Country Music Capital of the North (ft David Norris)

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Good morning. This is Arthur Bush, and this is Radio Free Flint. Today we're gonna have a guest, David Norris. He worked for many years in country music and also in public broadcasting. Uh this is uh David Norris. Good morning, Arthur. How are you? I'm doing great. Your experiences with country music led you also to become friends with various country artists throughout our region. Uh I I recall that Ruthie Van Gilder uh and others, Forest Green, uh names that some in the Flint area would know because they uh you know established local reputations and were recording artists. Give us some others that you might have bumped into and and uh tell us a few stories.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Well, they're just I'm that would almost be impossible, Arthur, because WKMF became what we billboarded, which was the country music capital of the North. And because of that, anyone who was anyone in country music came to Flint and would play the IMA auditorium or whiting auditorium, depending on the time. And so because of that, we hosted those programs, and this young announcer was there and backstage with the greats of country music. You could just almost open the book, and it probably would be easier for me to say who I haven't met than who I did meet. Well, one person said that in front of the couple of years.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

One person you met was uh Maybell Carter and uh and Johnny Cash. Let me let me interject for just a moment because I love this piece of trivia. Uh and I'm gonna forget it if you go on. And that is, I often ask uh some of my friends when I can't find a talking point, uh, you like Johnny Cash? Yeah, I like Johnny Cash, man in black. I said, Well, where did Johnny Cash last perform in his entire lengthy career of how many every years it was, 50 years or whatever. And uh they say, Oh, I don't know, Nashville, Grand Old Opera. I say, Nope. The last place Johnny Cash performed was at Whiting Auditorium. He became ill. Several days after that, he was taken, you know, he was taken to the hospital, he collapsed on stage, as I understand it. He was taken for medical treatment, and eventually within a short period of time after that, he passed away. In some ways, you know, Flint has seen the coming and the going of eras, and Johnny Cash to me represents the era that we're talking about in its entirety.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yes. And Johnny Cash and the the Johnny Cash show, as it expanded, uh became the Statler Brothers and became of of course the Carter family, uh, was always with John. Luther Perkins, his uh guitarist, uh, who later tragically died in a fire. They loved Flint. They loved the Flint audiences. And it was kind of unique. They liked playing Detroit, but Flint was such a mixture of the South they knew and their fans, and they would do the show, and then they for hours would sign autographs. Wow. Maybell Carter, especially.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Well, tell us about how you how you became involved with uh Maybelle Carter and her clan.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

So I was one of the uh announcers the very first time I was with uh Johnny Cash Show as a show. I was an announcer for WKMF, and we were at IMA Auditorium, and they were performing. When I came in, I didn't really know who Maybelle Carter was. I knew her as the as a name, but I had no idea her importance or history in country music because she was just this gentle, loving woman who I later came to absolutely adore and had this lovely friendship with. But so we chatted a bit.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

