Saturday Night Jamboree

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Emcee Dean Sturm, at far right, and some of the talented musicians
who appeared on WSAZ's "Saturday Night Jamboree"

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"Got my Sunday shoes on / Got my hair slicked down / Gonna get my
 honey and take her into town / Gonna have a big time tonight!"

If that opening refrain sounds familiar, then it's clear you remember the
"Saturday Night Jamboree," the live country music show that aired
from the WSAZ-TV studio in Huntington for more than
a decade, from the early 1950s to the mid-60s.

The show's affable emcee, Dean Sturm, had worked at radio stations in
 Ohio and Illinois before joining WSAZ-TV as a staff announcer.
That was in 1953, the same year the "Jamboree" took to the
 air. The show's sponsor for that first season was Red
Top beer. The next season, Ashland Oil &
 Refining took over  as sponsor and
continued in that role until
 the show's end.

Retha Neal and Margie Shannon were the program's first female vocalists.
They were followed by Phyllis Noel and Norma Hoople and later by
 Connie Smith, who went on to country music fame in Nashville.
Odey Crabtree and Ralph Shannon, known as the Wayne
County Whippoorwill, were regular male
 vocalists on the show.

Talented musicians who appeared on the "Jambloree" included fiddle
player
Charlie (Big Foot) Keaton and lead guitar picker Dean Porter, dubbed the
 Mayor of Bear Creek by Sturm. Harry Mills and the Haylofters, a
 popular square dance group,  never missed a single airing of
 the weekly show. In 1964, WSAZ changed hands, and
 the station's new owner cancelled the show.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Jan. 9, 2019.

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