WPTF had a late-night country music show back then that was aimed at truckers, called Interstate 68 (the station is at 680 on the AM dial); it was hosted by Hap Hansen. They took requests, so most of the songs were charming oldies, but there were also other recordings that were unusual to say the least. Besides “Here Come the Rattlesnakes” by Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters, they played numerous routines by legendary country comedian Jerry Clower that often featured the crew of Ledbetters that he hung with back in the day; “Telephone Call from God” by Jerry Jordan about a man picking up the phone and finding God on the other end (you never actually hear God, but Johnny Carson can be heard briefly in the background – a newer hit version came out later that mentions Jay Leno instead); and a 1948 monologue by Tex Ritter called “Deck of Cards” about a soldier caught spreading out cards in church (sample dialogue: “The marshal said to the sergeant, ‘Why have you brought this man here?’ ‘For playing cards in church, Sir.’ ‘And what do you have to say for yourself son?’ ‘Much, Sir’ replied the soldier. The Marshal said, ‘I hope so, for if not, I shall punish you more than any man was ever punished.’”) – I don’t have Tex Ritter’s version, but I do have the one by Rusty Draper.
There were also some of the genuinely odd recordings by Lester “Roadhog” Moran and the Cadillac Cowboys. That last was a group that had been invented by the Statler Brothers, and what they tried to do was create a truly bad country music show of the sort that would often play on stations or on stage in rural areas. Hap Hansen hated having to play those routines, since he was afraid that listeners would think that it was he who was playing those terrible songs! (My father Wallace M. Winfree was a big country music fan, but he told me on several occasions that there is nothing worse than bad country music).
(November 2014)
