by MEGAN NORTHCOTE
Intern Lifestyles Reporter

At 20 years old, Sam B. Tate had already discovered his true calling, radio broadcasting.

“As a young man, I always wanted to syndicate [a radio program]. But the good Lord had other plans. He wanted me to syndicate, but he wanted me to go into gospel,” Tate said. 

A native and current resident of Junaluska, the oldest black community in Watauga County, Tate has worked his way to the top by helping not only himself, but others long the way.

The Boone Mennonite Brethren Church, one of the oldest black churches in North Carolina, is settled in the black community of Junaluska. Photo by Christy Bullins.

After graduating from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1964, Tate made his way to the high country in 1983 where he entertained listeners on Blowing Rock’s WOIX AM radio station.

After airing on WOIX AM, Tate started America’s first nationally syndicated black gospel radio show, Gospel Gem, airing Sunday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on 106.1 FM.

But his success didn’t stop there.

In 1999, Tate heard of an afterschool community learning center at Hardin Park in Boone asking the community for ways to improve children’s self-esteem as part of the center’s development program.

Following the news of the program, he began The Young World Radio Show, a one hour program hosted entirely by kids ranging from junior high to college-aged, broadcasted Saturdays at noon on 1200 WXIT AM and 1450 WATA AM. 

“We play everything from Temptations to Willie Nelson,” Tate said. “It’s a rockin’ little show.”

A popular segment of the show, ‘On the Road Again,’ features a community member the children interview. 

Everyone from the superintendent to the mayor of Boone to the legendary mountain storyteller Orville Hicks has made their debut over the years.

“[The kids] are more confident behind the microphone than the people they’re interviewing,” Tate said. 

The show is successful at not only building up self-esteem, but also bringing the community together.

“The secret to the show is the fact that we go into each local community and get kids to give a shout out to people,” Tate said.

Everyone the kids know tune in to listen, so by the next day, Tate said the kids are virtually celebrities.

Celebrities, that is, in the growing black community of Junaluska in Boone.

Junaluska, is known as “The Hill,”  and was settled after freed slaves migrated into the area and purchased formerly sharecropped land, Dr. Karl E. Campbell, associate professor of history, said. 

Rev. Morris Hatton, pastor of the Boone Mennonite Brethren Church, one of the oldest black churches in North Carolina, cites the Underground Railroad as another big contributing factor to the settlement of this community. 

When the Underground Railroad ran through Boone, people escaped slavery in the south and came into the mountains, Hatton said.

“But slavery didn’t catch on here,” he said.

As a result of limited amounts of slavery in the Watauga area, racial tensions were generally kept to a minimum compared to other areas in the south as the country entered into the Civil Rights era.

“Historically speaking, where minorities are most numerous, they are most threatening,” Campbell said. “Since there were so few African Americans [in Watauga County], there was very little threat.”

From the time Junaluska was founded, the church has remained the anchoring force keeping the community united.

“Everyone relates to the church in one way or another,” Hatton said. “It’s always been an integrated congregation.” 

After Boone Chapel, the original Junaluska church, was closed and demolished in December 1989, the Boone Mennonite Brethren Church emerged.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Show/Hide comments