WSB Atlanta
WSB was the radio station that propelled Country music on the air in 1922. Atlanta was the early hub of Country Music activity and an important stop for recording companies on their way South. Fiddlin' John Carson, his daughter Rosa-Lee Carson, Riley Puckett, Roba Stanley, Earl Johnson, Clayton McMichen and his bands, and Gid Tanner were some of the famous musicians featured on WSB.
WSB Atlanta Time line:
March 15, 1922 Broadcasting to an estimated 1,000 radio sets in the Atlanta area, WSB (Welcome South, Brother) becomes the first radio station in the South. The Atlanta Journal's station had received permission to begin broadcasting that afternoon. Those tuned in heard a jazz redition of the Light Cavalry Overture. Broadcast power was 100 watts
March 23, 1922 Fiddlin' John Carson makes the first Country Music broadcast with Lambdin Kay the general manager.
June 13, 1922 Atlanta's WSB raises its broadcast power to 500 watts
On September 18, 1922 McMichen and his string band the Home Town Boys started playing regular radio shows for Atlanta's first radio station WSB. The station received numerous telephone calls and letters praising the group and requesting “special numbers.” By now members included Clayton McMichen fiddle; Mike Whitten guitar; Charlie Whitten fiddle; Boss Hawkins guitar; Ted Hawkins banjo/mandolin; Riley Puckett vocal, guitar and banjo; Robert Stephens saxophone; K. D. Malone clarinet; and Lowe Stokes fiddle. The songs broadcast on WSB included “St. Louis Blues,” “Wabash Blues,” “Three O’Clock,” “Lonesome Mama” and “Dixie.”
Early 1924 R. M. Stanley (fiddle) and Robas Stanley (guitar and vocal) debut
July 13, 1925 WSB begins to broadcast a radio signal at 1,000 watts
February 8, 1930 WSB begins to broadcast a radio signal at 5,000 watts
September 9, 1933 WSB begins to broadcast a radio signal at 50,000 watts
August 1, 1937 WAGA (Atlanta) is established to handle NBC's Blue Network programs. Until this time, WSB would alternately carry the Red Network and the Blue Network.
November 16, 1940 WSB Barn Dance, which featured current hillbilly music stars, went on the air
September 29, 1948 WSB-TV is dedicated. It is the first commercial television station in Georgia.
February 18, 1950 WSB Barn Dance went off the air
WSB History: It is estimated that early in 1922 there were about 1,000 homemade radio receivers in Atlanta and its vicinity. At that time, however, there were no broadcasting stations in the South, and radio fans of the region had to content themselves with the reception of alternate whisperings and squawks which indicated that the broadcasts of some of the up-East seaboard stations had wandered within range of their makeshift tube and crystal sets.
Then, on the evening of March 15, 1922, these hopeful listeners were thrilled to hear the by no means overpowering strains of a jazz band rendition of the "Light Cavalry Overture" coming through their earphones and loud-speakers. This surprise broadcast was the initial program of the Atlanta Journal's radio station, a station just authorized by a telegram received that same afternoon from the acting Secretary of Commerce and operating under the call letters formerly assigned to a ship's wireless in the Pacific Ocean -- WSB.
With the broadcast WSB set the first of many precedents which were to establish it as one of the leading stations in the country. Even before entering the field of broadcasting its owner the Atlanta Journal had published many articles instructing amateurs how to build receiving sets. A sound truck equipped with receiving apparatus cruised the city, and loud-speakers were set up in Piedmont and Grant Parks.
With the inauguration of its own station, the Journal immediately began a series of important innovations. WSB was the first station in America to adopt a slogan, "The Voice of the South", and early in its career it originated a mechanical effect for station identification, the famed chimes intoning the first three notes of "Over There". A musical signature was later adopted by the National Broadcasting Company. Night programs were not given in those early days, but WSB took the initiative here by introducing a 10:45 P.M. transcontinental broadcast. The Journal's station also led the field in employing radio as an educational medium by effecting a city-wide installation of radio receivers in the public schools and transmitting daily programs as an integral part of school work and also by establishing "WSB's University of the Air" a daily schedule of broadcasts conducted by the faculties of Georgia Tech, Emory University, Agnes Scott College, and Cox College. Radio broadcasters and listeners were on more informal terms in 1922 than is the case today, and WSB, always alert to please its fans, organized radio's first fraternity of listeners, the "WSB Radiowls".
The fact that all of these "firsts" were originated before its initial year of broadcasting was completed is indicative of the progressive spirit of the station's general manager, Lambdin Kay, known as "The Little Colonel" throughout the world of radio. Kay persuaded many celebrities to make their first radio broadcasts over WSB microphones. Among these were Otis Skinner, Efrem Zimbalist, Alma Gluck, Rudolph Valentino, and Rosa Ponselle. Miss Ponselle, after singing two numbers during an informal broadcast, was so awed and excited by the new medium that she heartily joined the studio audience's applause, explaining that is was "the first time I have ever had the chance to applaud myself and not seem immodest." Henry Ford, Octavus Roy Cohen, and Roger W. Babson are a few of the other noted personages who made their acquaintance with radio at WSB in the early years of broadcasting.
WSB entered the field of commercial broadcasting when it became affiliated with the National Broadcasting Company in 1927. This was a definite recognition of the stations' accomplishments in the radio world, and WSB is now regarded as one of the most important links in this national chain of stations.
The amazing growth of WSB since its opening in 1922 in hastily constructed and cramped quarters on the roof of the Journal building to its present status in capacious studios in the Biltmore Hotel is marked by its increasing wattage. On March 15, 1922, its broadcasting power was a mere 100 watts; on June 13, 1922, this was raised to 500 watts; on July 13, 1925, to 1,000 watts; on February 8, 1930, to 5,000 watts; and on September 9, 1933, to 50,000 watts.
Fiddlin' John Carson Plays on WSB: Carson, at the age of fifty-four, also was the first country musician to broadcast country music over a radio station WSB in the spring of 1922 only one week after the station opened. The unconfirmed date of his first performance was on his birthday, March 23, 1922. Fiddlin' John Carson was a working as a housepainter in Cabbagetown (near Atlanta) when he visited the new station. When he announced that he would "like to have a try at the newfangled contraption," Lambdin Kay obliged him. His only pay being a snort of the engineer's whiskey, Carson performed "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane."
The Atlanta Journal reported that Carson's fame spread "to every corner of the United States were WSB was heard." Taking his place before the microphone, Carson launched into an impromptu concert of mountain music that lasted, according to one station official, until "exhaustion set in." The response from listeners was instantaneous and profuse. Telephone calls, telegrams, and letters poured in for days afterward. After nearly weekly performances for the rest of the year by May, 1923 the Atlanta Journal claimed that Carson was the most popular performer on the radio station.
Earl Johnson plays on WSB- 1922
Earl Johnson, probably through his association with John Carson, played radio station WSB, “The Voice of the South” was sponsored by The Atlanta Journal, the newspaper that “covers Dixie like the dew.”
Puckett and McMichen
Riley Puckett made his radio debut in Sept. 1922 with Clayton McMichen's Hometown Band on WSB Atlanta in 1922. He soon became one of the station's most popular performers, and began appearing as a soloist.