The Opry at 80: Where country was, is and will be

His Grand Ole Opry debut? Charley Pride remembers it well.

“It was 1967, Jan. 1,” Pride snaps. “Ernest Tubb brought me on, and I was more nervous than a cat on a hot tin roof.”

That’s how most performers feel about the Opry, the folksy live radio show that’s helped define country music for eight decades. The stage with the red barn backdrop is hallowed ground in Nashville, and entertainers still consider their first performance there a milestone.

The show turns 80 this year, and while the anniversary doesn’t have the bang of a 75th or a 100th, the Opry is planning a big to-do, including a rare broadcast from New York’s Carnegie Hall in November.

Like a classic country song, the Grand Ole Opry has endured despite changes in technology, musical tastes, ownership and location.

It’s the longest continuously running radio show in the country, and though at times it’s been derided as stale and antiquated, there’s a certain charm when the house band begins to play and the burgundy curtain rises.

The feeling is one of seeing something authentic, down to the vintage microphone stands, live advertisements and corny jokes.

The homespun feel, however, belies the elaborate production. The show is marketed nationwide, streamed over Internet and satellite radio, shown on cable TV and broadcast on regular radio; it reaches more than 2 million people a week.

The hayseed image has always been there, since Dr. Humphrey Bate, a physician, donned overalls and led his band, the Possum Hunters. Later, comedian Sarah Cannon re-created herself as Minnie Pearl -- a character from the mythical small town of Grinder’s Switch who wore a straw hat with the price tag dangling.

But most credit the Opry’s longevity to the music. Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Kitty Wells, Bill Monroe and Elvis Presley are among the thousands who have performed and become stars there.

The show was broadcast coast to coast during its heyday in the 1940s and ‘50s and is a main reason Nashville became the commercial center of country music. It’s the last surviving big country music show from radio’s Golden Age, outlasting competitors like the Chicago Barn Dance and the Louisiana Hayride.

Yet beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the ‘90s, fewer big stars joined the permanent cast because of the show’s low wages and waning power to build careers. The Opry acquired the reputation as a home for aging acts who no longer have hit records.

“It’s no secret that the heyday of the Grand Ole Opry was when it was the best thing you could do for your career,” said Pete Fisher, Opry vice president and general manager.

Pride, for example, declined the Opry’s first invitation in 1968.

“My manager pointed out the criteria wasn’t suitable for what we were trying to do,” said Pride, who finally accepted in 1993. “It was the beginning of my career, and they required me to be there 26 Saturdays of each year. For an artist just starting out, those were the best dates to get your money.”

In recent years, management relaxed the appearance requirements and made other changes to make it easier for contemporary stars to join. Today there are about 70 cast members, ranging from Little Jimmy Dickens, Porter Wagoner and Connie Smith to Alan Jackson, Martina McBride and Trace Adkins.

For Adkins, 43, the decision to join wasn’t even a question.

“Growing up around Shreveport we had the Louisiana Hayride, and that was an institution for many years, but everyone knew the Grand Ole Opry was the big deal,” he said. “It’s like ballplayers going to the major leagues saying they’re going to the big show. When I was a kid, the Grand Ole Opry was the big show.”

The format of the 2 1/2 -hour program has changed little over the years. A parade of performers marches on and off the stage. Each does two or three songs, with different hosts.

At a recent show, newcomer Jeff Bates performed his hit “Long Slow Kisses,” singer Suzy Bogguss did “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” from 1988 and veteran Bill Anderson sang “But You Know I Love You” from 1969. There was also a country rock act called Hilljack and bluegrass picker Jesse McReynolds.

“It broadens our audience to have multiple generations onstage and multiple styles,” Fisher said. “The fans can see where country music is, where it has been and where it is going.”