A Word on Words; 3735; Lee Dorman

geezer geezer geezer geezer liz from nashville studio a way celebrating offers the ideas for more than three decades this is word on words sam johnson and welcome once again to word on words my guest today is a lead on lee is a veteran of local radio both as a dj and as a general manager he's written a new book national broadcasting which highlights a bygone era of music she radio and television we welcome the warlords thank you jonathan blitzer bigger it's great to have you talk about this book and the iowan on sale please i was the final family

in this book that we know about that just briefly and we'll all but this is remarkable history of the city's broadcast industry you know it as well i'm better than anybody who'd been part of that and i am amazed at how many different photographs you're a little odd young research collecting photographs is not the easiest word immoral we'll come from the state is well that cry came from a great variety of places john first of all i have to admit that when i first started to do this book it all came about is an idea after seeing a similar book at davis kidd called birmingham broadcasting guy in the back of my mind for a long long time ever since the seventies i thought about writing a book about the history of broadcasting here in middle tennessee because i write my master's thesis in graduate school on that but i always thought of writing a traditional book when i saw birmingham

broadcasting and i realize what it was and saw that it was part of the images of america series from arcadia publishing simply looked at it and said i can do this and submitted a proposal to arcadia got an answer back that was positive they set a contract that's signed it long before i ever knew whether or not i could get any photos of all let alone two hundred of them while that jonah lehrer i must say i found it's like but for someone who live in this town for a long time waiting for someone and live their relatively short time it's a nostalgic trip down memory lane because you say images that you haven't seen a longtime see images that you see every day night on television but the collection put together a man to not just of why this city is calmly to fly also it has produced so many national broadcast industry stars it

all begun an idea that first it began with jack do it or yes everything in broadcasting am radio fm radio and television all began with jack to where he was the original source for all celeste jagged with less talk about war with me because i knew him well and you obviously known well here it's so i'm definitely about those early days he was just a kid when he gets into this business he was sixteen years old he was a student at duncan preparatory school and like a lot of kids who would take around in their garages or basements or in their rooms he take around with radio and i decided that that would be what he would play with words other kids were building engines are or things of that nature and he didn't just stop we're supporting a little radio station together for example in his house that he could broadcast around his neighborhood he put story of the first radio stations in nashville on the air between

nineteen twenty two in nineteen twenty four and all three of those western varying degrees of time but that all of them were among the first to nashville so it's interesting i didn't know so much about the early days of radio even though a tall jagged with our loan in about the industry itself and the technology that he knew so well but on a no that first baptist church was one of the early radio stations in this community right on saint big you correct we have any territory kate's big liar example that was what they said stood for what they represented and that was going to be their call letters that you know a little bit through passed through in the known on the air in the pulpit an and then they know or leone was a bright electorate can i get a lot

lee saw the station hours of those in most of my ally and their new though the deputy entity the billionaires photos and read indeed there was there was as most people who have followed radio over the years now a lot of times in various communities the first radio stations were started by newspapers it was true in dallas k r l being with arel day from harold from the dallas herald end of many across the country and literally decided i suppose that they're saying that other successful publishers of newspapers in other cities own radio stations and literally therefore were the media moguls across the board not just in france but in broadcast i guess he felt why should they be any different and he started well and it's interesting the record my uncle when he was and is very rarely attained maybe thirteen fourteen

was literally the publisher does the un's office board leiva founder of the muslim and dump and then later when on farm six decades to be in circulation director i guess i can't work there we go from uncle owen bought nuclear long since gone and so the beauty and geographies financial crash really brought into the beauty and to basically had it for about a year and that was all in nineteen twenty nine everything is you know began to fall apart for him financially and he lost the radio station along with the news which was unsuited for a while well i said it's a photo album and an idiot and it is a remarkable for go out there it's a treasure trove of photographs of people who have informed other people in this community for about the news about

music the they go on this train nhtsa since the nineteen twenties talk a little bit about that photo album and may we just take a glimpse at at several pictures that show the diversity or what you've done well first of all let me restate that the idea for doing this set came about from say in the book about the same thing in birmingham so my goal was to put together a photographic journal as you described it in and that an accurate portrayal of the very early days of radio and the people who listen to radio growing up here who they heard deliver their new display their record saying their songs are a lot of the programming of course in the beginning was live before records were introduced as the main medium and then when television started the same with tv the early news and another types of programs i wanted to create a

feeling of nostalgia for people like me who grew up here and remember those days and then i felt like if i could get the right photographs and put them in this book and the people who would say the book would be able to relive that past and it was all of course find them and positive there were no real negatives about radio or television back in those days you know you dance to the music or you had your dates to the songs being played on the radio so there were positive memories and here are some of the photographs that to you and that is what that's the channel four club it was a programme on channel for wsm television they ran through about nineteen fifty one to nineteen fifty four or a teller who i was with a number of radio stations and television stations in nashville over the years at this time was at wsm and wsm cave at all relatives from i was there one time and the story that came out of that is something that will stay with me until i take my last

