Music City Tales from the 1980s: From Rural Purges to All Nashville All the Time

In March of 1983, WSM launched The Nashville Network, TNN for short. It was an entire television network devoted to country music and programming, and largely produced at Gaslight Studios at Opryland USA. Today we look at how televisions show like Hee Haw, and a phenomenon called “The Rural Purge” made all of this possible. We also look at how Fan Fair, a country music fan convention and festival, grew exponentially throughout the decade that brought us The Goonies and Baby Jessica.