem you know the nationalist his purview diverse and by that point is it is a podcasting force it's a small piece of the company's overall revenue serve a big part of their image but he comes along at a time when corporations like national life were either side having to diversifying grow or or or die they've a deal here in the kitchen of corporate conglomeration iraq and national life became a holding company called an l t and took on other fields including record real estate and some ransom systems management things like that so they got their fingers into more things what that did was prepped the ground for them going into other the other side of the attendant and hospitality business they would soon go into the national network then they

had an early cable television operation in the state of tennessee interesting enough they went into the hotel of port arthur and usa a theme park and that you needed he was a continuation of hundred ambition and kirk charismatic leadership and when credit embodied for so for so many years that i don't think it's interesting that that it's really an expert in on the radio was the entertainer in in that era when edwin gray one is until a fifty cent exactly right now now there is a question of are you can expand that and weaver says this is what worries that with their new album yes wall there to help them because our he also has won the line you know i i am but wendell as of as national i have is looking to

take the dsm legacy is being in the tame than the medium the sun as you say that didn't expand the end i think it's related to the radio only in the sense that the radio station continues to be part of the company and as you say a small segment on the economy then looks at the un at opryland and i was fascinated by the yale account that other was going to be on day on a small motel that was lawyer lee reports that use it about what's what opera length of the pen is mentioned that there's no beer is banned books during his years of the biggest moment taylor and i was an opera last week four am in the delta that

wayne writer and artist and they go to put two thousand more square feet out there and i you know i get it it sort of says the vision for the future stayed with the family leadership which i think is probably unusual in national deliberations this but when bills rise to power is so tell us about the character of the company and about the legacy because he starts as a national life insurance store door salesman as his dad was and but when all's now somebody that is likely to be elected to the country music called fantasy has not already been an and i think he is not in yet and you hear a lot of sentiment that he that he be elected because of his dynamic role in bringing in bringing the opry and the modern era developing the national network and spreading the gospel that the heat gets the job with the entertainments it jumps from insurance salesman

to dump us around athlete edwin craig almost hand picks him as somebody he when he worked in his old job of nationalizing sort of a corporate troubleshooter and they would send him to take care of the jews and salesforce of various places and he was a flexible executive they could tell that he was cut out for for for big things they put an inmate him jack two words charges they gave him two jack do it and and and as a funny story where you are but wendell says well i'm owners were jumping from what i know to this new entertainment side i don't really know about is there room for advancement and be i think he was speaking with tim brooks who's making brokering this and he says well you know you don't expect the president to wsm but yes of course it doesn't want to become president of a seven part because jack duet has been there since david virtue from day one literally as an engineer and then an executive who has his whole his whole

thought story but the jack two words outtakes wendell under is weighing in at as as wendell says kind of mergers him in steve's and in the traditions of the dsm as a broadcaster as an entertainment company is a production company as a state of the art technological company and he he would talk about how a mentor he felt and that same fight really tried to draw out in the book because you constantly see these relationships where one generation schools the next very patiently in the effects of the station and it's as broadcasting heritage and that includes the pops are the countryside the radio the technology side george or jaded the same with with grant turner that probably the single greatest most famous opry announcer and then a return to tell stories about how he went to george caywood make sure that he was around when he was you know warming up his vocal chords and sing through a scale which you'd never expect a radio host who speaks honor to do but he leave costly cds of very

close relationships that that the developer where the next generation is really taught how to to how to do it right and these days you know i think we think about war like internships are these various sketchy very distant very fast paced thing i know he keeps those jolly called a little inside them but they were mentors for those of your destiny and i'm talking with great editors about his book and he's back this week air castles optimism the making of music city this scares me there is one moment where wendel says he remembers talking to dewitt about the world in a plane going wired uses the word cable which says something about the way its vision of understanding of the future are we still going larger family and there is no increases know into

when you think about the whitney where you came from there's no end to how far he could see into the future and how the technology was going hands not only a protest movement commission book entertainment factor in writing this book the antidote deeply into a lot of stories a lot of controversies what stands on your mind is as the factor that was the force that made dennis in what might turn out to be the groundwork was laid early on and they never had to play catch up in terms of being a leader in the radio world edwin craig not only was making sure that they were doing things right and it was well funded locally nationally was building

relationships outside of town he was close friends with the longtime president of nbc and got a station on the nbc network has a radio station the kurds live in the moment and vcu popped into existence in the late twenties he was there or supporting jackie whitt when jackie whitt wanted to start an fm radio station in nineteen forty one before anybody knew what fm was and i started the first fm radio station in the country he was there are supporting jack to a twenty one to build that tower which was an unproven design very innovative and he and andrew went was constantly trying to fix experiments in and an end how he brought the first satellite weather pictures onto a local broadcasting station in the country when you put those pictures are from a from a weather satellite on denison tv which he had grabbed with a radar he built on the roof of wsm television and figured out how to get the signal translated into a picture so do it was i was thinking like this and edwin craig let him run with a key kevin cragg and so atone for

