Dale Franklin isn’t an unbiased source when it comes to a radio station that once broadcast from West Memphis. Unless you grew up in east Arkansas or west Tennessee, you’ve probably never heard of KWEM-AM, the station whose history Franklin is working to unearth and disseminate.
“To put the KWEM story in perspective, it turns out that it is Arkansas-not Memphis and not Mississippi-that launched modern American music,” Franklin says. “Rock ’n’ roll, soul, the Memphis sound, rockabilly and the electric blues all exist because of KWEM radio and the West Memphis music scene in the late 1940s and the early 1950s. The bottom line is that most of the multibillion-dollar tourism industry that Tennessee enjoys because of its supposed music heritage belongs to Arkansas. And the Mississippi blues efforts pale compared to what happened in Arkansas. KWEM is the most important radio station in the world.”
Franklin, a Memphis musician and songwriter, launched a Web-based version of KWEM, which had beenoff the air for years. He has spent thousands of hours documenting and archiving the station’s history.
“KWEM in West Memphis was, in many ways, a springboard for blues artists on their way to great glory at Chess Records in Chicago,” says Nick Morrison, a nationally known music writer. “Out of all of them, Howlin’ Wolf is perhaps the best example. Although Wolf had years of playing and performing under his belt, he didn’t begin to reach a broad audience until he started doing a radio show on KWEM in 1948. It was there, in 1951, that Sam Phillips-the owner of the Memphis Recording Service, later called Sun Records-first heard Howlin’ Wolf and quickly invited him to his studio to lay down some tracks.”
As part of its attempt to set up a statewide radio network to carry University of Arkansas football games, officials of KXLR Radio in Little Rock decided to put a West Memphis station on the air for the 1946 season. They considered it crucial to future recruiting success that listeners ineast Arkansas and Memphis be exposed to more than just the Ole Miss Rebels. Equipment problems delayed the station’s debut until Feb. 23, 1947.
KWEM featured live music until 1955 and hosted artists ranging from B.B. King to Ike Turner. Dozens of musicians had their first radio exposure on KWEM. West Memphis already had earned a reputation as a place that was much more wide open than Memphis for music, dancing, drinking and gambling.
A March 1941 article in the Commercial Appeal at Memphis noted that “a Negro vice boom town has sprung up on Eighth Street of West Memphis to prey on hundreds of Memphis Negroes lured there by a bait of dice, whiskey and women. … Gambling and liquor dance drunkenly together to tunes from wailing juke boxes, the clatter of dice and the enticing bark of vice salesmen. All this runs wide open in easy view of Crittenden County and West Memphis lawenforcement officers.”
Musician Rufus Thomas described West Memphis as the “Las Vegas of the South.” With studios in the heart of the action, KWEM was able to take advantage of the large number of musicians playing in the West Memphis clubs. Howlin’ Wolf had his own show from 1949-52. Elvis Presley first appeared on the station in 1953, and Johnny Cash’s first radio appearance after arriving in Memphis was on KWEM. Stax Records founder Jim Stewart got his start on KWEM.
“There would probably not have been Memphis music if it had not been for KWEM,” Dean Deyo of the Memphis Music Foundation told the Memphis Daily News. “It was on the cutting edge of Memphis music then.… KWEM helped put Memphis music on the map, and we are glad that it is back and helping to keep it there.”
The Mid-South Community College Foundation at West Memphis has purchased the Web-based radio station and numerous artifacts related to KWEM. It hopes to establish a studio that will serve not only as a laboratory for students but also as a tourism draw. Glen Fenter, the college’s president, calls the station “a rich part of our community’s history that our students and many of our residents know nothing about. … It opens up mind-boggling possibilities for our college and our community.”
“We can’t go buy a $1 million AM or FM frequency, but we can take the new digital technology on the Web and re-create the radio station experience that Dale has been doing on his own,” Fenter says. “Dale has done a phenomenal amount of research. We’re taking a great idea to a level that I think can significantly impact this community and region.We are uniquely positioned because Memphis is already spending millions and millions of dollars a year attracting people to the musical heritage of the region. Those people are looking for other historic places to go.” Fenter says it’s important for the studio to be on the campus: “Students will have a chance to produce their own programming in keeping with the station’s heritage. It will be a great opportunity for them to blend the history of the 1940s and 1950s with the technology of today. The thing that makes the KWEM radio story compelling is the artists and their music, not so much the physical location of the studio. It’s more important to connect the essence of the KWEM radio story and its profound impact on music history to the West Memphis identity.” -
Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial, Pages 17 on 04/10/2013