Ryan Darrow

Dollar General, whose corporate office is located in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, has helped shaped twentieth-century retail patterns in Tennessee and the South since its establishment in 1939. Dollar General began as a liquidating company called J. L. Turner and Son Wholesale…

Ralph Emery became the dominant disc jockey in country music in the late twentieth century, featured on major syndicated radio programs and national cable television networks. Born in McEwen, Tennessee, in 1933, Emery spent the first seven years of his…

Headquartered in Nashville, Gibson Guitars has been making high-quality stringed instruments since 1896. The company has impacted the music instrument business as well as music culture through its various innovations. Gibson Guitars builds a variety of instruments, perhaps the most…

Hee Haw was a country-themed television variety show filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, for over twenty years. The show featured musical segments and comedy and became a late-twentieth-century cultural icon of Tennessee, the South, and the country. Sam Lovullo, producer of…

Bobby Jones, an influential late-twentieth-century gospel music artist and television producer, has played a key role in Nashville's evolution as one of the most important gospel music centers in the United States. He taped his television show, "Bobby Jones Gospel," in Nashville for twenty-five…

The Porter Wagoner Show was a syndicated musical variety show filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1961 to 1980. It was one of the longest running, most influential, and most successful country music television shows of the late twentieth century. Porter…

The cable television industry in Tennessee, represented by several different networks, has increased the visibility of the state and positioned it as a culturally relevant and important part of the American media landscape. These networks have often focused on values…