This hour long documentary is the story of Ralph Epperson growing up in the 1920s and 30s the son of tobacco farmers in the hills of Southwestern Virginia/Northwestern North Carolina.
The film is directed by Jordan Nance and produced by Beth Crookham and will be released on September 28th, 2013 at the North Carolina Bluegrass Pavilion.
The Pavilion will be inside the IBMA Exhibit Hall at the Raleigh Convention Center and will be free and open to the Public
As a boy he discovered radio and from then on was led by a desire to understand how to transmit sound through the airwaves.
This love of technology was coupled with a passion for the music native to his growing up, "it was then called old time and now we call it bluegrass," along with a strong faith in God and community.
Thus was born his dream to have a radio station of his own, and in 1948 his first station, WPAQ 740 AM, Mt. Airy, NC, “the voice of the Blue Ridge” went on the air. But his dream didn't stop there. Most of his family followed him out of the fields and into radio.
Today more than 150 radio stations around the nation owe their beginnings to Ralph Epperson and his dream as well as countless musicians who continued their music and passed along the tradition that still exists today of Blue Ridge style string music.
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