WBT images
About this photograph
Provided by BT Memories, courtesy of Jim Scancarelli.
- Date created
- 1930–1940
- License
- This photograph copyright ©1933. All Rights Reserved
See this photograph in context
- North Carolina in the early 20th century: Primary sources and readings explore North Carolina in the first decades of the twentieth century (1900–1929). Topics include changes in technology and transportation, Progressive Era reforms, World War I, women's suffrage, Jim Crow and African American life, the cultural changes of the 1920s, labor and labor unrest, and the Gastonia stirke of 1929. (Page 1.12)
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Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for arts, Charlotte, country music, music, North Carolina, popular culture, radio, and WBT.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
Images from WBT Charlotte in the 1930s. In the top left, WBT announcer Grady Cole smiles from behind a CBS microphone. In the bottom left is an advertisement for Peruna, one of WBT’s sponsors. The ad reads:
New Pe-ru-na
The famous tonic that helps to
WIN FIGHTS WITH COLDS
by helping to build up resistance, such resistance often preventing and relieving colds.
The photo on the right shows one line-up of the Briarhoppers, a “hillbilly” band that appeared on WBT Charlotte — North Carolina’s first radio station. The band rose to popularity during a hillbilly craze in the 1930s, when old-time and string bands played on live radio broadcast barn dances. The straw hats, plaid shirts, handkerchiefs, and overalls show a conscious adherence to stereotypical images of hillbillies. The caption below the photo reads:
THE BRIARHOPPERS, WBT — Standing left to right: Whitey & Hogan, Bill Briarhopper, Gibb Young, and Claude Casey. Seated at table, Charlie Crutchfield and Grady Cole. In front of table, Eleanor Bryan, Homer Christopher and Hank Briarhopper.
The page is autographed “Best Wishes, Fiddlin’ Hank.”
