by Hill.Mandy

Created on: July 09, 2009

The Grand Ole Opry started out in 1925 as the WSM Barn Dance in the new fifth floor radio station of the National Life and Accident Insurance Company in Nashville Tennessee. The show featured Dr Humphrey Bate and his string quartet of old time musicians before George D. Hay, the most popular radio announcer in America was hired. Hay hired Uncle Jimmy Thompson on November 28th, 1925, which is celebrated as the birth date of the Grand Ole Opry.

December 10th 1927 was when the Barn Dance's name changed to the Grand Ole Opry. Hay's did weekly broadcasts which proved to be popular and continued to build. WSN radio increased their broadcast power to 50,000 watts in 1932 so that most of the United States as well as parts of Canada could tune in on Saturday nights.

In 1943 the Opry had finally moved into the Ryman Auditorium after going through several homes throughout Nashville. The Opry stayed at the Ryman for 31 years before the Opry house was built. The shows only consisted of instrumental performances until 1938 when Roy Acuff joined the case with his performance of The Great Speckled Bird.

The Grand Ole Opry was built along with the Opryland Hotel and Convention center as well as the Opryland Theme Park. All of which, along with the WSM radio station and the Ryman auditorium and others, were sold to Ed Gaylord, a friend of Minnie Pearl for $225 million dollars to continue the operations of the Grand Ole Opry and to settle debt for some of National Life's assets.

The Opry performed on weekends on the show and during the weekdays they traveled around the nation performing in tent shows and auditoriums. Artists such as Little Jimmy Dickens, Hank Williams, Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl were the first to perform for the Grand Ole Opry.

Today there are many others that have performed at the Grand Ole Opry and there are many ways to enjoy the wonderful music. There are radio programs, as well as television programs or you can watch a live performance. Elvis Presley made his first performance at the Opry in his teen years. After the show the organizers told him to go back to Memphis and continue working his day job.

Today the Opry still continues with thousands of fans traveling around the world to Nashville to see the music Live. The Opry holds its weekly Saturday night country music radio program that is broadcast live on WSM radio as well as televised on Great American Country network.

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