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Introduction | Rural Radio | The Barn Dance Genre | The Barn Dance in East Tennessee | LaFollette | WLAF | Tennessee Jamboree | Original Broadcast, Part 1: Music | Original Broadcast, Part 2: Advertising and Banter |
"Our time has come and gone" | Notes | Recommended Resources

The Tennessee Jamboree was created to entertain the residents of LaFollette and rural Campbell County in upper East Tennessee. Details of the area's history contribute to an understanding the character of the local community that helped shape, and, in turn, was aurally imagined on the Jamboree program. Located near the Powell River, LaFollette is surrounded to the north and west by the rugged Cumberland Mountains and to the south and east by fertile valley land and the Tennessee Valley Authority-developed Norris Lake. Unlike other towns in Campbell County, LaFollette's initial formation in the late 1800s was fully planned and developed through the efforts of outside business. Harvey M. LaFollette of Indiana, capitalizing on the abundant nearby coal and iron deposits, envisioned a massive industrial operation on the site. Starting with a land purchase of thirty thousand acres, he launched the LaFollette Coal, Iron and Railway Company in 1897. LaFollette's booming operation eventually included various coal mines, iron mines, coke ovens, railroads, and a blast furnace.

During the first decades of the twentieth century, coal mining, along with timber and textile operations, dominated LaFollette's economy. Tobacco and livestock provided additional sources of income in the surrounding Campbell County farmlands. The area's prospects, like so many in central Appalachia, were prone to ebb and flow with the whims of political and business interests residing far beyond its borders. With the boom and bust of the coal and iron industries in the 1920s, LaFollette's fortunes suffered. The iron furnace officially closed in 1926. As the dominance of "King Coal" continued to wane, tourism-related industries emerged. The New Deal era construction of the Norris Dam, along with the TVA developed Norris and Cove Lakes, helped make Campbell County and LaFollette significant recreation destinations. In addition, the "Dixie Highway," a major roadway running between the South and the Midwest, from Florida to Chicago, became increasingly popular and brought a stream of motorists through the area.

Arthur Rothstein, People swim at lake created by Norris Dam, TN, 1942.

Like other coal towns, LaFollette's industries attracted a diverse population of eastern European immigrants and, especially, of African Americans in the early twentieth century. In the late 1800s, a "colored" high school opened in LaFollette that served, at its peak, nearly one hundred African American students from the Campbell County area. Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, perhaps the most famous musician ever born in LaFollette, nurtured his abundant blues, jazz, and country fiddling skills within this rural African American community. Armstrong recorded several sides and played on major radio stations during the 1930s in Knoxville. As the coal boom declined, most non-white and European immigrant families moved out of rural Appalachia seeking better opportunities in the North and in major cities. The LaFollette Colored School closed in 1965 and today only a handful of African Americans still live in Campbell County. As with most all of the social and cultural institutions, local radio, when it came to LaFollette in 1953, remained segregated and operated principally to serve white residents. There is no existing evidence that members of Campbell County's black population were ever featured on WLAF or the Tennessee Jamboree program.

By the mid-1950s, as AM station WLAF began its early broadcasts, LaFollette had matured into a typical central Appalachian town. In 1957, the Tennessee State Library and Archives, in an attempt to assess a variety of pressing needs and problems, prepared "A Study of the Community of LaFollette, Tennessee." The study's language is straightforward and its assertions seemingly uncomplicated; but, taken as whole, it provides an ambivalent portrayal of life in mid-century LaFollette:

Mild climate, a natural setting, and moderate living costs make LaFollette an attractive community for living. It is a young and changing community. . . . LaFollette is a church-centered town; no plans involving community participation would be considered without consulting various church calendars. . . . [People surveyed] were of the opinion that LaFollette is a friendly place; they feel at home both in their neighborhoods and in the community as a whole. . . . The major problem in LaFollette is a lack of work opportunities for men. Too many have to go away from home to work. Half of the young men in LaFollette who complete high school must leave home in order to find work.29

Statistical information contributes to a more complicated and troubled picture. The median yearly income of LaFollette — $1,933 — amounted to only roughly half of the national average of $3,709. The "educational level" also fell below the U.S. standard, as well as Tennessee's.30

In the 1950s and 1960s LaFollette faced many social challenges. Economically, the area transformed from the unforgiving and exploitative industries of the past toward the unpredictable business opportunities of the future. The city bled young people in search of greater prospects elsewhere. Those who stayed and raised families, generation after generation, took comfort in the natural beauty, strong faith, and neighborly way of life. With the new AM station 1450 WLAF, residents of LaFollette finally had a station that worked hard to foster a sense of community. The barn dance format quickly found a home with the launch of the Tennessee Jamboree.

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Introduction | Rural Radio | The Barn Dance Genre | The Barn Dance in East Tennessee | LaFollette | WLAF | Tennessee Jamboree | Original Broadcast, Part 1: Music | Original Broadcast, Part 2: Advertising and Banter |
"Our time has come and gone" | Notes | Recommended Resources

Published: 20 November 2008

© 2008 Bradley Hanson and Southern Spaces