Epperson’s legacy lives on

To say the first broadcast of WPAQ radio was eagerly anticipated by those in the listening area would be an understatement.

The lobby was packed with flowers. The driveway and public road were parked full. People filled every space in and around the simple brick station and an unknown host crowded around radio sets from Mount Airy to South Boston, Virginia, and more.

They were rewarded with the sounds of a local group called the Green Valley Boys which included Benton Flippen, and James and Russell Easter.

It was Feb. 2, 1948. Groundhog Day, 72 years ago.

The station served a population that loved music, and craved information but without a local outlet. Mount Airy, positioned as it is, in the middle of southwestern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina tobacco production, was far removed from other radio stations. Just as important to the music and Christian programming were the weather and tobacco business reports the station faithfully provided.

In the 1930s, when Ralph Epperson was in high school, he took a correspondence course on a popular new technology, radios. As part of the course he built two small radios.

“I fell in love with the medium, the idea of transmitting messages and information through space,” he said in the 2013 documentary about him, “Broadcast: A Man And His Dream.” It was a love that would never leave him.

Ralph went away to John Brown University in Arkansas to become a minister in 1938. He worked in the school’s dairy barns for a while but soon convinced the school to reassign him to the radio station. He switched his major to radio engineering and graduated magna cum laude before heading to the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for three years in 1942.

There he worked on a variety of transmitting devices for the war effort. When he returned to the family farm he ran a pirate station out of a back bedroom in his parents’ house, broadcasting local folks singing or playing hymns and other music. The broadcasts were very popular.

In 1947, with help and support from his family and many friends, he applied for a license from the Federal Communications Commission. When the reporter from the Mount Airy News interviewed him in June of that year at the future site of the station, he was in dirty overalls with several days of stubble on his face driving stakes for the surveyor.

He was given permission to broadcast on the AM band at 740 at 250 watts but had already been increased to 1,000 watts by June. The primary content was his favorite old-time and bluegrass music.

“It’s music from the heart,” he said in a 1991 interview. “It appeals to the heart strings and shoestrings and everything else in between.” His love for the music drew such greats as Roy Acuff, Grandpa Jones, and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to Mount Airy to perform on the Merry-Go-Round.

Many of the studio recordings of music and interviews he and his engineers made over the decades are now part of the Southern Folklife Ralph Epperson Collection held at UNC-Chapel Hill where they are an invaluable resource to researchers on a variety of topics.

In 1961, he was appointed to chair the Cancer Crusade of Surry County. In that role he focused the energies of local volunteers not only on raising money but on educating everyone on the signs of cancer and encouraging them to be screened.

He led the Mount Airy Merchants Association, served on the board of the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, and on the advisory board for the Blue Ridge Music Center.

For his community service and tremendous efforts to preserve the musical heritage of the region, Ralph received many awards and honors including being made an honorary Doctor of Laws by John Brown University.

In 1991 the North Carolina Folklore Society bestowed the Brown-Hudson Folklore Award on him for his “important contributions to the appreciation of regional folk and bluegrass music through your long work at WPAQ.” They noted that he had not only preserved important traditions through the station and recordings made there, but had “establish(ed) an audience for excellent folk artists, honor(ed) the talents of great folk musicians and provide(d) a local music archive of great use to scholars.”

“I feel grateful and appreciative,” he said at the time, “though somewhat unworthy.”

With respect, sir, we disagree. Happy Birthday, WPAQ!

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Ralph Epperson fell in love with radio, the idea of sound traveling through the air delivering programs to people’s homes, when both he and radio were very young. He operated pirate radio broadcasts before launching WPAQ in 1948 and 72 years later it has a worldwide audience streaming regional mountain, gospel, and bluegrass music on the Internet. This picture dates from 2001.

https://www.mtairynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/web1_File0095-Epperson-and-Letters.jpgRalph Epperson fell in love with radio, the idea of sound traveling through the air delivering programs to people’s homes, when both he and radio were very young. He operated pirate radio broadcasts before launching WPAQ in 1948 and 72 years later it has a worldwide audience streaming regional mountain, gospel, and bluegrass music on the Internet. This picture dates from 2001.

Just 26 years old when he began the station, Ralph Epperson did just about every job in the station from selling ads to giving tours. He often slept at the station until he married Earline Shaw in 1954. He’s seen here in Studio A, explaining radio stations to a group of children in the early 1960s.

https://www.mtairynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/web1_Ralph-Epperson-with-Kids-.jpgJust 26 years old when he began the station, Ralph Epperson did just about every job in the station from selling ads to giving tours. He often slept at the station until he married Earline Shaw in 1954. He’s seen here in Studio A, explaining radio stations to a group of children in the early 1960s.

Though he established the station after World War II, when technology was changing at a rapid pace, Ralph Epperson was set up in the style common before the War. Performers gathered round a single microphone for broadcasts or recordings. The museum is fortunate to have one in the WPAQ exhibit.

https://www.mtairynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/web1_WPAQ-Mic.jpgThough he established the station after World War II, when technology was changing at a rapid pace, Ralph Epperson was set up in the style common before the War. Performers gathered round a single microphone for broadcasts or recordings. The museum is fortunate to have one in the WPAQ exhibit.

Today Kelly Epperson operates the station his father started. He continues the station’s dedication to regional, gospel, and bluegrass music and a strong connection to the community but he’s guided the station into the 21st century by bringing WPAQ to the world via the internet. He is seen here explaining radio to Madeline Lowery and Alex Pell in 2018 for the museum summer camp called Radio Waves.

https://www.mtairynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/web1_Kelly-Epperson.jpgToday Kelly Epperson operates the station his father started. He continues the station’s dedication to regional, gospel, and bluegrass music and a strong connection to the community but he’s guided the station into the 21st century by bringing WPAQ to the world via the internet. He is seen here explaining radio to Madeline Lowery and Alex Pell in 2018 for the museum summer camp called Radio Waves.

At 72 years, the Merry-Go-Round is the second-oldest live music broadcast in the country behind the famed Grand Ole Opry (which started in 1925). Originally staged at The Pick Theatre in Mount Airy, local performers were regularly joined by such well-known names as Grandpa Jones and Scruggs and Flatt. This picture dates from about 1952.

https://www.mtairynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/web1_MERRY-GO-ROUND-1952.jpgAt 72 years, the Merry-Go-Round is the second-oldest live music broadcast in the country behind the famed Grand Ole Opry (which started in 1925). Originally staged at The Pick Theatre in Mount Airy, local performers were regularly joined by such well-known names as Grandpa Jones and Scruggs and Flatt. This picture dates from about 1952.

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Source: https://www.mtairynews.com