WSVS
Encyclopedia
WSVS is a Classic Country
/Bluegrass
/Americana formatted broadcast
radio station
licensed to Crewe, Virginia
, serving Southside Virginia
. WSVS is owned and operated by Gee Communications, Inc., and features programming from AP Radio and Jones Radio Network.
as the station of the Seneca Vocational School in the 1930s.
The current station WSVS began as the American economy and population grew in a post-World War II society. Radio was the top entertainment medium of the age. Local stations were springing up in every community to provide up-to-the-minute information, music and entertainment to people right in their homes.
On April 6, 1947, WSVS AM commenced broadcasting from downtown Crewe, Virginia. The station quickly grew in popularity.
Remote stations were added to provide information from surrounding localities to provide a service to listeners in a quickly expanding technological environment. Many local musicians provided live performances daily. Live programming was very much in demand at the time.
As the station grew and progressed, it filled this mission with enviable success. This is where timing and fate met to move WSVS into the country music history books.
WSVS was broadcasting with such a strong signal that its coverage area was impressive. This capacity, along with the state-of- the-art studio and sound system WSVS had developed, attracted musicians from beyond Virginia, to perform there. This led to WSVS employing and developing the best known personality it has ever known.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, with the growing popularity of live music and live broadcasts being produced, WSVS worked to keep up with the growing musical trends of the age. Musicians were brought in to perform live country music and a popular growing form of country music called bluegrass.
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 September 1954 until January 1955, the Foggy Mountain Boys played a daily show on WSVS from the studios on Melody Lane.
During this time, with the help of budding technology, Lester and Earl and the Foggy Mountain Boys taped all of their WSM broadcasts and performed on the local Old Dominion Barn Dance on WRVA in Richmond, Virginia.
After shows were performed on WSVS, Lester, Earl and the rest of the Foggy Mountain Boys would travel to their local tent show or travel to their next big appearance, returning to the station in Crewe after their performances were complete. Musicians during this time worked without ceasing; often traveling by car from show to show. The Foggy Mountain Boys would sometimes play up to four full shows daily!
Curly Seckler, who played in the Foggy Mountain Boys during their time at WSVS, remembers the show and studio.
“After moving to Nashville in June 1953, the Foggy Mountain Boys were sponsored by Martha White Mills on a daily morning radio show for many years. During our time in Crewe, thanks to the wonders of budding technology, we were able to tape all of our Martha White shows in the studio at WSVS and send them back to Nashville to be aired. Thus we not only performed our daily noontime show on WSVS, but we were able to maintain our presence on Nashville’s WSM throughout the period we spent in Virginia.”
Curly also remembers his leisure time in the studio.
“In 1954, the Foggy Mountain Boys included Lester Flatt on guitar, Earl Scruggs on banjo, Paul Warren on Fiddle, Jake Tullock on bass, and myself on mandolin. I have many fond memories of our time at WSVS. I still remember looking out of the station’s window and seeing cows grazing contentedly in the surrounding pastures. Seems like I also remember a card game or two!”
In 2006, the Flatt and Scruggs Studio was restored and revitalized. The original imported wall tiles with their acoustical qualities are intact. Photos of the bluegrass greats who performed there grace the walls. A plaque outside the door dedicates the studio to Flatt & Scruggs, a name that will remain forever in the proud annals of bluegrass music.
Recordings are again being produced in this studio. Live shows are being broadcast from within its walls. The spirit of bluegrass is alive and well in this studio. It has been completely restored to the original luster enjoyed by the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1954!
WSVS now uses the studio for live performances very much as it did in 1953 and 1954. The staff and management respect and maintain the history provided with a room that has hosted some of the world’s greatest musicians and stars. Shows like High Noon Hoedown feature and record many musicians of local and regional prominence to this day.
The station is currently owned by David Gee, CEO, Gee Communications.
Classic country
Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country hits from past decades.This genre generally follows one of two formats: those specializing in hits from the 1920s through the early 1970s, and focus primarily on innovators and artists from country music's Golden...
/Bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
/Americana formatted broadcast
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
licensed to Crewe, Virginia
Crewe, Virginia
Crewe is a town in Nottoway County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,378 at the 2000 census. It was founded in 1888 as a central location to house steam locomotive repair shops for the Norfolk and Western Railroad which has a rail yard there for east-west trains carrying Appalachian...
