The good old days of radio are coming back as a popular bluegrass combo performs in a live broadcast here Saturday evening.

Union Road will offer a free, open-to-the-public show at New Union United Methodist Church on Highway 30 just east of the US70S junction.  The show in front of a live audience will be  underway from 6 to 7 p.m. and will be aired simultaneously on McMinnville Public Radio 91.3-WCPI.

“This will be an important historical event as we recreate the early days of live radio.  Tennessee is the perfect setting as WSM in Nashville pioneered this kind of radio with its Grand Ole Opry in 1925,” said Dr Norman Rone, president of the non-profit Warren County Education Foundation, owner and operator of WCPI.

“As McMinnville’s local radio station, we plan to do a lot more of this kind of community-originated, community-focused broadcasting.  Internet media and television definitely have a place in bringing information and entertainment to the people, but radio will always be something special in our modern culture,” he added.

The Saturday evening show will highlight original music by local and area songwriters, along with a few covers of popular country and bluegrass favorites, according to Union Road musician and spokesperson Chip Jones. 

“One of the advantages of locally-based, non-commercial radio like WCPI is that we can support and nurture the talent in our own community,” Rone observed.  “This Saturday’s event will be a trial run that could become the first in a continuous series of such live music broadcasts.  We invite our neighbors and friends to be present in the live audience or turned in to 91.3 FM to join us through the airwaves.”

WCPI has had a busy year with coverage of politics and elections.  The broadcaster produced three candidates forums in collaboration with The Southern Standard as well as on-the-scene coverage of two elections.  The long season of public affairs productions concludes with up-the-second reporting on results from the Nov. 8 voting on state and federal races as well as the McMinnville aldermanic contests and the voters’ choice of a replacement Warren County commissioner for the Second District.