Broadcast: A Man and His Dream

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From 88.5 WFDD Public Radio for the Piedmont:

http://wfdd.org/post/nc-brass-band-woods-early-broadcasting-and-steve-haines-triad-arts-weekend

Mount Airy Museum of Regional History: Broadcast: A Man and His Dream

Jordan Nance is a longtime radio and technology enthusiast and he’s also a filmmaker living with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy since a premature birth. He’s never allowed his physical or speech limitations to hinder him however, exhibit A: his new film documentary “Broadcast: A Man and His Dream”. It’s the story of Ralph Epperson, the son of tobacco farmers growing up in western NC in the 1920s and 30s with a passion for old time music, and the way to transmit it to a wider audience: radio. His dream is to leave the tobacco fields to have a radio station of his very own, and that dream became reality with WPAQ 740 AM, Mt. Airy, NC. “The Voice of the Blue Ridge” went on the air in 1948, and today, more than 150 radio stations around the country owe their existence to Ralph, and the hundreds of old time, and bluegrass musicians who filled and continue to fill the studios with sound.

On Saturday, September 13th at 2:00 PM at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, you can enjoy a screening of this fascinating documentary, music by some of the WPAQ old timers, a presentation by filmmaker Jordan Nance, and the unveiling of the original WPAQ station letters, carefully restored by neon sign maker Jantec, in the museum’s ongoing exhibition. Museum Executive Director Matt Edwards joined David Ford to talk about it.