Just some thoughts:
The oldest continuous radio show in the country is the country music show, The Grand Ole Opry.
Some of you may be familiar with the show; it has been on the radio out of Nashville since 1925. The show is made up of a collection of performers unlike what you would see if you went to a concert today. It is divided into five or six thirty minute segments with three or four performers generally doing one or two numbers. Each segment has a host and that host will do two or three numbers, and will always close that thirty minute portion of the show.
Over the years a friend of mine has made some guest appearances on the Opry. He has been a very successful performer and is in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. He shared a story that impressed him and, in turn, impressed me also. On this particular evening, the current evening host, or star of the segment was scheduled to do at least two songs and close the show. My friend told me he observed the star doing something that almost is never done. “I saw ___ go to the stage program manager and say something to him, and I heard the program manager say, “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?” The featured performer for that segment had said to the stage manager, “Give him my second number, and give him my time.”
My friend said, “In this business you just don’t see someone giving up their time to another performer, and certainly not letting someone else close the show.” That stage and airtime, however short it may be, is money and exposure to a performer.
The person appearing in the star’s segment of the show was an old veteran in the business, one whom some would say that his time has passed. The current-day star remembered when this man was on top, and he had since fallen on hard times. He was thinking of someone else other than himself.
So seldom today will we see another giving up “what’s theirs” to another.
“Give him my time and my second number, and we will also let him close the show.”
May 10, 2011
Keep on,
Larry Adamson
P.S. Oh, the one giving up his “star time” –giving up his second number and his spot to close the show……that was Vince Gill.
===============================================Posted September 14, 2018
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