So just so the listeners know before we continue the story, Maybelle Carter was actually Johnny Cash's mother-in-law.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Correct. She was part of the original Carter family of A.P. Carter A.P. Carter, Sarah, and Belle that began recording in 1927, and she spanned all the way through country music. She is June's mother, and June married John. But way before that connection, John just loved her as a person and always loved the Carter family. So this was way before John and June married. They were at the IMA Auditorium. And this was the time when Johnny was quite addicted, really not well within his drug and drinking problem. And so he was performing that night, and he was really, really impaired. As the show went on, the Carter family would come on stage and then go off stage to different segments. And so I was watching him, and he's really kind of weaving and pulled a chair out and had to lean up against it. And to me, this young announcer looking at the ideal Johnny Cash, and all that's pitiful. And I was standing back with Maybell before she was going back out again, and I think I had said something that, you know, I just can't believe that he's acting like that when all these people have come here to see him, and he's in that state. And so Maybell, who I never knew to say anything bad about anyone ever, said, Well, I see something in John nobody else sees. And then that ended. She went out on stage, he was doing a gospel finale, and they were singing. I remember the song, Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? And this religious fanatic, who was also kind of riled up about John's actions, jumped up on stage and took a swing at John. And he John, higher than a kite, even then, feigned back, the guy's fist passed in front of John's face, and John hit him and knocked him first row out into the audience. And the microphones all fell, and you know, it was all disrupted, and John was going, uh, you know, I want to press charges, I want to press charges. So they got that all taken care of. And then they regrouped and finished the song, which was the ending song of the night, there when they crucified my lord. All during this, I'm standing backstage. I mean, it all happened before I could even run out on stage. And Maybelle Carter standing there as if she had a rod of iron up her spine, still holding a C cord, glaring out at this person. And so now the song ends, and she walks off stage with Carter Sister with her daughters, and walks over and walks directly to me and under my arm, and put her head on my shoulder. Well, she was not that tall, it was under me, under my shoulder. And she said, That lacta scared the fire out of me. Hell under you all right. And that began the love affair. When I looked down into those blue eyes, and that that person from that day on, I love Maybelle Carter. And because of that, I became part of the family.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Well, and you continued a relationship with that family for many years, didn't you? Yes. Yeah. All the way through. Tell us what you did when you grew up. I never grew up.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

I'm still I'm still here. I started out in broadcasting at WKMF Radio. WKMF used to be a middle-of-the-road music station. And a person by the name of Doug Smith became program director, and he had the idea to change to country music because we had so many people from the South would move north and made their home in Flint, and he thought that that would serve part of the community. Well, part of the community. When they switched over to country music, it just became the most popular radio station in the Flint area.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Tell us a little bit about your experiences at WKMF.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Well, I was hired, I was still in high school at the time doing my work with WFBE. I was taken under the wing of Jim Harper, who was a broadcaster. Uh he was one of the um announcers for WKMF radio, and I would go uh down to the Citizens Bank building. The WKMF offices were in the Citizens Bank Building on the fifth floor, and at night I would go down and just sit with Jim Harper, learning that aspect of radio because I kind of started out in performance radio. I wasn't an announcer per se. I'd tear off the UPI newswire for him and prepare the news. And I was just there, and the first opportunity that he got for a weekend shift part-time, they needed an announcer for an evening shift. He got me hired. And then I had my very first radio program Saturdays and Sundays on WKMF. Uh later.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Well, Sunday was Sunday was an important day in uh radio in the uh way back in the day because uh a lot of that ended up being religious broadcasting at some point or another.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yes. And so they had the various religious programs that were on, and then were you Father David or uh the Good Right Reverend David Norris? No, no, I was just David Norris played gospel on Sunday night and uh would have all the the uh selection of country gospel songs.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yep, that helped to satisfy all those areas in and around the Flint area where we have uh little Missouri and and all that sort of stuff where we have we had large numbers of Southern migrant auto workers here who came from all over the south, and so you began to feel that uh need in the community to reconnect uh those southern migrants that were very much uh in love with their not just their their gospel music but country music as well, correct?

SPEAKER_01 10:49

We held the highest ratings because of those people, just in numbers, and they were loyal listeners. Absolutely loyal. They turned that radio on when they got up in the morning before going to the factory and listen to it on the radio going in. And if they could, they'd listen to it while they were working, listen to it going home. They were absolutely loyal people, and some of my listeners became lifelong friends of mine. Well, there was a there was another dynamic that was going on, Arthur, is you'd have Graham and Grandpa listening. You didn't change grandma's radio when you were there, so if you were a younger person, you were still hearing Dave Norris on the radio.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

We have a minute left, David. Uh, is there any parting words you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

No, you know, you just brought back a lot of wonderful memories.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

But I appreciate the time uh that you spent with the great memories of country music in Flint, Michigan. This is Arthur Bush, Radio Free Flint. We'll hope to see you soon. Thank you very much. Goodbye.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

That is the native baby. Take in the page for my rumble. That's a man to make it through the night. It's a good game, Willow. It's great.