[Dixielandjazz] The first broadcast - Peg Meyer

[Audrey Van Dyke]

Hope you will enjoy this paragraph from a book by Peg Myers (classmate 
and early bandmate of Jess Stacy) who wrote a book called Backwoods Jazz 
in the Twenties.

"When I was growing up our home was a favorite gathering place for 
musical groups....Several of the groups became pretty good, and on those 
occasions when some of the better performers were coming in , the news 
would be passed during the day along the party line telephone.  Friends 
were told to listen for a certain series of jingles or rings which 
signaled that the group was going to perform a couple of numbers for the 
party liners to hear.  As this was before radio, it must have been one 
of the first examples of broadcasting, or sending of music into 
musicless homes.  It was a splendid idea especially in wintertime for 
the scattered and generally rural population."

Isn't that a great image?
Audrey