About the writer:

Gordy’s introduction to country music came at age 15 in 1954. He had been brought up on gospel music in the First Church of the Nazarene in New Bedford, Mass. When the church began a Sunday night half-hour program, he got interested in broadcasting and began working part time at station WNBH AM & FM in his hometown. On Saturday nights a DJ by the name of Norm Rapoza was airing a 3 hour show called Hillbilly Guest House. Gordy began helping him by answering the phones, taking requests and looking for records.

When Norm left to work at another station, Gordy took over the show. But a lifetime love of country music and a 30-year career in radio and television, mostly in engineering and production, had begun.

THANK GOD & GREYHOUND, I’M ON MY WAY

Just after my 20th birthday in September 1959, I hoped on a bus for a 24 hour trip to Nashville to see the Grand Ole Opry to get better acquainted with the artists I had been playing on the radio. As the bus pulled into Knoxville, TN, just over the Cumberland Mountains from Music City USA, I woke up and found my head resting on the shoulder of the lady seated next to me. I apologized but she said she had also been sleeping and it was no problem.

I arrived in Nashville late on a Thursday afternoon, checked into the hotel next to the National Life & Accident Insurance Building and tried to catch up on my sleep but had my 9-transistor radio turned on, listening to WSM AM 650. Ralph Emery’s Opry Star Spotlight show came on later that evening. He was playing the latest country records and chatting with some the stars who dropped in to plug their latest records. He had been doing this show for the past two years I found out later. With all this going on right next door, I could not get any sleep so I got up and strolled on over.

The guard at the National Life Building directed me to the elevator that would take me up to the studios and the home station of the World Famous Grand Ole Opry. I finally found large Studio A and stood in the doorway.

"Howdy, Hoss. What’s your name?" Ralph asked as he looked my way. I told him and was invited to come in and sit down next to his control board. When the record ended, he introduced me as a "young disc jockey from New Bedford, Mass-a-tu-sits…" This was some big jump for me…from a 250 local wattage station back home to being on a 50,000 watts clear channel station. I did not consider myself an announcer, just a young kid having fun with country music. So without having written ahead or being introduced to him by anyone, Ralph interviewed me on the air for about 15 minutes. I have no idea what questions he asked or what we talked about and regret I don’t have a recording of it.

I did take notes on who I met while in the country music capital and glad I did. That night I met the Wilburn Brothers, Roger Miller and other stars who dropped in. One of the Wilburn’s went to the WSM library and brought me a copy of their latest 45 record which became my first souvenir of Nashville.

Around one or 1:30 in the morning, Ralph’s show took a break for a half hour religious program and Ralph said, "Come on, let’s go get some coffee," I don’t remember who else was with us, but we went to a little coffee shop a few blocks from the studios. On the way back to the station, Ralph looked in his rear-view mirror and said, "I think that’s Del Wood following us." And sure enough, the honky-tonk piano player followed us right into the studio parking lot and into the building.

She introduced herself to me and asked if I was going to attend the Opry on Saturday night and, of course, I said I was. She said she didn’t have any pictures with her but she’d be sure and have one for me then. I thanked her and thought to myself "she’ll never remember."

A little later I went into the control room to see what a big city station had for equipment. The engineer on duty also asked if I was going to the Opry and I said, "I didn’t come all the way down here to miss it." He told me was engineering the first half and for me to meet him at the stage door to the Ryman around 6 o’clock and I could go in with him. Well, I wasn’t gonna let that opportunity pass me by. So I had purchased a 50 cent General Admission ticket when I first arrived in Nashville, I never had to use it. The $1.60 Reserved Seats were sold out long before I got there.

WHAT? NO TOURIST TRAPS?

The next day, I bought a Grand Ole Opry History Picture Book, Vol. 1, #2 so I could see who were Opry members and who were not. I put my note papers in it and glad I did. My next stop was at Tree Publishing Company where I met a young Bill Anderson, just starting out in the business. He wasn’t an Opry member yet, but he was the first to sign my book. He would become a member of the Opry a couple of years later and a Hall of Fame member many years after. As of this writing I now have over 40 autographs in that old book including some pickers and stars of the Wheeling Jamboree.

