From Jinx:
Sometime in the late '70s, Ron Rich wisely decided to add an hour of bluegrass music to our format. He asked me to help him select some music, and, of course, I was delighted. As so often is the case, the show aired at a "low-listenership" time, Sunday morning, after preachin', and I didn't even hear the first one. After that show, Ron told me that he felt out of his element, said he didn't know anything about the music, so he asked me to write some notes for his next show. Happily, I selected twelve songs, all on LPs, and typed notes about the songs, artists, and other deejay-type tidbits on a piece of paper. Carefully, I numbered each note to coordinate with each selected cut on each album (You know how detail-oriented I am.) and put the stack on Ron's desk on Friday evening. Eagerly, I listened on Sunday as I was coming home from church, and I almost ran off the road. Imagine my shock, dismay, yes, even anger, when I realized Ron was reading the notes in REVERSE order to the music selection he was playing! I think one or both of my sisters was in the car with me, probably Linda's kids, too, and I almost transgressed everything I'd heard in that day's sermon! After a quick conference with my sisters, "Millers Unlimited" was born, and the show became "The Bluegrass Show."
For the next 8 years, we worked very hard, very conscientiously, but it was a labor of love. Every Thursday or Friday night, we met in one of our homes, selected music, wrote intros and outros, including promos for nearby festivals and bluegrass events, and frequently recorded the whole show, then, often after midnight, took the tapes to the station where we dubbed it to carts and typed a detailed playlist (actually a script) to mail to the artists whose music we'd played for that week's show. Often we were fortunate to have live artists on the show, and then we'd rely on the expertise of our WDVH pros to help us with the miking and mixing. Even when we were out of town, we always left a recorded show. We gained a very favorable reputation for the quality, authenticity, and liveliness of our show. Still, close to 15 years since the last show aired, 'way up here in the mountains, folks will come up to us at festivals and shows and talk about listening to us or seeing us at festivals. Our selections were varied, our shows creative, our comments intelligent and fair, and we had a great time. Of special interest was the "sister" thing - we'd finish each other's thoughts and no one could tell which of us was talking unless we called each other's names.
And, we promoted our show... boy, did we ever!!! Millers Unlimited went to festivals; we emceed shows and festivals and we made contacts via phone and mail. Every year we sent Christmas cards to every artist, record producer, and festival promoter we could find. Marge drew a mill with a water wheel as our logo ("Millers," get it?), and we had note paper and Christmas cards printed with that logo. (All of this was done at our own expense, split three ways. But, as I said, it truly was a labor of love, and our audience loved us for it.) In later years, we sent photo Christmas cards.
On this page you see photographic highlights of those eight years. There are many, many more - many of them of very famous bluegrass artists such as Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs and Bill Monroe. While we knew them all well, I have included only photos that include WDVH personnel. Believe it or not, we're missing a few gems, such as us with Jim and Jesse, and us with Sonny Osborne on a cruise, which we should uncover someday. Marge's daughters, Debbie and Cherie, and Linda's daughter, Luci, and youngest son, Mitch, usually went with us when we went to festivals. The "Millers Unlimited" shtick grew, and most folks came to think of us six females as Millers Unlimited, rather than just the three of us. That's why later Christmas cards included all six. Several of the pictures included in this bunch are the originals for those Christmas cards. I hope you don't think me too egotistical - it was a very special time in our life, and we did a great service for WDVH and bluegrass music.