letting his people run with good ideas and never tried to put them into a boxy definitely are definitely had a set of standards that he wanted but he went on the air he was always very conscientious about things getting a little too wild and wooly on the broadcast whether it was racy music in the nineteen fifties rock and roll which he said no we're not going to be their war or certain acts in she would feel if you would send his displeasure as voyager down the line but he let his people think and invent and experience of that letter nineteen fifties to a certain amount of of freewheeling moonlighting an entrepreneurial isn't where you've got the people like the engineers at wsm who are doing that actually the you know controlling the knobs during a broadcast to say look we would go as demand for recording we've got the gear let's start a recording studio they start recording studio with a potentially hotel it was very successful are you've got new they've got executives and program directors of the

listener start publishing companies you've got staff musicians who start to freelancing your freelancing in town and eventually jack to have to say this is everybody's making a lot of money or a scout a chaotic it's it's there's a lot of ferment here but we can now has to continue on and definitely we need to you need new employees or there's a need to decide are you working for us or you're for yourselves and different constituencies made different decisions but it lead people like jim denny who was the opry enabler and untoward worker to leave and start and make his publishing company really thrive and jack staff who'd been a program director them essentially leaderless and let his publishing company thrive owen bradley had been a distaste for almost fifteen years as a staffer ranger orchestra leaves and starts the first real studio on music row is that period from when just after world war two is over when country music has

spread almost viral way through the networks of of the soldiers surrendering on to the country the firm international the post war boom because there's this one money for around an entertaining as is really takes off and people in nashville had been well schooled in how to make the pieces of the internet business work so they just went for it so you know that you know a thing to do raises questions about is how corporations find and choose towel and in this case it seems to me was almost initially warren edwin craig on a number of others and ultimately he relies on the wig and others write and one others to expand the talent pool but you know every story is not rollie story there there is the end and every time and every young generation has ups and downs financial and there comes that moment on when opera land is gonna become reality and little

more violence and a lot more little motel the courses where we knew about and you're right there were in the early seventies yeah in the early seventies now and the question is not what this company is going to i mean clearly operate and in the ryman had become an institution more than a situation where there'd been in that in the tent across the river or in studio city now the ryman is the place but when it's going to become the place and what we do at the ryman and then brooke speaks in his role as executive announces it's coming down mr sharon put your lovely park there i don't know what the lovely park would have gone next to do to sort of black and john salley and i mean to see is probably within the airport yesterday are so they've opened up two seed

became an institution because of the opry and it is a little wrong but they do face a crisis we're talking a lot about that year to maintain you know the downtown had gone to seed there was nothing like what we see downtown la broadway now it was put in there were there are literally there were like porn shops and strip bars and and it was really cd soap operas try to maintain this in a wholesome family image and they have a facility that was built and they ate at ladies and is really a rough shape so they were faced with respect to invest to upgrade the rock opera worden we did what we do well we were in the show all we do that their fleet they had a backstage space there was no air conditioning in the building and so it would get so hot and some of the real fire trap julia bayly in a theater wasn't out of kilter the artist or how you go to apply for that facilities are they built this bizarre theme park to complement the opry house of the people would have to drive traffic out there and they they were selling out shows of two thousand seats they needed four thousand seats but

do you keep out of the write what you do with the ryman if you take its main show way it was not fit for to be what was a concert hall and ultimately with a lot of public pressure that came from not just nationals priest or preservation of from the nixon administration historic preservation people are columnist the new york times they jumped on nationalism if you tear this down during your career in civilian it'll go down history's been a lot of a rash action historically incorrect our decision and it did take ten twenty some years to get to to figure out that they needed to build a plant to to renovate the rhyme and what it is is now in an but wendell sautter that was it and now we've got here was one venue of the yearly pollstar magazine couple years in a row it's really regard for the great theaters in the country and certainly another thing the opry back on saturdays and on weekends and in the winter time recapturing that spirit of the queen of the golden age of the grand

ole opry since this is an ownership passes and that is to move into a new era and it's only wi fi and not too long ago you know when i'm going on the country more new ownership new vision i was at the newspaper are your newspaper when the decision was made internally in the company to switch to us and from a country radio station to talk sports station and which was a net which was what all of the other big powerful am stations around the country have done it was the only proven way to maintain an am signal in the ratings drive the revenue that would keep the station salt when gaylord entertainment that by then owned the us and got a new ceo came in from out of cuba from the las vegas casino business and was looking she figures a hospitality company to him the wsm was gay no marvel a profit more money losing

station and i didn't see it but track that country that it can to maintain kitchens again and and so they've made it the tarp this plan over indeed announced internally to certain key staff members we broke the story the tennessean and it causes a prius and reaction from the citizens of nashville and said we need you to you know you've sent you turn opryland usa into a mall and they thought probably remember that rhyme and drama from the seventies and so now now what and dr holland taylor they're importing company and a lot of things right and ultimately made the right call in and kind of kept of us in the conversation but it was quite a drama there in the not to the sort of us there were other towns been great fun great that you thanks for coming thanks for watching and johnson and oliver word on words the breeding are the national science

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