The Grand Ole Opry started as the WSM Barn Dance in the new fifth-floor radio station studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company in downtown Nashville, Tennessee on November 28, 1925. On October 18, 1925, management began a program featuring "Dr. Humphrey Bate and his string quartet of old-time musicians." On November 2, WSM hired long-time announcer and program director George D. "Judge" Hay, an enterprising pioneer from the National Barn Dance program at WLS Radio in Chicago, who was also named the most popular radio announcer in America as a result of his radio work with both WLS in Chicago and WMC in Memphis. Hay launched the WSM Barn Dance with 77-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson on November 28, 1925, which is celebrated as the birth date of the Grand Ole Opry.
Some of the bands regularly featured on the show during its early days included the Possum Hunters (with Dr. Humphrey Bate), the Fruit Jar Drinkers, the Crook Brothers, the Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, Uncle Dave Macon, Sid Harkreader, Deford Bailey, Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, and the Gully Jumpers.
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Benny & Chesterton Morning Show Podcast - Casablanca - Algiers - Jack's Africa Trip - Chesterton's Manalive
A Tiny Drop of Poison - CBS Radio Mystery Theater
A Man to Remember - Small Town Doctor Working Under Difficult Circumstances - All-Star Radio Dramas of Classic Films - Bob Burns and Anita Louise - Lux Radio Theater
Pygmalion - Starring Jean Arthur & Brian Aherne - All-Star Radio Dramas of Classic Films - Lux Radio Theater
Benny and Chesterton Morning Show Podcast - Jack Listens to the World Series - What I Saw in America - Jack Dreams He is Married to Mary - Maxwell is Stolen
The Catholic Hour - Fulton Sheen - The Crucifixion - Crisis in Christendom - War and Revolution
The House I Live In - Frank Sinatra - RKO Picture Preview - Sinatra on the Radio Podcast
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What I Saw in America - G.K. Chesterton - What is America - Meditation in a New York Hotel - Meditation in Broadway
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Classical Gilbert Podcast - Antonin Dvorak - From the New World - Sympnony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95
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Family Comedy Podcast - Great Gildersleeve - Togetherness - Gildy Wants Family Time for the Fourth but Nephew Leroy Has Other Plans
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Stars and Stripes Forever - Philco Summer Hour - July Fourth 1944
Father Knows Best - Fourth of July - The Meaning of Freedoms
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