The Professional Work of DJ and Show Promoter Pappy Hal Horton (Song by Hank Thompson)

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The Professional Work of DJ and Show Promoter Pappy Hal Horton Pappy Hal Horton (Montclair, New Jersey 1893 -- Nov. 28, 1948): KRLD, Dallas, Texas. Popular Dallas disc jockey (DJ) and show promoter, Hal first acted on stage with his parents at age ten. He worked as a sideshow barker all over and entered broadcasting in Davenport, Iowa. From Mexican border stations he came to Dallas in 1936, where an auto dealer sponsored Horton's first hillbilly record programs on WRR. Around 1945, Horton launched the KRLD Hillbilly Hit Parade, a 10:30 PM program on which he played and ranked records and interviewed many country stars he brought to Dallas. It soon became one of the most popular DJ shows in the region setting the stage for the postwar surge. Later he added the Cornbread Matinee and announced Mutual's Checkerboard Jamboree with Eddy Arnold. In 1946, Hank Thompson recorded Whoa Sailor at Pappy Sellars' Dallas studio for Globe Records. Hal Horton liked Hank's new song and played it on his Hillbilly Hit Parade radio show. Horton's late night disc jockey show on Dallas' KRLD, made Thompson's Globe recordings at least regional favorites, as stacks of fan mail and requests poured in to Horton in Dallas and to Thompson at KWTX (Waco). Before long, Thompson was under Horton's career supervision. With KRLD's 50, 000 watts, Horton's show had a national reach that afforded a new artist real exposure. Hank remembered, "Horton played that thing and it went to number one (locally) and <b>...</b>

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