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Ralph Foster Museum
Ralph David Foster (April 25, 1893 – August 11, 1984) was an American broadcasting executive and philanthropist who created the framework for Springfield, Missouri, to challenge Nashville, Tennessee as the nation's country music capital during the 1950s. His KWTO was a stepping-stone for many top country artists; and with his music businesses, led to creation of ''Ozark Jubilee,'' the first U.S. network television program to feature country's top stars. Biography Foster was born April 25, 1893 in St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1924, at age 31, he set up a low-power AM radio station with his partner, Jerry Hall, in a corner of their Firestone dealership, Foster-Hall Tire Co., in St. Joseph. It began as a hobby, but as local businesses increasingly sought to advertise on the station, it became a full-time occupation. He increased its power and on June 30, 1926, it was licensed as KGBX on 1040 kHz. Foster built a new service station and glassed-in studios for the radio sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kansas City Star
''The Kansas City Star'' is a newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Star'' is most notable for its influence on the career of President Harry S. Truman and as the newspaper where a young Ernest Hemingway honed his writing style. The paper is the major newspaper of the Kansas City metropolitan area and has widespread circulation in western Missouri and eastern Kansas. History Nelson family ownership (1880–1926) The paper, originally called ''The Kansas City Evening Star'', was founded September 18, 1880, by William Rockhill Nelson and Samuel E. Morss. The two moved to Missouri after selling the newspaper that became the ''Fort Wayne News Sentinel'' (and earlier owned by Nelson's father) in Nelson's Indiana hometown, where Nelson was campaign manager in the unsuccessful Presidential run of Samuel Tilden. Morss quit the newspaper business within a year and a half because of ill heal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Browns
The Browns were an American country and folk music vocal trio best known for their 1959 Grammy-nominated hit, " The Three Bells". The group, composed of Jim Ed Brown and his sisters Maxine and Bonnie, had a close, smooth harmony characteristic of the Nashville sound, though their music also combined elements of folk and pop. They disbanded in 1967 and were elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in March 2015. History James Edward, older sister Maxine, and younger sister Bonnie Brown sang individually in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, until 1954, when Maxine and Jim Ed signed a record contract as a singing duo. They earned national recognition and a guest spot on Ernest Tubb's radio show for their self-penned song "Looking Back to See", which hit the top ten and stayed on the charts through the summer of 1954. The song would be a hit again nearly 20 years later for Buck Owens and Susan Raye in 1972. They were joined in 1955 by then-recent high school graduate, 18-year-old Bonnie, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carter Family
Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. They were the first vocal group to become country music stars, and were among the first groups to record commercially produced country music. Their first recordings were made in Bristol, Tennessee, for the Victor Talking Machine Company under producer Ralph Peer on August 1, 1927, the day before country singer Jimmie Rodgers also made his initial recordings for Victor under Peer. Their recordings of songs such as " Wabash Cannonball", " Can the Circle Be Unbroken", "Wildwood Flower", " Keep On the Sunny Side" and " I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" made these songs country standards. The tune of the last was used for Roy Acuff's " The Great Speckled Bird", Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life" and Kitty Wells' " It Wasn't God Wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music style which expanded its appeal to adult pop music fans. He was primarily a guitarist, but he also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele, and occasionally sang. Atkins's signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis. Other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul, and, later, Jerry Reed. His distinctive picking style and musicianship brought him admirers inside and outside the country scene, both in the United States and abroad. Atkins spent most of his career at RCA Victor and produced records for the Browns, Hank Snow, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Floyd Cramer, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porter Wagoner
Porter Wayne Wagoner (August 12, 1927 – October 28, 2007) was an American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour. In 1967, he introduced singer Dolly Parton on his television show, ''The Porter Wagoner Show''. She became part of a well-known vocal duo with him from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. Known as Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954 to 1983. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002. Biography Early life and career Wagoner was born in West Plains, Missouri, United States, the son of Bertha May (née Bridges) and Charles E. Wagoner, a farmer. His first band, the Blue Ridge Boys, performed on radio station KWPM-AM from a butcher shop in his native West Plains, where Wagoner cut meat. In 1951, he was hired by Si Siman as a performer on KWTO in Springfield, Missouri. This led to a contract with RCA Victor. With lagging sales, Wagoner and his trio played schoolhouses for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Springfield News-Leader
