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Liberty Broadcasting System History Question

wncmacs

wncmacs

I am researching history for a documentary I am making for a town in western North Carolina (Spruce Pine). In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a program known as The Carolina Barn Dance was originated from the Carolina Theatre in Spruce Pine, NC and broadcast over the Liberty Broadcasting network. I have discovered that Gordon McLendon was the founder of LBS and that it was headquartered in Dallas. I know McLendon was a maverick in the broadcasting industry and had a reputation of being a mover and shaker. I also know that the network made a name for itself with its Major League Baseball broadcasts, and that at one time, over 500 stations were on the network.

I'm seeking information on Liberty and I would love to know if archives of its shows might exist. Anyone who could provide any information will be cited as a source in the documentary and will earn my grateful appreciation!

wncmacs
 
Don't know if this will help, but McLendon left his "papers" to Texas Tech. It might be possible to do some research that direction.

Also, you might check out Ronald Garay's biography of McLendon. It's pretty expensive on Amazon, but I've seen it for much, much cheaper on eBay and half.com.
 
Ken Dowe at KKDA can shed light on this as well. He described the network as 'questionable' on a radio interview once, followed by laughter of his fellow KLIF colleagues. Steve Eberhart might be able to shine some light on this too.
 
LBS at one time had more affiliates than any other radio network in the 1950's.
It offered many different kinds of programming but its staple was Sports.
LBS also was the home of the infamous baseball "recreations" done live in the LBS studio's in the basement of the Cliff Towers Hotel (still standing in Oak Cliff).
It was quite a dynamic network for a few years but costs overran it and it finally fell to bankruptcy.
Yes, even the mighty McLendon's had a few failures along the way, but in the end had quite a bit more success to offset that!

I can tell you that if you have any real questions about LBS, the McLendon's, or any of the stations they owned, the archives at Texas Tech Library are EXTENSIVE. It will take DAYS if not WEEKS to accurately research a project. I've done it and was AMAZED at the extent of detail the archives contain.
 
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