Bill gave me a copy of his new 45 record, "Ninety-Nine Years" and a couple of Decca albums including, "Webb" by Webb Pierce. Another stop was at the Hank Snow Music Center located at 810 Church Street. Here I ordered a Colonel-type bow tie with my name and station call letters in red spangles on blue and, a Hank Snow Easy Method of Playing Spanish Guitar course. Tootsie’s Orchard Lounge and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Broadway were the only other "tourist traps" in town, outside of Fort Nashboro that I knew of at this time. And somewhere I purchased a beautiful turquoise blue cowboy hat just like the ones the Flatt & Scruggs group was wearing at the time.

FROLICING WITH THE STARS

That evening, the Friday Night Frolics show was being broadcast live and recorded for syndication as the Pet Milk Grand Opry. This mini-Grand Ole Opry show was put on in WSM’s large Studio C with an audience of two or three hundred, I think. The Friday Night Opry began just a couple of years earlier, I later learned.

Sometime before the show, Ralph introduced me to announcer Grant Turner in the hallway. Grant introduced me to the Louvin Brothers and Grandpa Jones. Grant asked if I had scheduled any interviews with the stars. I told him I hadn’t even thought of doing that. He looked down the hall and called out, "Hey, Miss Kitty!" The Queen of Country music, not yet in her stage outfit, but she came over to us and Grant asked if she would be willing to do an interview with me.

She said she would and that she’d ask Johnny & Jack and join us after their part of the show. So after their segment, Grant brought me into another studio with two telephones. I got the DJ back in New Bedford to set up a tape to record this, my first interview. So with Kitty Wells, her husband Johnny Wright, his cousin Jack Anglin and Gordon Stoker, leader of the Jordanaires on one phone and me on the other, we chatted for a little while. I have a very poor quality tape of that somewhere. They must have had a good laugh over this young DJ from Massa-tu-sits who had never done anything like that before.

Others on that Friday night show included Bill Monroe, Hank Snow, June Carter, The Carlisles, Ferlin Husky, Billy Grammer, Del Wood, Carl Butler and Jimmie Newman.

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE GRAND OLE OPRY

At about 6 p.m. on Saturday, I went to the Ryman’s stage door and met the engineer I’d met at the studios on Thursday. We went up to the control room located on the balcony level behind the big red curtain—the only part of the Ryman with air conditioning and I got to enjoy my first Grand Ole Opry in real comfort.

My favorite artists back then were Hank Snow and his Rainbow Ranch Boys and Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys and I got to seem them both live for the first time in my life along with many other now legends of the Opry.

After Del Wood finished her honky-tong number, I stepped out of the control room and leaned over the balcony to get her attention. Remember, she had told me she’d have a picture for me? Well, she had not forgotten. Looking up she stage whispered, "Gordy, come on down here. I’ve got something for you." When I got there she reached in her purse and pulled out an 8X10 which was already autographed to me. This was my first autographed picture and, of course, I still have it.

I stood there awhile amidst the hustle and bustle of stars coming and going from the stage—Billy Grammer whose record "Gotta Travel On" was hitting the top of the charts was there. My idol, Hank Snow was there. And the legendary Cousin Minnie Pearle was there. I was told she always stayed in the wings ready to fill in for any star that didn’t make it to the show or back from Tootsie’s in time. And of course, all the others who had been on the Friday Night Frolics were there. I guess I was star struck as I got no more autographs on this trip and didn’t talk to anyone else backstage.

All night long, the engineer handed me the scripts from the evening’s show—all the commercials, station breaks and introductions to the acts. Unfortunately, they are long gone, along with that beautiful cowboy hat, the Colonel bow tie and the Hank Snow guitar course.

After the Opry, I hurried over to the Ernest Tubb Record Shop for the Midnight Jamboree. Being a short fella, I couldn’t see much as I stood in the crowd and don’t remember who was on the show that night. I do know it was not Ernest as he was out on tour.

I remember that trip as if it was yesterday, but it will soon be fifty years. I was treated real well, even though I was just a local DJ from Yankee land. After those very busy few days, I slept on just about the whole bus ride back to Massachusetts.

After I returned to New Bedford, new station management changed the format to Rock ‘n Roll and I lost the country show with no chance to ask for write-ins to support keeping it on. My show was recorded on Thurs. afternoons for playback on Saturday night, and the bad news came to me on Friday. But I took most of the country music library—78’s, 45’s, and LP’s with me—and that became the start of my record collecting hobby.

I didn’t get back to Nashville again until 1988, twenty-nine years later. That’s when I got inspired to start the New England Country Music Historical Society and really put my interest in our New England history to work. But that’s a whole other story.

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