, serving Southside Virginia
Southside (Virginia)
Traditionally, the term Southside refers to the portion of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and south of the James River, the geographic feature from which the term derives its name....
. WSVS is owned and operated by Gee Communications, Inc., and features programming from AP Radio and Jones Radio Network.
History
The call WSVS originated out of Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
as the station of the Seneca Vocational School in the 1930s.
The current station WSVS began as the American economy and population grew in a post-World War II society. Radio was the top entertainment medium of the age. Local stations were springing up in every community to provide up-to-the-minute information, music and entertainment to people right in their homes.
On April 6, 1947, WSVS AM commenced broadcasting from downtown Crewe, Virginia. The station quickly grew in popularity.
Remote stations were added to provide information from surrounding localities to provide a service to listeners in a quickly expanding technological environment. Many local musicians provided live performances daily. Live programming was very much in demand at the time.
As the station grew and progressed, it filled this mission with enviable success. This is where timing and fate met to move WSVS into the country music history books.
WSVS was broadcasting with such a strong signal that its coverage area was impressive. This capacity, along with the state-of- the-art studio and sound system WSVS had developed, attracted musicians from beyond Virginia, to perform there. This led to WSVS employing and developing the best known personality it has ever known.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, with the growing popularity of live music and live broadcasts being produced, WSVS worked to keep up with the growing musical trends of the age. Musicians were brought in to perform live country music and a popular growing form of country music called bluegrass.
In the early 1950s Charles Johnson, otherwise known as Little Jody Rainwater
Little Jody Rainwater
Little Jody Rainwater was born Charles E. Johnson in Surry Co. North Carolina in 1920. He is one of thirteen children of M. Wilson and Emma Johnson. He is most noted for playing bass with the bluegrass band The Foggy Mountain Boys. Jody's father played fiddle and Jody recalls being interested in...
, 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 September 1954 until January 1955, the Foggy Mountain Boys played a daily show on WSVS from the studios on Melody Lane.
During this time, with the help of budding technology, Lester and Earl and the Foggy Mountain Boys taped all of their WSM broadcasts and performed on the local Old Dominion Barn Dance on WRVA in Richmond, Virginia.
After shows were performed on WSVS, Lester, Earl and the rest of the Foggy Mountain Boys would travel to their local tent show or travel to their next big appearance, returning to the station in Crewe after their performances were complete. Musicians during this time worked without ceasing; often traveling by car from show to show. The Foggy Mountain Boys would sometimes play up to four full shows daily!
Curly Seckler, who played in the Foggy Mountain Boys during their time at WSVS, remembers the show and studio.
“After moving to Nashville in June 1953, the Foggy Mountain Boys were sponsored by Martha White Mills on a daily morning radio show for many years. During our time in Crewe, thanks to the wonders of budding technology, we were able to tape all of our Martha White shows in the studio at WSVS and send them back to Nashville to be aired. Thus we not only performed our daily noontime show on WSVS, but we were able to maintain our presence on Nashville’s WSM throughout the period we spent in Virginia.”
Curly also remembers his leisure time in the studio.
“In 1954, the Foggy Mountain Boys included Lester Flatt on guitar, Earl Scruggs on banjo, Paul Warren on Fiddle, Jake Tullock on bass, and myself on mandolin. I have many fond memories of our time at WSVS. I still remember looking out of the station’s window and seeing cows grazing contentedly in the surrounding pastures. Seems like I also remember a card game or two!”
In 2006, the Flatt and Scruggs Studio was restored and revitalized. The original imported wall tiles with their acoustical qualities are intact. Photos of the bluegrass greats who performed there grace the walls. A plaque outside the door dedicates the studio to Flatt & Scruggs, a name that will remain forever in the proud annals of bluegrass music.
Recordings are again being produced in this studio. Live shows are being broadcast from within its walls. The spirit of bluegrass is alive and well in this studio. It has been completely restored to the original luster enjoyed by the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1954!
WSVS now uses the studio for live performances very much as it did in 1953 and 1954. The staff and management respect and maintain the history provided with a room that has hosted some of the world’s greatest musicians and stars. Shows like High Noon Hoedown feature and record many musicians of local and regional prominence to this day.
The station is currently owned by David Gee, CEO, Gee Communications.