breath even more so than the fact that i was able to do this book three year's worth of shows that was on five days away they had kept at the er the opry archives which kept channel for photographs they had kept only photographs from one day out of the five or six or seven hundred programs that had been on the year one day out of all of those and four or five photos of that one day and i'm looking at the photograph at the story and a half hours of going through and look at it no that the picture again the person in the middle that little boy with his head tilted and looking to the side is maybe age of nine years old zhang chi i should tell you in the new world it's sort of like it had sort of old boxes and then there is a white i guess nashville's acre first for channel four and then was such on late night

clearly the manner of violent as long has done it best with giant columns people in nashville had the same failing for john collins that people across the country have for walter cronkite and it was that father image the the idea that he had been there for all the years of radio through all the early years of television he was trustworthy he was reliable he was warm and fuzzy so to speak and he was an icon and broadcaster he was and they didn't mike huether the photograph again go the afternoon show as i look at that i on and this is for full disclosure my whole family than your book and my family is in that my wife dolores is in that fall is using banned she's so pleased to see it that's online sort my son we won't bore our lives with pictures of my son and myself were both lehrman which for which i thank you making as part of but let's listen to another picture and i guess this one

is a channel to but it's really the station right channel to channel a swap frequency swat channel's search in the middleweight seventies both felt that they would have a better opportunity to reach their core audience is if they were on the opposing frequencies so they did but this was in nine nineteen sixty three the first days i love of them travel a wdc and television and now an atm and now travel i'm sorry that it was shouted now gentle ache in reverse i was the first booth announcer for the station at that time i was a student at belmont university then it was belmont college and i was the booth announcer and that's a this is our spouse or who was one of the teachers at that time there was a strong mix in those early days of programs geared specifically to the classrooms of

elementary school mostly with geography lessons in history lessons and things of that nature and then at night then they had other types of programming were more along you know i didn't mention the fact that i use a belmont one of first editions woodward belmont station the very first patient was in a war belmont station that was where john ware at the age of sixteen in nineteen twenty two john do it right known as giant jack webb and put that station on the air and then they broadcast sporadically and for a short time but they are but that was the first and here's one on monday this and the news network that his boys talk and she'll hauser dan miller david autry i'm a long way from looking at the last fall eels on the bottom right of had to look at my photo of that one third of the homes that they will get their nose and it goes they've all three station

tad competitive and news programs and down in his favorite work of a combative all three stations or competitive i think it probably another photograph nineteen wanted to do more just to give the audience a sample of where the final four chris clark a very very young chris clark and a very very young oprah winfrey they work together at channel five at that time she had been interned at that station and before that she had been as a seventeen year old high school student she had been a news reporter a wto well radio but chris takes great pride in the fact that that he worked with her in and help teach and train her to become what she is today you know it's amazing that makes me think the muslim something in the war so many of those people who appeared on national television and went on to make great national park some moves on and in a time of the one of a

picture we won't show pat sajak has another dan miller is an island i guess maybe there is a picture of where we sing when a pitcher dan miller but at an air raid how long to take adequate police for girls started in april of last year and i got them all put together within about earth ninety day period had to have it all finished by august and then completely turned him in finished form october of life and then let's look again at the cover because that's an interesting photograph those down from recognized really in the running well a man and david cobb who gave and they're still its name is actually back on the left is the premise for some for larry munson ah and then who's out on the time factor most people who are older now fifties sixties remembers being the manager of the

very young now just i have a much older people would remember that for a long time he was at wsm he was actually the program director wsm radio if you go back to the forties and fifties but the people who who were younger now that their older today but they were younger at that time would remember that that he basically was the opry managers and then my wife would remember the line was first contacted her with iran are coming to love this interview that they own georgia well all of the stations were so competitive with each other familiar justin and talking with them that really gone on about it to build national broadcasting and as much as nails it is a photojournalist we said before the history of broadcasting which isn't such a great national impact on interesting that the first three radio stations that resumed of related to resign so there were clear channel two of them are clear channel

wlac at which and that neither one of them started on the frequencies they later became clear so let's go through the the best and again only not alone six fifty now at the end of their missing out on fifteen day where we're why say was on fourteen seventy which is where w feel well is today it also was ws ok before was wto whelan and it took over that frequency and wsm was actually on a couple of other frequencies thirteen thirty and one other one which i'm not positive before actually settled and six fifty and those two stations so were they clear channel fifty thousand watt stations and then what clear channel means for anybody who doesn't know exactly what clear channel is it means that at night no other station in the country can be on that frequency there are hundreds of stations during the day that are on all the different frequencies but at sundown when you have a clear channel allocation as those two did everybody else had to go off the air at sundown and that's why those two

