Willie Nelson On The Air at KVAN

circa 1956

During Willie Nelson’s time in Vancouver in the late 1950s, he was a “cotton-pickin’, snuff-dippin’, tobacca-chewin’, stump-jumpin’, gravy-soppin’, coffee-pot-dodgin’, dumplin-eatin’, frog-giggin’, hillbilly from Hill County, Texas.”
That was how legendary singer-songwriter introduced himself every day on his “Western Express” radio show on KVAN, broadcast from Vancouver. After becoming a star as a teenage disc jockey in his birthplace of Texas, Nelson hit the road and settled for a few years in Vancouver.
Nelson, who wrote classic songs such as “Crazy” and “On the Road Again,” reminisced about his time as a DJ in the Pacific Northwest during a visit this month to Howard Stern’s satellite radio show. As a 23-year-old, Nelson became a hit on the local airwaves; he even had his own fan club, he told Howard Stern and his millions of SiriusXM listeners.
“Those were the days when you could go in and grab a handful of records and sit down and have your own show, play what you want,” Nelson said. He had to correct Stern when the radio host mistakenly said Nelson was a Portland DJ.
“Vancouver, Wash., right across the river,” Nelson corrected…
Nelson got $40 a week for his daily show, which eventually ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It wasn’t huge money — $40 in the mid-1950s is about $350 in today’s dollars — but Nelson said it was a platform to promote his gigs and hawk his early recordings.
The outlaw country star recorded his first single, “No Place For Me,” using the station’s equipment, eventually selling about 3,000 copies. His star was quickly rising, so Nelson demanded a steep raise, which didn’t go over so well. He quit and it was, yes, on the road again. [Stover E. Harger III – The Columbian]