Grand Ole Opry, Music City's Most Popular Draw

From its modest origins, the Grand Ole Opry has become a symbol of America, and anyone thinking about a Nashville vacation knows, the Grand Old Opry is Nashville’s premier drawing card. It began as a live music radio show in 1925, and just continued active and going. And in modern times it has survived to be the oldest continuous radio program in America. It is also broadcast on XM Radio, and is televised Saturday nights on the Great American Country cable channel.

The Grand Ole Opry began just five years after commercial radio programming was started in N. America. In 1925, a radio station was established in Music City by an insurance company (National Life and Accident) trusting that this fresh programming medium could be used to publicize insurance policies. Country 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 engaged one of the country's most popular radio personality, George D. Hay, as WSM's program manager. On November 28, 1925, the 30 year old Hay identified himself "The Solemn Old Judge" and set up the show that would soon be identified as the WSM Barn Dance.

George D. Hay's weekly Barn Dance programs came to be enormously popular, and in 1927 he renamed it the Grand Ole Opry. Hordes of fans overfilled the studio as they arrived to see & hear the stars, so National Life constructed a bigger auditorium with a capacity of 500.  In 1932, WSM upgraded their broadcast power to 50,000 watts and most of North America could hear the Opry on Saturday evenings.

The fans kept growing, so in 1934 the Opry moved outside its station studio to the Hillsboro Theater (now named the Belcourt). The fans 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 requiring more room, the Opry moved to the Ryman Auditorium, where it stayed until 1974, when it moved to its contemporary home base, the 4,400 seat Grand Ole Opry House, neighbor to the Opryland Hotel, where you can see shows several times each week, except for several weeks in winter when the Opry travels back to the Ryman Auditorium.

On the main stage of the new Opry House, there's a six-foot circle of dark colored, oak floor; it's shiny but perceptibly worn. Severed from the stage of the Opry's famed latter home, the Ryman Auditorium, this circle of oak gives freshman fans and old hands alike the opportunity to play on the one and the same spot that formerly supported Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, Uncle Dave Macon, and others.

There have been lots of changes at the Opry over the years - its members, its music, and its home. But that dark oak circle stays, a reminder for every musician who stands inside that they are part of something that's much larger than themselves, and wherever they may go they are connected to the champions who came before.

The Opry’s artists and music have defined C&W in the USA. Hundreds of musicians have played as members over the years. Being rewarded with membership in the Grand Ole Opry, country’s most longstanding “Hall of Fame”, is to be selected as one of the most elite artists of country music.

Membership in the Opry is not just attained, but must be maintained with regular performances during the artist's career.

Nowadays you can experience the Grand Ole Opry in to a greater extent than any time before. There are Tuesday Night Opry shows from April through December. A two-hour radio program, can be picked up in 200 cities across America. Just like country stars of old  grew up adjusting their radio to hear the Opry, future day generations of Opry stars can hear it on satellite radio or the internet.

Wherever they're hearing, those rising Opry stars some day will claim their place standing on that noted circular piece of oak.