Bart Walker speaks on the history of Local Radio

Monday, May 20, 2019, Rutherford County Archive Building

The Rutherford County Historical Society held its monthly meeting at 7:00 o’clock Monday (5/20/2019) night and WGNS’ Bart Walker shared the history of Murfreesboro’s first radio station.

Walker noted, “WGNS rang-in the New Year of 1947, a time when there were no TV stations in Middle Tennessee and just a few radio stations in Nashville.”

He noted that Murfreesboro’s population was between 9,000 and 10,000 persons; the first electric clothes dryer went on the market that year; the average cost of a new house was $5,600; a gallon of gas was 15-cents; the average annual income was $2,500; the cost of a new car was $2,500; Murfreesboro’s first planing commission was formed with Jennings A. Jones as chairman; Jim McCord was Tennessee’s governor, and President Harry Truman proclaimed the end of World War II.