WSVS Archives - Bluegrass Today

WSVS celebrates 77 years of bluegrass and “pure country” in Crewe, VA

This report is a contribution from Tasker Fleming, host of the Front Porch Bluegrass Show which airs on WSPC (Albemarle, NC), WIZS (Henderson, NC), and WSVS (Crewe, VA), plus live streaming on Nextdoorradio.com. It celebrates the long history of WSVS in Crewe, and its importance in the furtherance of bluegrass music.

The sounds of bluegrass and country music have been on the air in southeast Virginia for 77 years thanks to WSVS radio (97.1 FM / 800 AM) in Crewe, Virginia. Located about sixty miles south of Richmond, the station’s historical presence in the early days of country music and bluegrass was recognized on April 6, 2024, with the unveiling of a historical marker by the National Registry of Historic Places of the United States Department of the Interior. The station is also listed on the Historical Register for the state of Virginia.

On April 6, 1947, WSVS officially signed on as 650 AM. Although WSM radio in Nashville comes to mind, the connection between the two stations is much deeper. It was the friendship of an original Foggy Mountain Boy to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs that contributed the most to the station’s legacy.

In 1948, Charles Edward Johnson, whose stage name was Little Jody Rainwater, was a member of the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys. When they were asked to play during the intermission of a Bill Monroe show in Lexington, NC, Jody met Blue Grass Boy, Lester Flatt. An immediate friendship began. When Lester Flatt left Bill Monroe a few months later, he called Jody Rainwater who quickly became one of the original Foggy Mountain Boys. For most of the next three years, he served as the booking agent and bass player for the group. He was part of their final recordings on Mercury Records that included Rolling in My Sweet Baby’s Arms as well as the first Columbia album for Flatt & Scruggs which featured Rainwater’s original I’m Waiting to Hear You Call Me Darling. He played both bass and mandolin as well as singing bass on their gospel quartet numbers.

For medical reasons, Jody left the Foggy Mountain Boys and on June 7, 1952 accepted a job with WSVS as a DJ. That relationship with the station would last twenty years. During his early years at the station, he continued to promote and bring artists into the studio, and with his connection to Flatt and Scruggs, he continued to book them in the greater Richmond area.

The Old Dominion Barn Dance was a weekly broadcast by WRVA in Richmond that had been going strong since 1946. It was part of the CBS national network on Saturday nights with a program called Country Style. Jody booked a guest visit for Lester and Earl on the Jamboree in June of 1954. They joined the Barn Dance as regulars in August and decided to make Blackstone, Virginia their home for a while.

Earl Scruggs was quoted in Foggy Mountain Troubadour – The Life and Music of Curly Seckler (written by Penny Parsons) about their time there. “We taped a daily program on WRVA in Richmond and did two daily shows at WSVS in nearby Crewe. We taped the Martha White shows in Crewe and sent them to Nashville, producing four fifteen-minute shows a day. We joined the WRVA Saturday night Barn Dance and continued to make personal appearances.” If only the walls could talk. The WSVS studio is now affectionately called the Flatt and Scruggs Studio.

The station won the Douglass Southhall Freeman Award in Journalism in 1955 for its courage in covering hurricanes Connie, Diane, and Hazel. It maintained a solid voice in country music as well with studio visits from Johnny Cash and June Carter, Jim & Jesse McReynolds, Jim Ed Brown, Roy Drusky, Mel Tillis, and Jerry Clower during its first 25 years. Many small rural stations have not survived the changing market in music delivery. WSVS is a beacon. It embraces a proud history while looking to remain a vital resource in the region.

The unveiling on Saturday was spearheaded by the current (second generation) owner, Bruce Gee. He credits the notable efforts of Jody Rainwater for the historical recognition by the Department of the Interior. Gee said, “My father took over the station in 2005, and he owned a station in Richmond. When he changed the format there from country to sports radio, he caught a lot of flak. He bought this station and immediately began to promote older artists doing local shows. The music is timeless – Brandon Adams (station manager) has brought back Coffee Time and the traditions of local live radio…but we try to link the old to the new for generations to come. We want to keep it fresh. We upped it a generation. When my father was here, we played ’60s and ’70s country music. I am more of an ’80s and ’90s guy. Brandon Adams, our station manager, plays a mixture of the new, but we never forget our roots and that is why we were honored today.”

The crowd from the unveiling came from a radius larger than the station’s broadcasting limits. From as far away as Richmond, Virginia to Louisburg, North Carolina, they came to celebrate the past. They came to remember a man who honorably served in WW II as a Marine, Jody Rainwater.

