1978 Henry Fulcher WFLO AM FM Radio Farmville Virginia - 3-Page Vintage Article

Description

1978 Henry Fulcher WFLO AM FM Radio Farmville Virginia - 3-Page Vintage Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
Henry Fulcher “bumps gums” with
southside Virginians while “pouring
coffee down the inside of his neck” six
days a week between 5:00 and 6:30 a.m.
on WFLO-FM (plus four more hours on
WFLO-AM; he also hosts an excellent
three-hour all-bluegrass program of
recorded music each Sunday night) in
Farmville, Virginia. If the first tune he
plays doesn’t rouse the reluctant
early-bird, his zany chatter does. (Those
are Henry-isms in the above quotations).
Let’s say you’re trying to get both eyes
open at the same time, your radio is on
and Henry is doing a commercial. Well,
Henry doesn’t just “do” a commercial. On
this particular morning he is selling
electric lawn mowers with all the verbal
vigor of a turn-of-the-century pitchman.
Then he slows his pace and lowers his
voice to tell you, "Now, this is just for all
you people out there with electric grass.”
and returns to his original salesman’s
stacatto to finish the advertisement. A
little later there’s a rapid fire ad lib to
some beef prices, “That’s no bull...now I
wouldn’t give you a bum steer.” Then he
warns his lady listeners not to take
advantage of a sporting goods store’s sale
on bow (beau?) hunting equipment. You
can’t help waking up just to laugh, or at
least to chuckle. In any event, you’re
awake!
Henry’s ability to reach his great
listening audience is due largely to the
fact that he is personable, knowledgeable,
and energetic, and able to transmit these
qualities on any frequency.
His personable manner and his way
with words serve not only to amuse but
actually to invite a kind of audience
participation. This household can attest to
that! I’m not one to talk to inanimate
objects, and I’m generally considered to
have my wits about me. However, I was
“caught” in the pre-dawn hours talking to
the radio. “OK, Henry, that’s enough
about the weather.” and “Thank you,
Henry” after he has announced a ‘wake-up
tune’. His ‘wake-up tunes’ include some of
the liveliest bluegrass ever done, notably:
The Country Gentlemen’s "Orange Blos-
som Special” and Kenny Baker with Joe
Greene playing “High Country.”
Henry does not spin discs. He plays
records. And tells his listeners about
them. That is to say that folks around this
area don’t regard him as ‘just a DJ.’ He
tells interesting anecdotes about the
recording artists, gives reliable informa-
tion about the music, and even describes
the musical techniques employed on
various instruments. He spends a great
deal of time MC-ing country and bluegrass
get-togethers around the state, playing a
mean flattop at some of these gatherings,
or from time to time just being a part of
the audience. He has also written record
jacket notes that further reflect his
knowledge of bluegrass music.
It was because of Henry’s informative
radio programs that I turned to him to
further my education in this form of music
that had set my toes to tapping when I
was a child growing up in Nashville,
Tennessee. (In my later growing-up years
the hometown seemed to produce fewer
and fewer of those toe-tapping sounds).
Henry has long been a champion of this
distillate of our rural music called
bluegrass. On December 1, 1956 he
brought not only his effervescent
personality to WFLO’s air waves, he
brought his entire collection of recorded
country music. A friend of mine recalls
having told Henry back in the ’50s, “You’ll
never get ahead if you stick with that
hillbilly music.” But despite several well
meant recommendations of a similar
nature, Henry has persevered in
promoting the kind of music he knows and
loves the best. (For the last decade a
mainstay of this friend’s diet has been...
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