GREER, S.C. — The so-called “Golden Age” of radio (the 1970s and ‘80s) in Greer was reviewed and analyzed by popular former Greer radio hosts Drew Hines and Paul Lindsey in a presentation that was part of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Greer at the Historic Greer Depot on March 28.

Hines, who lives just outside of Greer, writes a monthly column appearing in the three editions of the Daily Planet, including Upstate S.C., Asheville, N.C., and Hendersonville, N.C.

During the program, the two men sat on tall stools at a high table with vintage microphones in a retro setting meant resemble an old-time radio station, as they reminsced about times past in old-school-style local broadcasting

The program was introduced as “Live at 4:00 p.m.” by David Lovegrove, director of the Greer Heritage Museum. 

A crowd of about 50 attended the program, with many coming and going, as a potpourri of events were offered that evening celebrating Greer’s 150th anniversary.

As Hines and Lindsey began discussing Greer’s radio heritage, Lindsey asked, “What was the legal call sign” at WEAB-AM when Hines worked there in the 1970s?

“It was a ‘clear channel’ station, which was a little bit unusual in those times.” Hines answered, given that WEAB was a 250-watt station, as compared to some of the 50,000-watt clear channel stations in New York City, Chicago and other major cities.

“And I was at WCKI station,” Greer’s other radio station, Lindsey noted. “That was my first radio job.”

Hines added, “Paul and I have known each other for a long time. Paul was maybe 14 when we first met....

“But people today, especially young people, can’t appreciate the role that local radio played in those days — back in the days of (print) newspapers and local TV...

Hines noted that he worked for WEAB-AM, named after Ed Burch, who was the editor and publisher the now-defunct Greer Citizen weekly newspaper). “WEAB always was country and bluegrass, he said. “In June 1949, it was Greer’s first and only radio station.” 

Hines added that WCKI-AM was founded in 1955 as a Southern gospel radio station.

For decades, there were two radio stations in Greer, but Hines noted they later were sold, with WCKI becoming a Roman Catholic station. And WEAB-AM not only was sold, but its call letters were changed to WPJM-AM, which is now a black gospel station.

Further, Hines said, “Of the stations in our area that made an impact, there was WSPA (in Spartanburg), which started as an AM station, but then it became the first FM station in South Carolina.”

(“WSPA-TV (Channel 7) transitioned from radio to television on April 29, 1956, led by Walter J. Brown of Spartan Radiocasting Company, who acquired a VHF channel 7 license after the

FCC lifted its, freeze on new TV stations in 1952. The station leveraged its original WSPA-AM (950) radio roots, establishing a powerhouse CBS affiliate with a vast coverage area,” AI Overview noted.)

The March 28 discussion between Hines and Lindsey then turned to “Farmer” Cliff Gray, a beloved and legendary radio personality in Spartanburg, where he was considered (according to AI Overview) a “god in radio” in that local area.

Hines and Lindsey agreed that Gray also was instrumental in bringing musical groups to the Greer area.

Perhaps most significantly, in 1945, the CBS network wanted to know what the impact of the death of (U.S.) President Franklin D. Roosevelt had on a small town like Greer. “And “Farmer” Cliff Gray gave what was considered one of the best radio reports to the network,” Hines recalled.

While he was a student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, Hines was the chief announcer. He noted he was playing “the radical rock music of the time.” 

Especially memorable, he was working as the DJ on the Ellison-Hines Show on Sunday nights, playing the music of Eric Clapton, Blind Faith, Yes and Led Zeppelin, among others.

In contrast, when he later worked at WEAB in Greer, the music featured often was by George Jones, Hank Williams, Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn.

What’s more, when Hines joined the WEAB station, it was called “Country Alt.”

Hines noted, “In August 1976, I asked Mr. Birch (his boss), ‘Can I have half a day off tomorrow?’ 

“He asked why I needed a half a day off. I told him I need it ‘to get married — I can do it in half a day. ‘

“So he gave me that half-day off and I got married to Susan. 

“Mr. Birch told that story for years — that I only needed half a day to get married,” Hines quipped, as the crowd erupted into laughter.

The radio station (WEAB) was where Applebee’s (in Greer) is now, Hiines noted. WCKI 1300 AM was historically located on Beeco Road, just off Hood Road.

The two DJs then discussed Carl Story, who they termed “a bluegrass icon from Lenoir, N.C.” He was called “the father of bluegrass gospel.” Story joined the station (WCKI) in May 1964.

Lindsey added, “Carl always had a record ready on that next turntable... If he felt somebody was picking on me, his big line was: ‘Leave that boy alone!’ 

During World War II in 1942 and ‘43, Story played fiddle in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys band. He stayed in Monroe’s band until he was drafted into the U.S. Navy in October 1943, the two DJs explaind.

