WOODSONGS’ HISTORIC 1,000TH BROADCAST TO AIR ON 650 AM WSM
WOODSONGS’ HISTORIC 1,000TH BROADCAST TO AIR ON 650 AM WSM
The syndicated roots music program the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour will air its historic 1,000th episode nationwide this week, heard in Nashville and beyond on the legendary 650 AM WSM on Sunday, February 23rd at 7:00 PM. The special event broadcast features folksinger Michael Johnathon, host and creator of WoodSongs, with the Grammy-winning quartet Riders in the Sky and 10-year old Phoebe White.
“WoodSongs started in a tiny little recording studio in 1999, we had one college radio station willing to air it and we used to give them the show on a cassette tape. They had to turn the cassette over halfway through to get to the second half hour,” says Johnathon. “Being broadcast on the home of the Grand Ole Opry, has been one of the biggest privileges that we’ve had.”
In addition to WSM AM, Woodsongs airs on over 500 radio stations, public TV coast-to coast, American Forces Network on 177 nations and the RFD-TV Network nationwide with a radio and TV audience of over two million fans each week.
Scores of artists famous and unknown have graced its stage since it’s inception in 1999. Among the notables: Judy Collins, Andrew Bird, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Emmylou Harris, Tommy Emmanuel, The Mavericks, Bruce Hornsby, Jewel, John Oats, Rhonda Vincent, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and literally hundreds of others.
“The really amazing part is that WoodSongs has produced and delivered for syndication 1000 live audience broadcasts, and it’s completely volunteer run,” says Johnathon. “No paid staff and that includes the TV crew and the audio engineers. I believe love is the greatest transaction of the arts, and I wanted WoodSongs to prove it.”
Fans can tune in to WSM on their radios or listen on their website, www.wsmonline.com. Information on the show can be found at www.woodsongs.com.
Michael Johnathon with Riders in the Sky
About Michael Johnathon
Michael Johnathon is a touring songwriter, author of five published books, playwright of the Walden Play performed in 42 countries, composer of the opera, Woody: for the People, organizer of the national association of front porch musicians called SongFarmers, the full symphony performances public television special of Songs of Rural America and as the creator and host of the live audience broadcast of WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour.
WoodSongs airs on 500 radio stations including the legendary WSM AM the home of the Grand Ole Opry, public TV coast-to-coast, American Forces Network on 177 nations and the RFD-TV Network nationwide with a radio and TV audience of over two million fans each week.
He grew up in upstate New York along the shores of the Hudson River. At 19 years old, he moved to the Mexican border town of Laredo, Texas and found a job working as the late night DJ on a small radio station. One night, he played ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ by Roger McGuinn and The Byrds. As the song played, he recalled seeing the songs writer, his neighbor Pete Seeger, performing in his Dutchess County hometown in New York. By the time the song had ended, he decided to pursue a career as a folksinger.
Two months later, he bought a guitar and a banjo and settled into the isolated mountain hamlet of Mousie, Kentucky. For the next three years, he traveled up and down the hollers of the Appalachian mountains knocking on doors and learning the music of the mountain people. Soon enough, he began performing concerts at hundreds of colleges, schools and fairs. He performed two thousand Earth Concerts, plus benefits for the homeless, farm families, and shelters helping battered women and children. In all, he sang to over two million people in one four-year stretch.
Now settled in the foothills of Appalachia, the Kentucky-based songwriter is a log cabin-dwelling tree-hugger at heart. Billboard Magazine headlined him as an “UnSung Hero” and he has been featured on CNN, TNN, CMT, AP, Headline News, NPR, Bravo and the BBC.
His latest 176-page book WoodSongs 4 was released in 2019 and his latest album, Legacy, in March 2020.