Recently Ozarks Public Television (OPT), located here on the main Springfield campus of Missouri State University, researched, produced, and broadcast an hour-long documentary about local radio station KWTO and its role in and contributions to the growth of live country music performances and performers in the second quarter of the 20th century. Tom Peters, Dean of Library Services at MSU, was one of several people who provided commentary to the documentary.

Here’s a synopsis of the documentary: “As radio blossomed in the early twentieth century, one local station in Springfield, Missouri quickly became an epicenter for homegrown musical talent, and a major influence on country music in America. From its first broadcast on Christmas Day in 1933, KWTO’s popularity and focus on live music helped launch the careers of many famous musicians, and was the driving force behind country music.” In the late Fifties, this decades long effort to highlight live country music first on radio, then on television, culminated in the Ozark Jubilee weekly “hillbilly variety show” that lasted over six years as a live weekly stage show and television broadcast, first locally and then nationally over the ABC-TV network.  

Other people who provided commentary included in the documentary are:

• Jaynie Chowning
• Michael Cochran
• Gary Ellison
• Wayne Glenn
• Kaitlyn McConnell
• Edgar McKinney
• Dale Moore
• John Rumble
• Annette Sain
• Scott Siman