One of American TV’s longest-running country music shows hailed not from Nashville but from the unlikely base of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Midwestern Hayride began airing on WLW radio in 1939 as Boone County Jamboree, then became a half-hour television show under its new title on WLW-TV in February 1948 with Bill Thall as host.
The show moved to Saturdays at 9-10 pm on NBC in June 1951 before moving to daytime in early 1952, although the show returned to various nighttime slots on NBC in the summer from 1952 to 1956 (except 1953) and on ABC in the summers of 1957 and 1958. It went back to NBC in the summer of 1959.
Midwestern Hayride continued running weekly in syndication in the 1960s in both 60-minute and 30-minute versions.
In August 1969, the show tried a new youth-oriented format. Host Dean Richards was demoted to music director in favour of 28-year-old country singer Henson Cargill (pictured) as the new host.
Cargill left as host in 1970 and was replaced by Kenny Price, a performer on the show since 1953.
The show – with the name shortened to simply Hayride – then ran only on stations owned by the Avco Corporation, most of which were in Ohio, until its cancellation in September 1972, largely because it had become increasingly more expensive to produce.
Kenny Price became a regular on Nashville-based Hee Haw four years later and remained there until he died in 1987.
Many musical guests appeared on Midwestern Hayride over the years, including Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Tex Ritter, Merle Travis, and Porter Wagoner.
Hosts
Bill Thall
Dean Richards
Henson Cargill
Kenny Price
Cargill left as host in 1970 and was replaced by Kenny Price, a performer on the show since 1953.
