WRBU
Gastonia’s First Radio Station
Copyright 2025 Timothy Craig Ellis
     The two-story yellow brick building at the corner of East Main Avenue and South Broad Street (not the main artery of South Broad, but a short connector that ran west of Carolina Farm and Garden past the Gettys Hardware nursery and joined its namesake just before John’s Grill and East Franklin Avenue), today stands derelict and forlorn. Windows long- ago boarded up have been opened to reveal a glassless view to the sky above. Only upon closer inspection and a bit of knowledge of its history, can one see that this was not always a derelict; it was, in fact, the home of a once-elegant piano showroom, music store, and the home of Gastonia’s first radio station, WRBU.
     A.J. (Andrew Jackson) Kirby moved from Honea Path, Greenville County, South Carolina with his wife, Frances (“Fannie”) Louise Lawson Kirby to Gastonia around the turn of the twentieth century and established a business in the growing young textile town of Gastonia, North Carolina in 1900. 
     The A.J. Kirby Music Company sold pianos, sheet music, and phonograph records, and was one of the few, if not the only, dealer for these lines in Gaston County. Success of the business allowed the Kirbys to build a spacious home on “The” New Hope Road, which they named “Kirnolda.”
     In 1910, Andrew’s brother, Walter H. Kirby, died in South Carolina, followed two years later by his wife, Nannie Snipes Kirby, leaving six orphaned children. According to the limited information at this writer’s disposal, one of the older girls tried to keep the family together, but, since she was only twelve years old, she was unable to do so. Two went to live in an orphanage in Greenwood, S.C., two continued to live together until they were each married, and two boys, aged six and two, went to live with their aunt and uncle in Gastonia. It can be presumed that the two boys were adopted by A.J. and his wife, as their names were changed, the older to “Andrew Jackson Kirby, Jr.” and the younger to “Walter Lawson Kirby.”
     By the late 1920s, radio had become a promising communication medium with more than five hundred stations licensed by the United States Department of Commerce, the forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission. A.J. Kirby saw radio as a private venture for the advertising of his business and received a license to operate assigned radio station WRBU at a frequency of 1210 kilocycles (now called kilohertz) at a power of 100 watts.
     Kirby purchased a transmitter and installed it on the first floor at the rear of the store located at 255 East Main Avenue. It was later moved to second floor, where a dedicated studio was established. The January 16, 1930 edition of The Gastonia Gazettereported, “Announcement is made today of plans for a thorough reorganization of the policies of radio station WRBU, an expansion of its facilities, and a definite improvement in programs to be broadcast in the future.”
     In the beginning, with home ownership of radio sets becoming more common, a proprietor or sales clerk at a store selling radios would often call Kirby Music to request that a certain phonograph record be played to demonstrate the quality of the set. This was, in essence, an early instance of “request radio.”
     Originally, the only advertising on the station was for the Kirby Music, but, as time passed and other businesses saw the advantages of having their names mentioned over the airwaves, WRBU began to carry more and more commercial advertising. 
      A.J. Kirby, Sr. managed the station, with the younger Kirbys handling announcing chores, “Walt,” when he was home from attending Rutherford College (a forerunner of Brevard College). 
     In addition to playing music from phonograph records, WRBU programming grew to include local musicians and groups performing live, presenting to listeners examples of the rich history of traditional and folk music brought to the textile mill villages and towns of Piedmont North and South Carolina from the mountains and rural hinterlands. The origin of this musical heritage echoed generations of church singing, camp meetings, and front porch gatherings. Dressed up a bit for the general public, this “hillbilly” music became very popular and launched the careers of several performers and announcers. 
     Some of the notables who stood before the WRBU microphones included “The Three Tobacco Tags,” who went on to recordings and larger radio station appearances for a while. Russell Jenkins shared announcing duties with Walt Kirby (who, as a result, became somewhat of a local celebrity), as well as Wilbur Lewis, a man named Ogden, and Bill Bivens, who announced part-time, produced in-house skits, and swept out the station. He went on to a career with CBS in New York. 
     Mill worker Dave McCarn built a musical career by first playing and singing solo and with a group called the Yellow Jackets on the station between shifts at a Belmont mill. Thirteen-year-old fiddler Homer Sherril first played on WRBU in the late twenties.
     Later on, Prentice “Luke” Davis,” known as “Lonesome Luke, the Butterkist Boy,” got his start on the Gastonia station. He was later hired by Charles Crutchfield at WBT in Charlotte as one of the famous “Briarhoppers.”. He eventually moved on to appearances on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).
     Gastonia evangelist W. Earl Armstrong, well-known for his “Gospel Tabernacle” on West Airline Avenue at the terminus of North Trenton Street, broadened his positive influence with regular broadcasts on the station.
 