The ''Springfield News-Leader'' is the predominant newspaper for the city of Springfield, Missouri, and covers the Ozarks. The ''News-Leader'' has a daily circulation of 32,363 and a Sunday circulation of 51,402 as of September 2013. Sunday single copy costs $2.00 in the metro area and $3.00 in the state area. The cost is $2.00 other days of the week. Digital and print subscriptions are available. History The ''Springfield Leader'' began circulation in 1867 and merged with the ''Springfield Daily News'' in 1933 to become the ''Springfield Leader & Press'', an afternoon paper. The morning paper was the ''News & Leader''. The newspapers moved to their present site on Boonville Avenue in 1933. That same year, a new press, capable of printing 36,000 sixty-four page papers per hour, was installed. The plant was destroyed by fire in 1947, but with the help of local printing firms, a four-page newspaper was on the street within a few hours. While the plant was rebuilt, the newspaper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Citadel Media
Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which was broken up in 2007; Cumulus owned the portion of the network that was purchased by Citadel Broadcasting that year. The network adopted its final name in September 2011, following Cumulus's acquisition of Citadel; prior to this, it had been known as Citadel Media Networks since April 2009, after licensing the "ABC Radio Networks" name from The Walt Disney Company for nearly two years. ABC now operates a revived ABC Radio Network that owns no stations but produces mostly short-form audio content. It was also (as ABC Radio Networks) the penultimate of the major radio networks to still be owned by its original founding company until 2007, CBS Radio being the last. Mutual Broadcasting Network was dissolved in 1999, and then NBC Radio N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ernest Jennings Ford (February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991), known professionally as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American singer and television host who enjoyed success in the country and western, pop, and gospel musical genres. Noted for his rich bass-baritone voice and down-home humor, he is remembered for his hit recordings of " The Shotgun Boogie" and " Sixteen Tons". Biography Early years Ford was born in Bristol, Tennessee, United States, to Maud (née Long) and Clarence Thomas Ford. He spent a lot of his time in his early years listening to country or western musicians, in person or on the radio. Ford began wandering around Bristol in his high school years, taking an interest in radio and began his radio career as an announcer at WOPI-AM in 1937, being paid 10 dollars a week. In 1938, the young bass-baritone left the station and went to study classical music at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in Ohio. He returned for the announcing job in 1939 and did it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Morgan (singer)
George Thomas Morgan (June 28, 1924 – July 7, 1975) was a mid-20th-century American country music singer. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and a former member of the Grand Ole Opry. He is best known for his 1949 hit single " Candy Kisses". He is the father of singer Lorrie Morgan, who is also a country music star. Biography Morgan was born to Zachariah "Zach" Morgan and Ethel Turner in Waverly, Tennessee, United States, but was raised in Barberton, Ohio. He was, along with a few other contemporaries (most notably Eddy Arnold and Jim Reeves), referred to as a " country crooner;" his singing style being more similar to that of Bing Crosby or Perry Como than that of Ernest Tubb or Lefty Frizzell. Morgan was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1948, and is best remembered for the Columbia Records song " Candy Kisses", which was a No. 1 hit on the '' Billboard'' country music chart for three weeks in 1949. He also had several hits based on a "rose" theme: "R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smiley Burnette
Lester Alvin Burnett (March 18, 1911 – February 16, 1967), better known as Smiley Burnette, was an American country music performer and a comedic actor in Western films and on radio and TV, playing sidekick to Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and other B-movie cowboys. He was also a prolific singer-songwriter who is reported to have played proficiently over 100 musical instruments, sometimes more than one simultaneously. His career, beginning in 1934, spanned four decades, including a regular role on CBS-TV's '' Petticoat Junction'' in the 1960s. Biography Lester A. Burnett (he added the final "e" later in life) was born in Summum, Illinois, on March 18, 1911, and grew up in Ravenwood, Missouri. He began singing as a child and learned to play a wide variety of instruments by ear, yet never learned to read or write music. In his teens, he worked in vaudeville, and starting in 1929, at the state's first commercial radio station, WDZ-AM in Tuscola, Illinois. Burnette came by h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acetate Discs
An acetate disc (also known as a ''lacquer'', ''test acetate'', ''dubplate'', or ''transcription disc'') is a type of phonograph record generally used from the 1930s to the late 1950s for recording and broadcast purposes and still in limited use today. Acetate discs are used for the production of records. Unlike ordinary vinyl records, which are quickly formed from lumps of plastic by a mass-production molding process, an acetate disc is created by using a recording lathe to cut an audio-signal-modulated groove into the surface of a lacquer-coated blank disc, a sequential operation requiring expensive, delicate equipment and expert skill for good results. The disc is then coated in metal, which is then peeled off to form a negative that will later be electroplated and peeled to create a mother (positive copy) which is then again electroplated and peeled to create negatives called stampers, which are then used as molds in a record press. In addition to their use in the creation o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