 “When Carl died on March 31, 1995, Bill Monroe came to Greer and was an honorary pallbearer at Carl’s funeral,” Hines noted, adding that, thanks to Story’s efforts, “Bill Monroe, known as ‘the father of bluegrass music,’ played two concerts in Greer,  

“Carl brought in (to Greer) Lester Flatt and the Nashville Brass, with Marty Stuart, not long before Lester’s death.”

The two DJs agreed that Story was “one of the biggest promoters of bluegrass music in Greer during his time.”

Also, the DJs noted that Story was at WNOX-AM, a Knoxville, Tenn., radio station, and, reportedly, was one of the last ones to see country music pioneer Hank Williams alive during a concert tour that included a stop in Knoxville. At that time, Williams was said to suffer from a brutal and constant pain.

Reportedly, the DJs said, a doctor was called in to give Williams a morphine shot before he left Knoxville and, Hines said, “they found him dead later (on Jan. 1, 1953) in (Oak Hill) West Virginia.” (Williams, who had a driver, died in the back seat of his 1952 Cadillac convertible at age 29, before reaching his concert in Canton, Ohio.)

In returning to the topic of Carl Story, the DJs discussed how he recorded a classic version of the bluegrass-gospel standard “You Don’t Love God (If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor),” with his band the Rambling Mountaineers in the early 1970s. (Since then, the song has been famously covered by Rhonda Vincent & the Rage.)

Lindsey praised Story for — despite his wealth —  living “in a simple home and he drove a van. He didn’t show off.”

Also, Lindsey took a playful jab at Hines, noting that “a lot of people didn’t know that Drew would play Santa Claus on the radio. And I was the elf. We didn’t over-promise.” 

With a smile, Hines added, “The Greer Christmas Parade was huge and always was on Wednesday afternoons. I think that started during World War II. And we broadcast it on WEAB...

“I broadcasted the entire Greer Christmas Parade on the phone — from where the big Baptist Church is now — on the radio station.”

Lindsey noted, “In 1985, I was in the back of the WCKI truck, in the Christmas Parade, waving to the people.”

The two DJs then mentioned a number of people from past Greer radio lore, including Ronnie Pack, who hosted a morning show called “Sunshine Time.”

Lindsey noted that when “I was 15 years old filling in (as an one-air host) at the station…. he (Ronnie Pack) had flipped the switch off just to mess me up... He always had a big cigar in his mouth.”

Hines said, “Ronnie had a great radio voice.”

Lindsey triggered laughter from the audience when he recalled that “Ronnie would answer the radio station phone (by saying): ‘Insane asylum! Can I help you?’”

Further, Lindsey asserted, that, at the radio station (WCKI), for a time, he served as substitute host “for the guy who did the Sunday morning show early in my career, while the host slept.”

In a light-hearted swipe at Lindsey, Hines then quipped and prompted some chuckles from the audience when he said “that someone at the FCC will be looking into that....”

As their discussion continued, Lindsey at least partially lamented that “Greer is so different now. ..It’s great now. And Trade Street — everyone needs to come here and see and experience it. But back then, Greer was a small town” and was brimming with small-town charm.

Hines then quickly changed the subject to the WEAB radio show, “A Moment of Remembrance,” because, he said, “that was the lifeline... Back in those days, the secretaries at the funeral homes would type out the obituaries, which they would personally deliver to the radio station.

“The organ music was depressing-sounding,” Hines recalled, “but I tell you... a lot the grannies would turn off their soap operas to listen to ‘A Moment of Remembrance’” to keep up with who had died.

“As announcers, we had to read everything — the list of pallbearers. Some of the names were unpronounceable...”

Speaking of unpronouncable words, Hines recalled that, “one time, someone had cabbage plants for sale, and one of the (radio) announcers couldn’t read it and mispronounced it as “garbage” plants.

Striving to top Hines’ tales, Lindsey prompted laughter from the crowd when he noted that, “just one time, I inadvertantly burped on the air” during his radio career.

Among his radio memories, Hines said, “Someone had a horse sale on Friday nights and he was a long-time sponsor of WEAB. Every Thursay, I’d go to Tooter Town (Station) and record Wayne’s commercials. He commercials soon became five-minute commercials. (“Wayne” was Kenneth Wayne “Tooter” Durham, who lived from 1937 to 2009 and who was the beloved owner and operator of the business.)

Hines noted that “Tutor Town is a Greer classic. About 1974-75, he (Durham) had a single-wide as the store. There was an explosion that blew Wayne out into the street. I don’t know how he survived... He was rough-sounding, but a teddy-bear underneath.”

Hines also said that Leland Birch had a microphone connected to the Greer radio station — and would broadcast “local Greer news” directly from The Greer Citizen. offiee in a show called ‘Greer Today.’”

In concluding the program, Hines recalled that, for lunch in his early radio days, he would buy a pack of pimento cheese and Fritos — and listen to Paul Harvey’s daily radio show.