RALPH EPPERSON

April 5, 1921 – May 31, 2006

Ralph Deward Epperson was born on April 5, 1921, in "The Hollows," a community more commonly known as Ararat, Virginia. Although Ralph did not play a musical instrument, he played a tremendous role in preserving Surry County’s old-time, bluegrass and gospel music. Growing up he recorded his family and neighbors on lacquer discs. Ralph’s mother, Lula Watson Epperson, wanted him to become a preacher, but as he leaned to­ward radio broadcasting he thought about spreading the gospel to many elderly and shut-in people in the north­west North Carolina and southwest Virginia area.

After college at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and working at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., he came home to Ararat with plans to build a radio station to reflect the values and music of the area. With the help of his father, Harry A. Epperson, he built the first radio station in Surry County, WPAQ. When asked why he played the mountain music of the area, Ralph explained, "When there are 25 stations doing the same thing up and down the dial, why should I be number 26?" On February 2, 1948, WPAQ hit the airwaves and came into listeners’ homes and hearts.

Over the years, musicians such as Charlie and Bill Monroe, Roy Acuff, Grandpa Jones, Mac Wiseman, Jim Eanes, Mother Maybelle Carter and June Carter, and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs performed on WPAQ. Even though more commercial recordings were becom­ing available for broadcasting, Ralph used his recording equipment to record local groups’ programs and segments for later airplay on WPAQ. Over the years Ralph built an extensive music library by recording performances at the station, including Blue Ridge Spotlight performances and Merry-Go-Round performances, local fiddlers’ conventions, the Autumn Leaves Festival, and local bluegrass festivals and camp meetings. Today, many of Ralph’s recordings are housed at the UNC’s Southern Folklife Collection in Chapel Hill.

Over the course of his broadcasting career, Ralph was presented with many awards. Two of the honors Ralph earned in 1991, were the Brown-Hudson Folklore Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society and the International Bluegrass Music Association Merit Award. In 1998, he received A Rose While You Live Award from the National Council from the Tra­ditional Arts. Then, in 2006, he was inducted into the North Carolina Association of Broad­casters Hall of Fame, and in 2008, he was inducted into the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame.

Ralph was a marvelous storyteller and his programs on WPAQ were always uplifting and educational. Not only did Ralph play Surry County’s local music on WPAQ, but he also told the story behind the music and preserved it as well. In 1999, Paul Brown produced a CD from Ralph’s personal recording collection on the Rounder Records label. WPAQ: The Voice of the Blue Ridge Mountains provides an excellent sampling of every genre of music native to the area, from black gospel quartets to old-time to early country and bluegrass music. After Ralph’s death on May 31, 2006, Ralph’s son, Kelly, and his wife, Jennifer, as well as the WPAQ staff are carrying on Ralph’s work playing the local old-time, bluegrass, and gospel music of Surry County and the surrounding area.

CLYDE JOHNSON

January 18, 1931 – July 27, 2007
Photo Credit: Hobart Jones

Joseph Clyde Johnson was born on January 18, 1931, and began play­ing the guitar and singing when he was about twelve years old. When he was just learning to play Clyde ordered an Earnest Tubb songbook for twenty-five cents and learned the chords to "She’ll Be Coming ’Round the Mountain." He and Harvey Hiatt, a banjo player, often played for dances at empty pack houses and tobacco barns. Clyde’s singing style was greatly influenced by country music singers such as George Jones and Hank Wil­liams. Through his years of playing guitar Clyde had the opportunity to play with nationally known musicians. For a time Clyde worked with Don Reno and the Tennessee Cut-Ups, filling in for Red Smiley who was in the hospital with pneumonia. He also performed some with Charlie and Ira Louvin and Mac Wiseman, but Clyde really got his start with Uncle Joe Johnson on the Merry-Go-Round.

The Merry-Go-Round began as a live program on WPAQ in 1948 and is currently the second-longest running live radio show featuring old-time, bluegrass and gospel music in the nation. According to documents at WPAQ, "In the original application to the Federal Communications Com­mission a promise was made to set aside time each week devoted to the promotion of local talent. The Merry-Go-Round continues to fulfill that promise to this day." After Uncle Joe Johnson, the original host of the Merry-Go-Round, left in 1963, then-WPAQ station manager Dale Gal­limore believed Clyde could do the job, but Clyde was not so sure and reluctantly took over as the host. It was not too long until Clyde became known as the "amiable host" of the weekly program, sched­uling bands to perform, doing live advertisements for sponsors, and even filling in to perform if a group did not show up to play. Clyde had a gift of talking on the air and putting people new to performing on the radio at ease. In addition to hosting the Merry-Go-Round, Clyde also emceed the Autumn Leaves Festival and the Mount Airy Fiddlers’ Convention. The Saturday before Clyde passed away the Easter Broth­ers were featured on the Merry-Go-Round and he performed a few songs with them. He was very pleased they could be on the program due to their busy schedule.

Clyde helped make the Merry-Go-Round an enjoyable experience for all involved and ended the program each week with this piece of advice: "Good-bye, good luck, and God bless you, and don’t worry too awful much about nothing because everything won’t be alright no­how." Clyde Johnson passed away on July 27, 2007.