NashvilleBroadcastingHistory.com

"Nashville Broadcasting---THE BOOK" by veteran broadcaster Lee Dorman is now available.

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Nashville Broadcasting "The Book"
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Buy the book today. You'll enjoy reading it, AND it makes a great gift for friends and family. 
 
This book can be purchased for just $30.00 from our website. We accept Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards. When ordering with one of those, be sure and include your name, as it appears on the card, the expiration date and the card's security code (3 digits on the back of the card for Visa and Mastercard; 4 digits on the front for American Express). Checks are also accepted if you include your name, address, telephone number and eMail address. A $50.00 fee will be charged for any returned checks.
 
Make checks payable to:
 
"NASHVILLE BROADCASTING---The Book"
    and mail to 
100 Main Street, Suite 104
Portland, Tennessee 37148 
 

Built by a 16-year old high school student named Jack DeWitt, the first radio station in Nashville went on the air in 1922. Three years later, DeWitt helped put WSM, Nashville’s first television station, on the air. Over the years, Nashville has had its share of popular local radio personalities: Noel Ball, Coyote McCloud, Gerry House, Carl P. Mayfield, and Ralph Emery, as well as television personalities like Jud Collins, Bill Jay, Larry Munson, Chris Clark and Dan Miller. Nationally recognized stars like as Dinah Shore, Oprah Winfrey, Pat Sajak and Pat Boone all started their careers in Nashville. Here are the stories and images of the people heard on transistor radios, and the programs---including Five O’Clock Hop, Ruffin’ Reddy and The Mickey Mouse Club---watched by children growing up in Nashville, while they did their homework.

photo courtesy of Nick Archer
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Late WSMV news anchor Dan Miller with author at Davis-Kidd signing

 

Review by Rick Johnson on WGNS, Murfreesboro:

 

   “If you wondered whether or not Miss Norma could actually see you and other ‘dobees’ in her “Magic Window,” you’ll love Lee Dorman’s pictorial history book ‘Nashville Broadcasting.’ It is published by Arcadia Publishing, the company that has two great books about Murfreesboro and another on Middle Tennessee State University. Dorman’s book includes early WGNS, as well as other Nashville broadcasting memories. Dorman and WGNS’s Bart Walker go back to elementary school days. They lived a few miles apart and both built small AM radio stations. During Dorman’s recent book signing at Davis-Kidd in Green Hills, Lee’s younger brother Michael said, “I remember strapping a portable radio onto my bike and riding around, seeing how far the station would go.”

The book tells about Ruffin Reddy, the Five O’Clock Hop, Dr. Lucifer and so much more.”

This is the full story of the origin and growth of radio and television broadcasting in Nashville and Davidson County. From the first station in the early 1920's to the rise of the FM stations in the late 1960's and early 1970's, this book tells the stories of the stations, the deejays, and the music they played, including the exciting radio contests and hot radio jingles right up through 1975.

It also chronicles the beginning days of television, with its black and white sets, local programs and personalities, and includes the stories about your favorite newscasters, weathermen and sports announcers. Complete with more than 200 great photographs that will bring back almost-forgotten memories. You'll love every minute you spend reading the book, and your friends and family will, too, if you give them a copy as a gift. 

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