RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

The premlses upon which this industr/ has been structured since the end of the First Worlđ War , and the lacK of direct public input to program production of decision-making , appears never to have been considered seriously by these councils , and it is đoubtful that the NAB wou!d have supported such efforts on the part if they had . The citizen councils accepteđ the premises upon which commercial radio were based ; the few broadcasting to the many , from a centralized location providlng programming produced to appeal to the wiđest possible audience . A less formal, yet crucial, type of citizen participation came in the form of locally-produced music programs . While the music produced for network radio came directly from New Уогк , local stations needed to use live talent to supplement network feeds . In some cases , local musicians were called upon to sing and play there tradltional forms of music, providing a conduit for the local community to maintain a part of its cultural heritage via the radio , as we!l as a means to deveiop new forms of music lndependently from the commercial inf luences of the larger network stations . Lomak and Lomax (1934) attribute the influence of folk-song radio programs to the wiđespreađ popularity of such music. Such programs coulđ be on radio stations in both small towns and in larger cities. Ike Turner, for example , had a radio program on WROX , Clarksdale , Mississippl, on which his band, The Kings of Rhythm , could be heard. Local muslcian Nathan Abshire appeared regularly on KPLC, Lake Charles , Louisiana during the 1930s and 1940s with a program of trađitional Cajun and French music (Strachwitz , n.d.). 8.8, King began his musical career singing commercials for a patented cure-all medicine on WDIA in Memphis, Tennessee in 1949. He soon graduated to smging his type of Mississippi Delta music on the air , whlch helped bring this music to a wider audience (Escott and Hawkins , 1980, pp . 18-19). Other stations around Memphis , such as KFFA , Helena, Arkansas , anđ KWEM , West Memphis , Arkansas , ћаз occasional programs of Black music performed live in the studio or from the stage of a local theater (Sawyer, 1980). Country musician Roy Acuf f began his career playmg with a band on WROL , Knoxville , Tennessee, in 1934. At the same time , another Knoxville station , WNOX , hosted a program called "Mid-Day Меггу Go Round" , which launched the careers of Pee Wee King , Bill Carrlisle, Archie Campbell, and Kitty Wells (Schlappi, 1978). Clear channel radio stations from such cities as Chicago , Nashville , Tennessee, Shreveport , Louisiana , anđ Wheeling, West Virgima hosted weekly programs of white country musicians who would play the traditional music of the south, the southern mountams, anđ the rural west (Artis, 1975; Goldbiatt anđ Shelton , 1966; Goldrosen , 1975),

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