In 1980, Bart McLendon created a 50 hour fantasy country concert - Kenny Rogers' First Annual Hickory Creek Reunion. In almost all of the promos for the broadcast it was billed as "The Greatest Country Concert That Could Never Happen." It was only on the radio and nowhere else. Hickory Creek didn't exist, and the dozens and dozens of past and current country artists who performed "live" weren't really in a Woodstock type setting from 6 PM Friday until midnight Sunday but it sure sounded like they were.
The program sounded like it was actually happening - the announcers talked about folks having parking problems, artists arriving late, restroom breakdowns and more. There were outdoor sound effects to add to the illusion - and all of the country songs featured had crowd noise mixed in like a live concert.
They were all there: Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Charlie Pride, Marty Robbins, Hank Williams Junior, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Alabama, Ronnie Milsap, The Oak Ridge Boys, Don Williams, TG Sheppard, Roy Clark, Buck Owens, Ed Bruce, Johnny Cash ....woohoo, I know I'm not listing every artist.... but they literally had every country artist past and present performing live on the stages of The Hickory Creek Reunion. And there were multiple stages.
It was an awesome program. KWWR promoted the broadcast heavily leading up to to it. We had people calling for tickets and location information - but it was the greatest country concert that could never happen.
The program came on 10" reels of tape - so for 50 hours of programming - that was 50 reels of tape. The tape deck in the main studio had never had that kind of continuous workout before. We had to prop it up and put a fan behind it to keep the take-up and supply motors working.
The playback heads on the tape deck had to be cleaned with cotton swabs and alcohol every so often, or the broadcast would start sounding muffled.
Amazingly the broadcast went on the air great - no major problems, aside from the fantasy parking problems created by those hosting the greatest country concert that could never happen.
We even had calls from the Missouri State Highway Patrol asking about the location of The Hickory Creek Reunion. Once we explained what was actually happening they were relieved.
I don't recall KWWR getting many complaints about the broadcast being a fantasy - but we did hear from lots of listeners who wanted to be there and "see" The Hickory Creek Reunion.
Looking back, it was one of those once in a lifetime type of things - but none of us realized it at the time.
Theater of the Mind, Extraordinaire!
So it goes.
I was in high school in Florida in 1980. WOWW-107 played it all weekend. I wanted so badly to go in person, but I listened all the way. I remember someone having a baby! I was so disappointed when it was wrapping up and they said it was all fake, but it is a special memory. I had a flyer for it that, as I write this, is still tacked to my old bedroom door at my mom's house. My mom and I were talking about it tonight (April 1, 2022 - although the conversation was nothing to do with April Fool's, though it would have been appropriate) and that's what prompted me to search for it on Google.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone buy the full concert tapeing. Was it taped on DVDs?
ReplyDeleteI taped all of the full 50 hours on a track but over the years I have lost some of the tapes due to them breaking on my 8-track player. I still have a few left. Listening to one right now.
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