Birth of the Grand Ole Opry

What do an insurance company and country music have in common? The Grand Ole Opry.

But the Grand Ole Opry didn’t begin as the cultural powerhouse we know today. Its origin story is uniquely Nashville.

In 1925, just five years after commercial radio began, the National Life and Accident Insurance Company launched radio station WSM to serve the local community and promote its brand. Broadcasting from the top floor of National Life’s headquarters at 7th and Union, WSM initially identified its signal by wavelength—282.8 meters. The station later transitioned to frequency identifiers and settled at 650 kHz.

WSM’s first program director was Bonnie Barnhardt, though the company soon brought in George D. Hay, a popular announcer known for his barn dance-style show on Chicago’s WLS. On November 28, 1925, Hay introduced a Saturday night program featuring old-time music and comedy, with fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson as the first performer. Though informally described as a “barn dance,” it didn’t receive an official name until 1927, when Hay christened it the Grand Ole Opry.

As the Opry’s popularity soared, fans began crowding WSM’s studios. National Life responded by building a 500-seat auditorium inside its headquarters—and rotating three audiences of 500 each Saturday night. Eventually, executives, uneasy about the show’s rural image and the disruption caused by crowds, banned live audiences entirely. The Opry was forced to find a new venue and relocated to the Hillsboro Theatre—now the Belcourt Theatre.

While the Opry became its most famous program, it was initially an outlier. WSM’s regular lineup included news, lectures, and classical music, reflecting the tastes of Nashville’s upper class—much like the company’s founders, who were wary of being associated with “hillbilly” entertainment.

By 1965, National Life had outgrown its headquarters and hired the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design a modern skyscraper. Architect Bruce J. Graham led the project, creating what became the tallest building in Nashville until 1986. The state purchased it in 1994, naming it the Tennessee Tower. In 1999, it was renamed the William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower.

Fun fact: WDAD, Nashville’s first station to broadcast country and blues, began in 1925 above Dad’s Radio Supply Store a few blocks south of here near Rosa Parks Blvd. and Commerce St. WLAC later absorbed it and broadcast from the L&C Tower.

For more on the Snodgrass or L&C Towers, take our Hidden History and Haunts or Capitol and Church Architecture walking tours.

For the next stop, turn and look across the street at War Memorial Auditorium. Access to the building from War Memorial Plaza is currently limited due to construction. You can walk around to Union Street for a better view, or click through the photos on the next stop.