In 1936 WNOX hired announcer Lowell Blanchard and he began the variety program called the Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round. It was very popular and was a launching pad for the careers of Roy Acuff, Archie Campbell, Kitty Wells, Chet Atkins, Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, Pee Wee King, Martha Carson, Don Gibson, the Louvin Brothers and of course Homer & Jethro.

 

Homer and Jethro made their radio debut on WNOX as part of a larger group, the Stringdusters. I can remember my father telling me that they would perform as the Stringdusters but backstage they would do their “Homer & Jethro Stick.”

 

Legend has it that Lowell Blanchard one evening in 1936, accidentally introduced them as Homer & Jethro and the rest is history.

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They would work during the day at WNOX and then Homer would go to the Knoxville Country Club and sing pop music with the band. Renowned studio guitarist Ray Edington said that he used to go to the country club to listen to Homer. They stayed until 1937, when Archie Campbell left for Bristol, Tennessee and took them with him (Homer was a member of Campbell's band, "Grandpappy's Boys," as well as with the Stringdusters.)

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Jethro said that for a time they did a constant shifting, back and forth, from Knoxville to Bristol to Chattanooga. They returned to WNOX in December 1938. They stayed there until sometime between July and October, 1940 when they joined the Renfro Valley Barn Dance.