The guests enjoyed hotdogs, hamburgers, and oysters served with a smile by the staff of the station. They toured the station’s interior and the Flatt and Scruggs Studio. Live music was provided by Dan Nicholls, but if only for a moment, they went back to a simpler time. A time before the days of the Beverly Hillbillies fame. As bluegrass was played over the speakers outside; they could imagine it was 1954. They could hear Lester Flatt singing with Curley Seckler as Earl Scruggs joined in harmony… and as everyone left for home, the new marker out front was left to remind the next generation of the proud heritage of the past blended with the love that continues to come from WSVS.

Listen to Eddie, Martha and Tom online

This coming Saturday (7/2) Eddie Adcock will be back in Crewe, Virginia for an evening concert and an afternoon broadcast you can hear online.

Accompanied by his wife and long term musical partner, Martha, and good friend, the well-respected bass player Tom Gray, Adcock returns to the place where he got his first break in bluegrass music, WSVS radio in Crewe. In 1955, after he had acquired his first banjo, he joined Smokey Graves & His Blue Star Boys and went to work with them at the radio station.

In the 1970s, the Adcocks began their partnership in the ground-breaking newgrass band IInd Generation, while Gray helped found the ever-popular Seldom Scene.

Adcock and Gray first performed together in the late 1950s, in one of the most innovative and influential bluegrass groups of all time, the Country Gentlemen. The iconic band, which also included Charlie Waller and John Duffey, were inducted together as a group into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Honor in 1996; the first band to be so feted. They were inducted into the Washington Area Music Association’s Hall of Fame in that same year.

Their individual awards are too numerous to list. However, they are true legends in bluegrass music, yet always fresh and vital, these multi-award-winners – Eddie & Martha Adcock and Tom Gray – always present a memorable and highly entertaining evening of music.

Presented by the Virginia Museum of Radio Entertainment (VMRE), the three-hour afternoon concert starts at 4:00 p.m. and takes place on the grounds of the Crewe Public Library at 400 Tyler Street in Crewe.

Prior to the concert Eddie, Martha Adcock and Tom Gray will be live in the WSVS studio performing songs from their soon-to-be-released CD and discussing their music and history on the High Noon Hoedown (12:00 p.m. EDT) on WSVS 800 AM. The show, and all of WSVS’ broadcasts, can be heard online at www.wsvsam.com.

The Virginia Museum of Radio Entertainment is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization based in Crewe, Virginia (west of Richmond), at historic WSVS radio. The station went on the air in April of 1947. During the 1950s and ’60s its programming included a mix of bluegrass, gospel, and traditional country. Today WSVS stays true to that same format, while including the latest Americana artists as well. The station airs 3 hours of bluegrass each weekday, and has live bands perform on the High Noon Hoedown show on Saturdays.

The mission of the Virginia Museum of Radio Entertainment is to operate WSVS as a working museum, thus attracting visitors to the area and educating the community about its rich musical heritage. In addition, the VMRE is working with school systems in several counties to involve students in learning about the music business through special programs. The VMRE has hosted concerts with some of the top names in bluegrass and Americana music, including the Steep Canyon Rangers, Curly Seckler, Jesse McReynolds, Big Country Bluegrass, Riders in the Sky, Sierra Hull, Missy Raines, and The Quebe Sisters Band.

The VMRE welcomes donations, which are tax deductible. For more information about the VMRE or for concert information, call: 434-645-7734. Watch for a new VMRE web site, coming soon!

Virginia Museum of Radio Entertainment launches

The Virginia Museum of Radio Entertainment is a new non-profit organization based in Crewe, Virginia (west of Richmond), at the historic WSVS 800 AM radio station. Its mission is to turn WSVS into a working museum and have it designated as a historic landmark, thus attracting visitors to the area and involving the community with traditional music.

WSVS 800 AM first went on the air in April, 1947. In 1952 Jody Rainwater joined the staff and over his 20 years with WSVS he became one of the station’s most popular air personalities.

In late August 1954 Flatt & Scruggs began a stint at WSVS, where they were based until returning to Nashville in January 1955. The Foggy Mountain Boys did live shows on WSVS and WRVA in Richmond and performed weekly on the Old Dominion Barn Dance. While based in Crewe they recorded their daily Martha White morning radio shows in the WSVS studio and sent them to WSM in Nashville to be broadcast.

WSVS remains a traditional country music station, with classic country, bluegrass, Gospel and Americana music included in its regular format. Bluegrass music is programmed on Monday – Friday from 3:00-6:00 p.m., and live bands perform on the air on Saturdays on the High Noon Hoedown Show. The station’s signal is also cybercast online at www.wsvsam.com.

