WDIA is named a stop on the U.S. Civil Rights trail

[gr8oldies]

https://wreg.com/news/beale-street-wdia-radio-added-to-civil-rights-trail/


This along with Beale Street.
Excerpt
"WDIA was the first radio station in the country programmed entirely for the black community, officials said. The station launched in 1947, from studios on Union Avenue in downtown Memphis. The station’s broadcasts were heard from Missouri to the Gulf Coast."

 

[TheBigA]

Interesting topic. Part of this relates to the growth of Rhythm & Blues music. Because there were radio stations that played jazz music before 1947, and it was mostly black music, but it wasn't strictly aimed at black people. R&B was, and because R&B was so integral to the birth of rock & roll, it kept early R&R artists off mainstream radio.

There was an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame many years ago called "Night Train To Nashville" that examined the roots of R&B radio in Nashville. Certainly WDIA in Memphis was part of that exhibit, as was WLAC and WVOL in Nashville. This was all happening around the same time in about the same area of the country, and it all influenced a young kid from Mississippi named Elvis. He became the vehicle that brought this music to the rest of the country.