stations could be heard across twenty five twenty six states and it says earth think that that clear channel is what made the grand ole opry the national institution absolutely an ira should err and if you listen to big la city late at night in those days of my this and you you might hear gene nobles are also i'm talking about the before you try to live on a dime they played rhythm and blues music there are a number of books that have been written documentaries that have been made to talk about the early days of rhythm and blues and rock and roll and wear w as sam made the grand ole opry stations like la city at night made rhythm and blues and rock and roll music in the nineteen fifties i remember that the lesson was on again they only right out of those was a record store in dallas and people all the country we're

sending the gallup than get rhythm and blues music from one record store has happened at the tires on the bill at a local spanish randy's record store was the one that most people are familiar with and that of course was owned by randy wood who took that belong to stardom with his dark record label dot records us right now there comes a time when there is a local high use rabbit i think accurately of the war or rock n roll or encountered problem that about those competing stations well people who just simply watch television nowadays every once in awhile read an article in the newspaper about its ratings period or sweeps period and they realized that stations make their money through advertising in advertising rates depend upon how many people watch or listen to it to a station well in the fifties and sixties radio stations were the most popular form of

electronic advertising and ratings were what determine what kind of advertising buys they would get they sell to and how much money that might so the the constant fight was imam in nashville we had two radio stations basically that forbid out for what was considered to be the top demographic market and that was eighteen to forty nine year olds and in some cases twelve to forty nine teams didn't have a lot of spending power but they still control the dials on radios as we all know as kids and later his parents what the kid wants to listen to in the radio is usually what's gonna be played in the car so w n i k and w k da both were struggling with rock n roll music to be the number one radio station for about twelve year period from about nineteen fifty six until about nineteen seventy and then there comes a almost an explosion

every spot on dollars something to listen to as the decade throw on solar today you'd turn that dial and every second you push a button every second you and i you know another session was that the informant time and i mean sometimes a little rock n roll song can remove some time rap sometimes country often in the syria what year is country and sometimes you get a preacher if that's true it's interesting how often those no fridges show up but it's not so surprising when you consider the first baptist church we're right and they're right at the ward belmont and it has before that we had deputy and religion has been an integral part of radio broadcasting from the very first day that it began in literally every city where there's been a radio

station if a church didn't own a radio station it bought time and they still do all across the country any sunday morning you can go to any city and turn on a radio station and any growth turn our radio go through the dial and you will find one radio station after another with church services preachers giving messages to the shut ins and an and they have to have to admit they make money they make a lot of money from that lee ann talk about the coming of fm and its impact on listening first fm radio station in nashville was in nineteen forty one and it was started by jack the way he decided that he wanted to experiment with it and he put the station on the air and it stayed on for ten years it was non commercial they didn't try to make any money off of it he simply wanted to say what fm could do and for all those ten years very very few people listen and hardly anyone ever bought an fm radio because there were so

few stations if there was only going to be one or two stations people would figure why should they spend the money on a radio when there was hardly anything they could receive but in nineteen fifty one when wsm television was beginning to catch on the wood decided that he only have enough money to comment for the company to one or the other and he chose the television that the fm radio off the air and it was about another nine or ten years it was really about nineteen fifty nine or sixty four fm began to catch on again and from that point i mean has it literally exploded it would have that late before you have on your radio had that second button that you could hit the goat fm are having a popular before the radio industry regular fractures got onto what was popular then they made two separate distinct radio's up until about nineteen sixty for those of us who grew up with transistor radios or listened in our house

at a moment and they started making fm radios separately the old big radios that people had even in the thirties that where the mold a band that had short wave and everything they had the fm band on them but when it comes to our radio like we have today that has am and fm those did not come until the mid sixties and you know you forget i mean my grandson my son will never understand how it was in use around was not that many in my arm is the district attorney ira was an end the us so many fascinating program that was it was the movies it was sellers and it was everything and i can't imagine and that time now honey i could see what their media molly look like by listening to their voices now probably our wrong about it but on the other hand one time one ear tell me how it was we have a

couple of times as five pilot program in yemen the coming out was to be general manager was stationed at a time when radio with the dominant medium well the first big regret when i became general manager and the the best station that i was general manager at with wlac which had a storied history is as you've pointed out it was a great thrill but my first and only negative thought through all those years was i wish i could have been there doing it in the time you just described when radio had the old dramas and didn't just play records but once i got past that men appreciated the history of the station a man why was now doing it was a great failing and we have some wonderful people here in nashville we had teddy barton was doing a talk show at the time les jamison on our am station we had news and talking and it had a great adult audience and then on our fm station which i took and created what was called one of six fm than it was six we went to a soft rock

format and we did really really well with young people so when we had a station am and fm going for two different audiences and were able to build a strong across the board and demographic well the big blue loved me and recognize the loyal nightfall has played in the evolution of media only evolution entertainment and the news in our society i think this book says that all images of america national broadcasting i thank you for italy and i thank you for being here i really enjoyed it thank you geoff thanks all of you for watching for a word on words on johnson in color good for you