GALLATIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — Before Dolly Parton's voice reached far, a powerful signal out of Nashville carried music across the country.
Ryan Baker, the executive director of the Sumner County Museum, said that signal belonged to WLAC, known today by its TV counterpart, NewsChannel 5.
"Randy Woods started Randy's Record Shop in 1946 and thanks to an ad that he was running on WLAC on a clear night it would broadcast nearly all over the United States touching at least 30 states," Baker said.
Record orders for Randy's started pouring into the shop in Gallatin, Tennessee.
"By the early 1950s they were selling up to like 500,000 records a year," Baker said.
Dolly Parton's first album came later, but Randy's business had already been mailing records all over the country.
"I believe Dolly's first album came out in 1967, and so Randy's Record Shop was still in existence until 1991," Baker said.
Baker said the records on display at the Sumner County Museum are from the 1960s and would have been available at Randy's.
"These would have definitely been something that you could find here at Randy's," Baker said.
If you couldn't find one of Parton's records at a local store, shops like Randy's helped get each album out the old-fashioned way.
"So there was a catalog you could, you could get from Randy's and you would just literally mail in," Baker said.
Randy's impact on the region extended beyond music sales.
"Randy's Record Shop actually, it really put Gallatin on the map and Sumner County," Baker said.
Stores like Randy's Record Shop helped Parton make her mark on music history.
Do you have a memory of Randy's Record Shop, or did you ever mail-order a record the old-fashioned way? We'd love to hear your story — and watch our full report to see the records that once shipped across the country from a small shop in Gallatin. Share your memories with reporter Kim Rafferty at kim.rafferty@NewsChannel5.com
In this article, we used artificial intelligence to help us convert a video news report originally written by Kim Rafferty. When using this tool, both Kim and the NewsChannel 5 editorial team verified all the facts in the article to make sure it is fair and accurate before we published it. We care about your trust in us and where you get your news, and using this tool allows us to convert our news coverage into different formats so we can quickly reach you where you like to consume information. It also lets our journalists spend more time looking into your story ideas, listening to you and digging into the stories that matter.
Kelsey Gibbs brings us a powerful story of humanity, compassion, and love in action while showing us the hard and lifesaving work our officers do daily. Nashville is lucky to have people like Lt. Hotz wearing the badge.
- Carrie Sharp
