Grand Ole Opry, Nashville’s Number One Attraction
From its simple origins, the Grand Ole Opry has become an American treasure, and anyone planning a Nashville vacation knows, the Grand Old Opry is Music City’s most popular attraction. It began as a live music radio broadcast in 1925, and just kept active and going. And today it has survived to be the oldest continuous radio show in America. It is also broadcast on XM Radio, and is on television on Saturdays on the Great American Country cable channel.
The Grand Ole Opry first started just five years after commercialized radio programming was first started in America. In 1925, a radio station was constructed in Nashville by an insurance company (National Life and Accident) trusting that this newfangled transmission medium could be employed to pitch insurance policies. C&W music fans are familiar with the station’s call letters, WSM, but most don’t realize that WSM stood for the company’s slogan: “We Shield Millions.”
National Life hired one of the country’s most popular radio announcers, George D. Hay, as WSM’s program manager. On November 28, 1925, the 30 year old Hay identified himself “The Solemn Old Judge” and started the show that would soon be well-known as the WSM Barn Dance.
George D. Hay’s weekly Barn Dance shows proved tremendously popular, and in 1927 he changed the name to the Grand Ole Opry. Hordes of fans overfilled the studio as they came to see & hear the stars, so National Life constructed a larger studio with a capacity of 500. In 1932, WSM increased their broadcast power to 50,000 watts and most of the country could hear the Opry on Saturday nights.
The fans kept growing, so in 1934 the Opry moved from its station studio to the Hillsboro Theater (now named the Belcourt). The audiences kept increasing, so next the Opry moved to the Dixie Tabernacle in East Nashville, then to the War Memorial Auditorium next to the State Capitol.
In 1943, still needing more capacity, the Opry moved to the Ryman Auditorium, where it stayed until 1974, when it moved to its modern home, the 4,400 capacity Grand Ole Opry House, located beside to the Opryland Hotel, where you can see shows several times each week, except for several weeks in winter when the Opry comes back to the Ryman Auditorium.
On the front of the stage of the new Opry House, there’s a six-foot circle of dark colored, oak floor; it’s lustrouus but conspicuously worn. Hewn from the stage of the Opry’s celebrated former home base, the Ryman Auditorium, this circle of oak gives fledgling fans and veterans alike the chance to play on the selfsame spot that formerly supported Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, Uncle Dave Macon, and others.
There have been numerous changes at the Opry in its history – its members, its music, and its home. But that dark oak circle stays, a reminder for every singer who stands within that they are partaking in something that’s much larger than themselves, and wherever they may go they are connected to the champions who came before.
The Opry’s members and music have defined Country in the USA. Hundreds of musicians have played as members over history. Being honored with membership in the Grand Ole Opry, country’s most longstanding “Hall of Fame”, is to be selected as one of the most select artists of country music.
Membership in the Opry is not just earned, but must be sustained with frequent performances during the artist’s career.
These days you can experience the Grand Ole Opry in many more ways than ever. There are Tuesday Night Opry performances from April until December. A two-hour radio broadcast, can be heard in 200 markets across America. Just like C&W stars of old grew up adjusting their radio to catch the Opry, future day generations of Opry artists can hear it on satellite radio or the internet.
Wherever they’re listening, those rising Opry stars some day will assume their spot standing on that noted round piece of oak.
