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N0KFQ > TODAY 03.04.13 19:10l 67 Lines 3249 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Apr 3
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Sent: 130403/1555Z 38139@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.54
...
Apr 3, 1948:
The Louisiana Hayride radio program premieres on KWKH-AM
Shreveport
Even the most ardent non-fans of country music can probably name
the weekly live show and radio program that is regarded as
country music's biggest stage: the Grand Ole Opry, out of
Nashville, Tennessee. Yet even many committed country fans are
unfamiliar with a program that, during its 1950s heyday, eclipsed
even the Opry in terms of its impact on country music itself.
From its premiere on this day in 1948 to its final weekly show in
1960, The Lousiana Hayride, out of Shreveport, Louisiana,
launched the careers not only of several country-music giants,
but also of a young, genre-crossing singer named Elvis Presley,
the future King of Rock and Roll.
In many ways, The Louisiana Hayride was a straightforward
knock-off of the Grand Ole Opry, but with two key differences.
While both programs focused on country music and targeted the
same geographic area with their 50,000-watt signals, The
Louisiana Hayride embraced new artists and new musical
innovations that the staunchly traditionalist Grand Ole Opry
would never consider. While the Opry would rarely if ever feature
a performer who had not yet had a hit record, the Hayride often
featured up-and-coming artists who had yet to find an audience.
And while the Opry banned the electric guitar, the Hayride
embraced the instrument that would help transform one strain of
"hillbilly music" into the new, hybrid form called rock and roll.
The Louisiana Hayride was the brainchild of Horace Lee Logan, who
first became a radio host on Shreveport's KWKH-AM in 1932 at the
age of 16. Because most of the talented country artists who got
their first breaks on the Hayride_Hank Williams, Kitty Wells,
Webb Pierce, Faron Young_would eventually move on to Nashville,
it was common to hear The Lousiana Hayride referred to as "the
Grand Ole Opry's farm team." Logan, however, always referred to
the Opry as "the Tennessee branch of the Hayride."
In addition to giving Hank Williams his first wide radio audience
in 1949 and then welcoming him back after the Opry fired him for
drunkenness in 1952, Logan and The Louisiana Hayride also gave
19-year-old Elvis Presley a crucial break in October 1954. After
a lackluster, single-song debut on the Grand Ole Opry failed to
garner him a return invitation, Elvis gave a knockout performance
of That's All Right (Mama) and Blue Moon of Kentucky on The
Louisiana Hayride that set him on his path toward stardom.
An interesting footnote to the story of The Louisiana Hayride
involves the origin of a famous Elvis-related phrase. In
gratitude to Horace Logan for the boost he'd provided when Elvis
was an unknown back in 1954, Presley gave a return performance on
the Hayride in December 1956, at the very peak of his popularity.
Midway through the show, thousands of young Elvis fans abandoned
their seats after the King's performance, noisily chasing after
him in the wings while the live broadcast continued. It was then
that Logan took the microphone and coined a famous phrase:
"Please, young people...Elvis has left the building...please take
your seats."
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@hotmail.com
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