In March 2009, WSVS 800 AM created a project that engaged local school students, with a focus on education in marketing, promotion, and the arts, enabling them to learn about traditional music and the music business.

This partnership between WSVS and Lunenburg County Public Schools, in Lunenburg, Virginia, allowed middle and high school students to produce and promote their own concerts. The first of these featured young bluegrass phenomenon Sierra Hull.

Forty-three students participated in every aspect of the presentation of the concert, from sound design to marketing sponsorships. Students were trained in all areas of production and promotion by the staff of WSVS. Lunenburg County School officials arranged a production meeting at WSVS for the students to record interviews with Hull, produce commercials for the event and create a recorded archive for WSVS and the students. Students toured the facilities learning about the history of the station and its historical impact.

The event was a major success. In just eight weeks, the students had produced the tickets, posters and worked on marketing for the event. The students also focused on sponsorship opportunities, selling $4,800 in sponsorships to local businesses in their community. The concert was held in the Kenbridge Community Center, Kenbridge (Lunenburg County), Virginia. The event sold out in a matter of days, drawing attendees from as far away as New Jersey, and creating $3,400 in ticket revenue for the program. The proceeds from ticket sales went to Lunenburg County Public Schools.

Based upon the success of this event, the Virginia Museum of Radio Entertainment was created by a board of supporters representing areas of expertise in music, education, tourism and community. Board members include the WSVS station manager since 2007, Chris Gowin, Bobby Wilcox, the Broadcast Projects Director for VMRE, Jim Eanes (no relation to the late singer with the same name), the Historical Projects Director, and the Director of Public Relations Penny Parsons, who is well known for her work in various capacities in the bluegrass music industry for over 30 years. The organization is in the process of creating an advisory board, which will include prominent veterans from the bluegrass, country and Americana music fields.

The VMRE received its non-profit 501(c)(3) status last year following the second of the WSVS / Lunenburg County Public Schools concerts, which featured Riders in the Sky.

The next concert also takes place at the Kenbridge Community Center, 511 E. 5th Avenue, Kenbridge, when, on Saturday, January 29, the VMRE is to be host to Missy Raines & the New Hip.

To get more information on the concert, you can contact the station at 434-645-7734.

Here is a video of Missy Raines & the New Hip performing Duke of Paducah, a tune from her Compass Records’ CD Inside Out (Compass 7 4498 2).

WSVS begins webcasting

WSVS, AM 800 in Crewe, VA has been a radio home to bluegrass music since the station’s inception in 1947. The station became most closely associated with bluegrass through the involvement of Charles Johnson (Little Jody Rainwater), who joined the station after leaving The Foggy Mountain Boys. Flatt & Scruggs broadcast a daily show from the station from May of 1954 until January of 1955.

WSVS was recently in the news as they celebrated Rainwater’s 89th birthday.

We’ve just received word that the station has begun webcasting a live stream. Utilizing Live365, the station is making its bluegrass and classic country broadcasting available to all. The main bluegrass content is featured during Mel Payne’s Bluegrass Depot which airs from 3pm to 6pm, Monday through Friday, ET.

Happy Birthday to Little Jody Rainwater

Charles Johnson is better known to bluegrass fans as Little Jody Rainwater, bass player with bluegrass legends Flatt & Scruggs during the early 1950s.

Today is Jody’s 89th birthday, and the radio station that he called home after departing from the band, WSVS, is celebrating.

Beginning at 2:45 PM this afternoon, WSVS, AM 800, in Crewe, Virginia, will be airing a special birthday broadcast in Jody’s honor. The show will run till 4 PM.

I spoke with Chris Gowin, the station manager at WSVS, and he told me they will be recording the program and will re-air it sometime in the next few weeks, immediately after their internet stream becomes active.

Here’s some background information on Jody’s association with the station, from the WSVS website.

In the early 1950s Charles Johnson, otherwise known as Little Jody Rainwater, was the promoter and bassist in the bluegrass group Flatt and Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys. When Jody (as he was known to all) decided to leave the Foggy Mountain Boys and settle down, he chose WSVS and Crewe as his home. Jody’s programming became extremely popular with the listeners and Jody’s ongoing support of the bluegrass movement endeared listeners to him.

In early 1954, Flatt and Scruggs, then sponsored by Martha White Mills, decided to change location. They moved from Nashville, TN where they performed on WSM’s daily, early-morning broadcast, to WSVS in Crewe. Starting daily in May of 1954 until January of 1955, the Foggy Mountain Boys played a daily show on WSVS from the studios on Melody Lane.