S2 Ep2161: MUSIC SCENE Chase Porter Tour of Pinellas County Music History
In this episode of MUSIC SCENE, Lunchtime Conversation host Nanette Wiser talks to Chase Porter, music historian who does a deep dive into the history of music and music studios in Pinellas County, including Waring Music Company, celebrating 100 years on July 16. (Book + Bottle is in the spot where Waring used to be.) Stay tuned for his show on RadioStPete Sunshine 96.7 FM with music and talk in July!
Enjoy his show here:
https://youtube.com/@cporter?si=sicRKRbXyJJWnMuW [https://youtube.com/@cporter?si=sicRKRbXyJJWnMuW]
Waring Music Company (1926-1927)
* Fred Waring was one of the top bandleaders of the era with his family run band 'Waring's Pennsylvanians" from Penn State. Popular over radio & stage internationally playing jazz, recorded for Victor.
* Victor had top of the line records, artist roster, phonographs, and technology by 1926.
* St. Petersburg's music scene was growing in the 20s, many firsts were being made here.
* Waring and Victor decided on making a store in St. Pete. Waring Music Company, also called the "Victor Building".
* Became a community hub for music. Presentations/lectures, singers & musicians doing shows inside, stars doing autographs, etc.
* Petroushka (peh-TROOSH-kuh) Restaurant in Victor Building too, with its own quartet entertaining.
* New records played over the airwaves weekly by local station WJBB.
* plenty of famous musicians visited all the time.
* Waring Music Co. went bankrupt in the fall of 1927, and closed in December. Bankrupted Fred Waring too.
* Plenty of Victor Records and phonographs from the store are potentially still out there. Especially in Tampa Bay. (Bananas Records is a great spot to look)
* Plenty of pictures of the inside and outside of the Waring Music Company during this time. Beautiful newspaper ads too.
Pinellas County Music History (~1900-1950)
* I got into this music as a teen in the mid 2010s. Started a YouTube channel dedicated to archiving & talking about all this old music "C Porter".
* 78RPM records are the best way to listen to and learn to appreciate the older genres and ways of the old world societally (in my opinion).
* No one ever talks about Florida's musical history outside of country, Rock & Roll, and later jazz artists of the 50s, 60s, etc. ditto Tampa Bay.
* Some stuff happened here and there in Tampa Bay in the 1890s-1910s, but everything really took off in the 1920s with the land & tourism booms.
* The Coliseum, Playhouse Theatre, movie theaters, The Gankplank, Lake Butler Estates, Maritime Service Training Station, etc. where everyone played.
* Radio stations and networks helped let the world hear Tampa Bay's music scene. Bay also a favorite spot for musicians to stop on their way to Miami.
* Bandleaders, singers, individual musicians, songwriters, record label producers, and all other types of people came from here in the St Pete area too.
Here's Chase Porter's story: "I'm Chase Porter, and I'm a born & raised 2nd generation St. Petersburg citizen, with a 5 generations of Florida history on my mother's side. I've grown up with a progressively increasing love and fascination with history, older genres of music, radio, and old technology since a young age. Growing up with the internet exposed me to plenty of history, older tech, but most effectively with music. At the end of Middle School in 2014, I fell in love with Jazz, Blues, Swing, and early Rock & Roll of the 1930s - 1950s from exposure to it all via a video game known as Fallout 3. Becoming enraptured with it all, it wasn't long before I fell in love with some artists such as The Ink Spots, Fletcher Henderson, The Mills Brothers, etc. By 2017 I had learned and listened to hundreds of artists and was mostly in love with the 50s. That year being introduced to vinyl and shellac records. Sending me deeper into a rabbithole of collecting and learning about music, the record industry, etc of the period. By the end of high school, after focusing on the 50s for forever, (and the 20s being just around the corner) I started sticking to the 20s-40s, which is where I've been at ever since. With YouTube, started making documentaries focusing on the music of that time period since then, and deeply researching it all with plenty of top of the line resources that professional discographers and musicologists use on the daily, to learn more about it. Through this, I've been able to bring several completely forgotten musicians of the era back into public light again such as bandleader Will Osborne, and a handful of forgotten local St. Pete area bands and singers such as the Royal Scotch Highlanders, Frank Wilson, Bobbie Brollier, Earl Gresh, etc. This is how Sunshine 96.7 found me eventually, back in 2025 when the 100th anniversary of St. Pete's first record label, Sunshine Records, was founded in 1925 came about. They asked me if I could play a documentary I did on the subject over the air, and I asked them if I could remake it over again, but for Radio audiences. Since then I've been doing radio specials every few months. My new radio show Danceband Days I started for Sunshine 96.7 has been described as being "like Ken Burns of radio" by professors and former radio DJs who have listened. One specific anniversary program I did for them back in the spring, President & CFE Joe Bourdow said of it personally to me, that it was "one of the coolest things we have ever had on the air." All of this leads me to now. Danceband Days episode 3 is in the works, and so is Episode 4, and right now so is the Waring Music Company special too. "
#chaseporter #pinellascountymusichistory #dancebanddays #sunshinerecords #waringrecords #music scene #nanettewiser
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