Grand Ole Opry, Nashville’s Number One Drawing Card

From its small origins, the Grand Ole Opry has become an American gem, and anyone thinking about a Nashville vacation knows, the Opry is Nashville’s most popular drawing card. It began as a live music radio presentation in 1925, and just kept going and in full swing. And now it has outlasted thousands of other broadcasts to be the oldest continuous radio broadcast in America. It is also broadcast on XM Radio, and is on television on Saturdays on the Great American Country network.

The Grand Ole Opry initially started out just five years after commercial radio broadcasting was began in N. America. In 1925, a radio station was established in Music City by an insurance company (National Life and Accident) expecting that this fresh programming medium could be employed to sell insurance policies. Country music fans are acquainted with the station's call letters, WSM, but most don't know that WSM stood for the company's slogan: "We Shield Millions."

National Life hired one of the nation's most popular radio announcers, George D. Hay, as WSM's program director. On November 28, 1925, the 30 year old Hay named himself "The Solemn Old Judge" and established the show that would become known as the WSM Barn Dance.

George D. Hay's weekly Barn Dance programs became tremendously popular, and in 1927 he renamed it the Grand Ole Opry. Swarms of fans filled up the studio as they came to see & hear the singers & pickers, so National Life established a larger auditorium with a capacity of 500.  In 1932, WSM grew their transmitter power to 50,000 watts and most of the country could hear the Opry on Saturday evenings.

The crowds kept increasing, so in 1934 the Opry moved from its station studio to the Hillsboro Theater (now the Belcourt in Green Hills). The crowds 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 capacity, the Opry moved to the Ryman Auditorium, where it stayed put until 1974, when it moved to its modern home, the 4,400 capacity Grand Ole Opry House, adjacent to the Opryland Hotel, where you can see shows several times each week, except for several weeks in winter when the Opry goes back to the Ryman Auditorium.

On the stage of the new Opry House, there's a six-foot circle of dark colored, oak floor; it's shiny but visibly worn. Taken from the stage of the Opry's renowned previous home base, the Ryman Auditorium, this circle of oak gives fledgling fans and old timers alike the chance to sing on the identical spot that formerly supported Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, Uncle Dave Macon, and others.

There have been loads of changes at the Opry over the years - its members, its music, and its home. But that dark oak circle remains, a reminder for every singer who stands on it that they are partaking in something that's much larger than themselves, and wherever they may go they are coupled to the legends who came before.

The Opry’s artists and music have defined Country & western in the USA. Hundreds of musicians have played as members over history. Being rewarded with membership in the Grand Ole Opry, country’s most enduring “Hall of Fame”, is to be tapped as one of the most elect musicians of country music.

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

Now you can enjoy the Grand Ole Opry in many more ways than before. There are Tuesday Night Opry performances from April through December. A two-hour radio show, can be heard in 200 cities across America. Just like country & western stars in the past  grew up adjusting their radio to hear the Opry, rising generations of Opry artists can pick it up on satellite radio or the internet.

Wherever they're listening, those future day Opry stars some day will assume their spot standing on that famed circular piece of oak.