The Bill Ring Show

The Bill Ring Show was a quarter-hour country music show produced for transcription by KWTO AM in Springfield, Missouri, in the early 1950s. At the time, Ralph D. Foster, the station's owner, was hoping that Springfield could challenge Nashville on the country music scene; the show was part of his strategy.

Although Springfield did not become a country music Mecca, his dream did come true in a way, as several decades later as Branson placed Missouri squarely on the country music map (as an aside, we stopped at Branson on a family vacation in the late 1990s and quite enjoyed our stay). Ring himself was a major figure in the Springfield broadcast scene up to his retirement in the early 1980s.

The music on the show has more in common with the western-style music of the Sons of the Pioneers than with contemporary cookie-cutter "country" music. The numbers lean more towards love songs, ballads, and humor than laments, torments and loss.

For more information, see Allen's Archive.

Series description provided by Frank Bell.