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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
The National Hillbilly News was an early country music fan magazine published in Huntington. Orville and Jenny Via operated the Poster Print Company, which often printed posters and handbills for the personal appearances of local WSAZ radio musicians. They founded the National Hillbilly News as an outgrowth of their business. The first issue of the bi-monthly publication appeared in mid-1945, and it remained in business for about five years. Although the magazine’s coverage was national, it emphasized news concerning artists who played on West Virginia stations such as WWVA, WSAZ, WMMN, and WCHS. Columnists for the News included Norma Winton (Barthel) of Moffett, Oklahoma, who spent four decades as president of the Ernest Tubb Fan Club. In 1950, the National Hillbilly News switched to a smaller format, but apparently did not make it through the year. The surviving issues—along with other early journals of this type such as the short-lived Musical Echoes of Davis, Tucker County—today provide useful sources on the social significance of country music radio in the pre-television era.
Written by Ivan M. Tribe
Tribe, Ivan M. Mountaineer Jamboree: Country Music in West Virginia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984.