Grand Ole Opry celebrates 5000th show

By Ryan Breslin

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    NASHVILLE (WSMV) — A historic milestone is approaching for the Grand Ole Opry. One that is 96 years in the making.

The Grand Ole Opry is the world’s longest running radio show, and Saturday night will mark 5000 performances.

It began in 1925, when WSM radio began airing what would become the grand ole opry.

Years down the road it expanded to television and eventually digital streaming platforms.

The Opry continued to produce original shows through the great depression, Word War Two, and this past year during the pandemic.

The Opry has helped launch the careers of countless iconic artists, now country legends.

Tomorrow night, people can expect to hear performers like Bill Anderson, Terri Clark, Vince Gill, Chris Janson, Jeannie Seely, Connie Smith, the Gatlin Brothers and Chris Young.

The opry executive producer says the 5000th show will be humbling and incredibly exciting.

“We’re absolutely pulling out the stops for the show but I’ll also say that it was really important to me that it look and feel like an Opry show does,” Dan Rogers said. “I mean, the 5000th Saturday night, we didn’t get to that point by going off-script and doing things radically different from Saturday night to Saturday night. I really wanted this show to be kind of what you always hope the Opry is when you buy a ticket and come see us or when you tune, and that is in a nutshell, a celebration of the past, present, and future of country music.”

Recently added to the line up tomorrow night is Garth Brooks, Dustin Lynch, Darius Rucker and Trisha Yearwood.

Tickets are sold-out, but you can listen to the opry like you would have 96 years ago by tuning into AM 650 – WSM.

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