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The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly Saturday night Country music radio program that is broadcast live on WSM Radio in Nashville, Tennessee. It is also televised and promotes live performances both in Nashville and on the road.
The oldest continuing radio program in the United States, the Grand Ole Opry has been broadcast on WSM since November 28, 1925. It started out as the "WSM Barn Dance" in the new fifth floor radio station studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company. The featured performer on the first show was Uncle Jimmy Thompson, a fiddler who was eighty years of age. The announcer was producer George D. Hay, who was known on the air as "The Solemn Old Judge." He was only thirty and was not a judge, but was an enterprising pioneer who launched the Barn Dance as a spin-off of his "National Barn Dance" program at a previous radio station in Chicago, Illinois.
The name Grand Ole Opry came about on December 8, 1928. The Barn Dance followed the "Music Appreciation Hour," which consisted of classical music and selections from grand opera. When the program signed off that night and it was time for the WSM Barn Dance to sign on, Judge Hay stepped up to the microphone and said, "For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the 'Grand Ole Opry.'" The name stuck and has been used for the program since then.
As audiences to the live show increased, National Life & Accident Insurance's radio venue became too small to accommodate the hordes of fans. They built a larger studio, but it was still not large enough. The Opry then moved into the Hillsboro Theatre, then to the Dixie Tabernacle and then to the War Memorial Auditorium. A twenty-five cent admission began to be charged in an effort to curb the large crowds, but to no avail. In 1943, the Opry moved to the Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman was home to the Opry until 1974, when the show moved to its new 4,400 seat Grand Ole Opry House.
Annually, hundreds of thousands of fans travel from all fifty states and from other countries to Nashville, which is known as "Music City, USA," to see the music and comedy performances on the Opry in person.
In many ways, the artists and repertoire of the Opry defined American Country music. Hundreds of performers have entertained as cast members through the years, including new stars, superstars and legends. Being made a member of the Grand Ole Opry is to be identified as a member of the elite of Country music.
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