Video Didn’t Kill This Radio Star

By Christopher Grisham

What does selling insurance policies have to do with the longest running radio music show in history? At first you wouldn’t think that these two things are related at all. But if there hadn’t been the National Life and Accident Insurance Company taking advantage of new technology to reach customers, we wouldn’t have the Grand Ole Opry today.

In 1925, the National Life and Accident Insurance Company turned an office in their downtown Nashville building into a radio studio. They started a radio station called WSM. WSM stood for We Shield Millions, the company’s motto. This may seem like an odd choice for a company that sells life insurance. Commercial radio had only been around for five years in 1925. The company realized early on they could start a radio station and put advertisements for their life insurance between the music. This would allow them to use this new technology to reach more customers than ever before.

Just a month after their first broadcast, WSM started a new show called the WSM Barn Dance. It aired a performance by Uncle Jimmy Thompson, a fiddle player, on Nov. 28, 1925. A man named George Hay was the host. Two years later, George Hay said on air, “For the past hour we have been listening to the music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.” The name of the show was changed forever.

Image of the Ryman Auditorium, Tennessee State Museum collection 10.145

The Grand Ole Opry started only as a radio program. If you wanted to hear it, you had to have a radio. Soon, crowds of people began to gather in the hallway outside of the studio to be able to see and hear the musicians playing. They realized that the studio was not going to be the best place to continue the show. The Grand Ole Opry began moving from location to location around Nashville to hold the crowds that came to see the artists preform. At first, National Life built an auditorium that could hold 500 people. The Opry outgrew that space as well. In 1934, the show moved to what is today the Belcourt Theater. Back then it was called the Hillsboro Theater. The show moved three more times in the next seven years. In 1943 it landed it what is probably it’s most famous home, the Ryman Auditorium. The Grand Ole Opry would call the Ryman home for the next 31 years.

Grand Ole Opry ticket, Tennessee State Museum collection 13.79690

This is also when the Grand Ole Opry would become associated with some of the most famous names in country music. Throughout the ‘40s, artists like Earl Scruggs and Hank Williams would perform on the Ryman stage. Artists like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and June Carter would play there throughout the 1950s. Dolly Parton played the Opry for the first time in 1959 at the age of 13. Legends like Patsy Cline and Minnie Pearl would keep the show going in the Ryman throughout the 1960s.

Opry Show Card, Tennessee State Museum collection 89.126.4C

The show would make one last move in 1974 to a brand-new building built just for it. It was called the Grand Ole Opry House. The show was televised live for the first time in 1978. The show is still going strong today, with the biggest names in country music performing on the stage. The Grand Ole Opry has managed to adapt and grow even though the ways that people enjoy music has changed. It is now the longest running live radio program in the world, and it all started with a company that wanted to sell insurance.

Insurance – something that protects against a loss. Car insurance will pay to fix your car if it breaks.

Radio Station – something that sends out (broadcasts) information over radio waves.

Commercial – something designed to make money, not free.

Adapt – to change to a new situation so it will survive.

How many years has the Grand Ole Opry radio program been broadcasting?

Which building housed the Grand Ole Opry show the longest?

Do you think the National Life and Accident Insurance Company’s plan to start to radio station to help sell insurance was a good one? Why or why not?

The Grand Ole Opry started when radio was still fairly new technology. If you were going to launch a show today, what technology would you use? What would be one advantage and one obstacle you would have with that format?