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Radio Station WOAN
James D. Vaughan purchased Radio Station WOAN in October, 1922. This was the first radio station in Tennessee. The station operated for two years with a 150 watt transmitter. WOAN was used during sessions of the Vaughan School of Music and reports of people hearing the station were received from 35 states and Canada. In 1927, Mr. Vaughan put his quartet on the road full time. Phonograph records were becoming popular and Vaughan added a line of recordings by his quartet. The Vaughan Quartet could be heard on all major radio stations in the United States. The first full time evangelistic quartet consisted of Adger Pace, W.B. Walbert, Otis L. McCoy and Hilman Barnard. In 1929, McCoy and Barnard were replaced by Albert Roberson and Rudolf Moore. These two were replaced a few years later by Ottis J. Knippers and his brother, Cecil.
WOAN was dismantled and the equipment sold to radio station WREC in Memphis. The Vaughan quartet continued to sing on WSM until 1939. During this time many prominent singing groups worked for the Vaughan Company. Some of these included: The Speer Family, the Jewel Denson Family, the Vaughan-Daniel quartet, the Jennings Trio and the Old Hickory Junior Girls Quartet. Ottis and Cecil Knippers and Raymond Parker comprised the "Knippers Evangelistic Party". In 1997, Ottis Knippers still had a Sunday morning radio show over WDXE in Lawrenceburg.
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