Old Farm Hour (WCHS)

WCHS-AM Radio went on the air Sept. 15, 1927 at 580 KHZ. The station was the third station in West Virginia (WV) to go on the air. Its first call letters were WOBU, with the first location being in the Ruffner Hotel on Kanawha Boulevard. It was founded by Walter Fredericks who had an electric shop, but couldn't sell radios with no local stations. So he built one, later calling it WCHS. The station moved into Middleburg Auditorium, which was used for various events.

The Old Farm Hour apparently was the creation of Buddy Starcher, who was destined to have the largest impact on theCharlestoncountry radio scene. While Buddy was working inCharleston, he found himself being asked to work on personal appearances with an act called Salt and Peanuts who were working out of WOBU.

Buddy got the idea that he could begin booking himself. Starcher began auditioning amateur talent on Wednesdays with announcer Gene Ferguson. Those that did well in this audition would appear on a broadcast on Friday nights. As time went on, the show had regular performers and was held before a live audience. That show became the Old Farm Hour.

The Old Farm Hour was the live Friday night jamboree program from WCHS radio. Shows were held in the Middleburg Auditorium and during its period of peak popularity (late1930s and early 1940s), the Old Farm Hour regularly drew crowds of 2,000 people. As Buddy Starcher's career moved on, Frank Welling would also audition talent that would appear on the Old Farm Hour show.

Frank Welling (1898–1957), a musician, homespun philosopher, emcee and radio announcer, played a key part in the program’s success, usually in his comic role of ‘‘Uncle Si.’’ Welling pretty much directed the hillbilly music aspects ofCharleston radio during the early years with the station.

Pictured left Red Sovine

A 1940 promotional booklet for the West Virginia Network identified him as “in charge of our old-time talent and the Old farm Hour in addition to his staff announcing duties,” which generally ran from 06:00 to 08:00 each morning. The WCHS management team reserved those hours almost exclusively for country music.

Charleston-area musicians who appeared on the program included the legendary fiddler Clark Kessinger, singer-yodeler Billy Cox and vocalist Buddy Starcher. During the program’s zenith in the late 1930s and early 1940s, cast members included the Bailes Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, Cliff and Bill Carlisle and the duo of Slim Clere and T. Texas Tyler.

Pictured right Lee and Juanita Moore

Tyler would introduce his famous “growl” technique by singing a special version of El Rancho Grande to a cheering audience. Local favorites affiliated with the Old Farm Hour at one time or another included Tommy Cantrell, tap dancer Orville Q. Miller and the sacred vocal trio of Cap, Andy and Flip, Andy and Flip (Warren Caplinger, Andy Patterson, and William Strickland - 1939). The noted trio had their only recording sessions shortly afterward, waxing about a dozen sides which they subsequently released on their own Fireside Melodies label.

With the coming of World War II and gas rationing, the Old Farm Hour like the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree, curtailed its live audience broadcasts, although not so drastically. Once a month the public performance broadcasts continued from the WCHS Auditorium. To a greater degree than elsewhere, however, the war seemed to take something out of country music inCharleston.

The program never regained its former popularity after the war and the Old Farm Hour had passed into history by the late 1940s. Cap, Andy and Flip remained evidently as popular as ever and Frank Welling went on with his Uncle Si role. A few casts continued, but otherwise the Kanawha Valleyentered a slow decline into a lackluster period of its musical history that would not undergo a real revival until 1960.

Pictured left Kitty Wells

Country music enjoyed something of a renaissance inCharlestonon early morning WCHS-TV (1960–73) as first Buddy Starcher and then Sleepy Jeffers had popular programs featuring Wick Craig, the Davis Twins, Herman Yarbrough and Lori Lee Bowles in addition to themselves. The Old Farm Hour saw many artists on its roster that would one day become well-known to country music fans. The following are some of the artists who were guests or regularly featured on the Old Farm Hour.

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