     Other non-musical offerings for 1930 included a series of lecture lessons on music by Edwin M. Steckel, director of music in the Gastonia City Schools that was heard by 6,000 school children of Gaston County. The Gazette offered prizes for the best essays on the subject, “What the Radio Music Lessons Have Meant to Me.” 
The Gastonia Chamber of Commerce sponsored a weekly program featuring a different section of the city each week. On March 13, 1930, the subject was “South Gastonia.” Major A.L. Bulwinkle’s candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Congress from the North Carolina Ninth District was broadcast on June 5, 1930. Speakers included prominent Gastonians Stephen B. Dolley, Dameron H. Williams, and J.W. Atkins. An announcement of the Gastonia Junior American Legion baseball team’s regional championship was announced on August 16, and plans to broadcast  play-by-play coverage of the Eastern Championship games to be played in Charlottesville, Virginia the following week.
 
     A.J. Kirby announced on September 4, 1930 that WRBU stood a fair chance of becoming an affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). That eventually happened, but not while the station was located in Gastonia.
     Mayor Emery B. Denny gave a fifteen-minute talk on October 3, and City Schools Superintendent W.P. Grier opened a week’s program in observance of National Education Week with an address entitled, “The Schools and Enrichment of Human Life” November 10.
     The station operated under the WRBU call letters for about two years and five months. On November 29, 1930, the station changed its call letters to “WSOC,” supposedly meaning “We Serve Our City.”
     After the name change came the debut of the “WSOC Players,” who presented weekly radio dramas. Featured regulars included Dick and Ruth McCluney (owners of McCluney’s Men Shop in the 1950s and City Newsstand on West Airline Avenue in the '60s then on East Main in the ’70s), Dr. Charles H. Pugh, with Owen Ogburn, the station’s program director, providing background music on the organ. Modeled after “The Grand Ole Opry” on WSM, “The Saturday Night Barn Dance” was hosted by Walt Kirby and featured local talent, such as “The Happy Five Jug Band.”
     With the continuing of the Great Depression, the station began to be unprofitable. The chief engineer, Robert S. Morris, purchased and moved it to Charlotte in 1933. Initially WSOC broadcasted from the Mecklenburg Hotel on West Trade Street next to the Southern Railway station with the transmitter installed in the basement. The station remained there until relocating to the new studios on North Tryon Street in the late 1950s.
  
     WSOC operated as a middle-of-the-road NBC affiliate until the 1970s, when it switched call letters and formats several times. Today it broadcasts as Christian radio station WYFQ.
     Joseph B. Roberts, Sr. received a permit to operate station WJBR but never exercised his franchise, and the permit eventually expired.
     In 1939, industrialist and philanthropist Floyd C.Todd began operation of WGNC with Spartanburg transplant Broadus (Pat) McSwain as manager. The first studios were on the top floor of the First National Bank building (later the Lawyers Building, and now the Esquire Hotel) then moved to the station’s permanent home just off US highway 32l north of the city. McSwain married Catherine Todd, the owner’s daughter and eventually became owner of the station, guiding WGNC for decades. The McSwain family sold the station in 1986.
     A.J. Kirby, Jr. died in 1966 at the age of 60. Walter Kirby, who was managing the piano business, died in 1970, also at the age of 60. Kirby Music Company later closed and was forgotten…until now.
Sources
“Radio – TV Broadcast History,” www.broadcasting.fandom.com.
 
“Radio Station WGNC Ended Gastonia’s Radio Silence in ’39,” The Gastonia Gazette, February 21, 1955.
“U.S. Radio Stations as of June 30, 1928,” www.jeff560.tripod.com.
“Radio Service Bulletin,” United States Department of Commerce, February 28, 1929, Washington, D.C.
“Andrew Jackson Kirby,” www.findagrave.com.
“Andrew Jackson Kirby, Jr.,” www.findagrave.com.
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“Death Takes W.L. Kirby at Age 60,” The Gastonia Gazette, November 25, 1970.
Conner, Wilkie, “Way Back When,” Charlotte Magazine, “Played Here: Musical Venues of the Queen City,” July/August, 1975, p. 43. Anna Boyer, contributor, Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library, Main Branch.
 
Coulter, Delia, “The Piedmont Tradition,” www.historysouth.org. 
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“Looking Backwards, January 16, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, January 15, 1955.
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“Looking Backwards, March 13, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, March 12, 1955.
“Looking Backwards, June 15, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, June [15], 1955.
“Looking Backwards, August 16, 1930,” The Gastonia Gazette, August 16, 1955.
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“WRBU,” The Gastonia Gazette, December 2, 1969, page 2.
Hill's Gastonia City Directory, Richmond VA: Hill Directory Co., Inc. 1960.
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