"Playing the Gospel is what I do.......and I like my job!"
There’s something special about the radio frequency 1510 for Sam Tate, host and creator of the radio show Gospel Gems and creator of The Young World Radio Show. Tate, who has been involved with radio broadcasting for more than 40 years, started listening to radio WLAC 1510 as a little boy. When he began his broadcasting career as a young college man in Greensboro, he was on WEAL 1510 and when he obtained the license to start station WOIX in Blowing Rock, the frequency was 1510.
“Gospel Gems is America’s very first oldie-goldie black gospel radio show,” said Tate. “I started the show in 1992 and it is now heard from New York City to Pensacola, Florida and in between. It’s a popular little show with an estimated audience of five million per week. I found out doingGospel Gems our audience may not be as big, but it is a loyal audience. If they find out they can listen to Sam Cooke or The Five Blind Boys, they tune in and are loyal listeners.”
Tate found that you can’t go wrong with oldies, and people who tune in to his show hear Mahalia Jackson, Shirley Caesar, Sam Cooke and the Soul Starers and Frank Williams among the featured artists. Many of them were contemporaries of Tate’s and he knew a number of them personally. Yet Gospel Gems is more than just a showcase for great black recording artists.
“When I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to start Gospel Gems,” recalled Tate, “the message was, ‘Son, I want you to do more than just a record show.’ My wife does the Signs of the Time and since there are only a few times you get the sinner into church, this is a golden opportunity to get them saved. Several stations play the show a few times per week. One thing I found withGospel Gems is that it fills a gap for older listeners since most stations play older contemporary music. Gospel Gems fills that void. It has a Motown/beach flavor and enjoys a tremendous crossover appeal; even here in the High Country we have quite a crossover audience.”
Though Tate’s first love is broadcasting, he worked in the world of commercial flying and holds a commercial pilot’s license, is a certified flight instructor and is instrument and multi-engine rated.
“My mother told people when ‘Sam’s not on the air, he’s in the air,’” said Tate. “When you are a pilot, you are one of a chosen few. It looks good on a job application; broadcasting and flying gave me a competitive edge. Between flying and radio, it’s been exciting—a natural high. And the people you meet. I used to drive Otis Redding around, and James Brown used to let me get on his Lear jet. So many of the artists I knew personally just because when they came to town they wanted to go to the radio station first thing.”
Another career highlight for Tate was when the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa, founder of the Church of God Mission International, invited him to Nigeria as a broadcast consultant. Idahosa often drew more than one million people to a single church service.
“I met the bishop in Charlotte,” said Tate, “and he told me about the frequencies. He wanted me to pray about it and then come to the Motherland. It was the first time anything had been done like this in the history of the Nigerian government. I stayed in his six million dollar palace. When we came through customs at the airport, people were kneeling down.”
From humble roots growing up on the farm singing into a stick and idolizing radio man John R., a white host for the black rhythm and blues sound of WLAC, to broadcasting and flying as an adult, Tate has no intention of slowing down.
His wife Audrey is a recently retired speech therapist from the Watauga County Schools and is helping Tate set up a new broadcasting studio in the Mystery Hill office complex, located between Boone and Blowing Rock on Blowing Rock Road.
On the family front, the couple has three children: Erica, Samual and Alisa. Tate’s mother Dora Tate will celebrate her 100th birthday in a few months. She taught the young Sam to play piano and he has been known to tickle the ivories now and again with an old blues or gospel tune, as well as play piano for church. Dora Tate’s brother was married to the late Etta Baker.
Tate extends an open invitation to the public to listen to his two radio shows.
“Our motto is, Gospel Gems, where every program is a collector’s item,” said Tate.
Story by Celeste von Mangan for The High Country Press.
“Gospel Gems is America’s very first oldie-goldie black gospel radio show,” said Tate. “I started the show in 1992 and it is now heard from New York City to Pensacola, Florida and in between. It’s a popular little show with an estimated audience of five million per week. I found out doingGospel Gems our audience may not be as big, but it is a loyal audience. If they find out they can listen to Sam Cooke or The Five Blind Boys, they tune in and are loyal listeners.”
Tate found that you can’t go wrong with oldies, and people who tune in to his show hear Mahalia Jackson, Shirley Caesar, Sam Cooke and the Soul Starers and Frank Williams among the featured artists. Many of them were contemporaries of Tate’s and he knew a number of them personally. Yet Gospel Gems is more than just a showcase for great black recording artists.
“When I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to start Gospel Gems,” recalled Tate, “the message was, ‘Son, I want you to do more than just a record show.’ My wife does the Signs of the Time and since there are only a few times you get the sinner into church, this is a golden opportunity to get them saved. Several stations play the show a few times per week. One thing I found withGospel Gems is that it fills a gap for older listeners since most stations play older contemporary music. Gospel Gems fills that void. It has a Motown/beach flavor and enjoys a tremendous crossover appeal; even here in the High Country we have quite a crossover audience.”
Though Tate’s first love is broadcasting, he worked in the world of commercial flying and holds a commercial pilot’s license, is a certified flight instructor and is instrument and multi-engine rated.
“My mother told people when ‘Sam’s not on the air, he’s in the air,’” said Tate. “When you are a pilot, you are one of a chosen few. It looks good on a job application; broadcasting and flying gave me a competitive edge. Between flying and radio, it’s been exciting—a natural high. And the people you meet. I used to drive Otis Redding around, and James Brown used to let me get on his Lear jet. So many of the artists I knew personally just because when they came to town they wanted to go to the radio station first thing.”
Another career highlight for Tate was when the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa, founder of the Church of God Mission International, invited him to Nigeria as a broadcast consultant. Idahosa often drew more than one million people to a single church service.
“I met the bishop in Charlotte,” said Tate, “and he told me about the frequencies. He wanted me to pray about it and then come to the Motherland. It was the first time anything had been done like this in the history of the Nigerian government. I stayed in his six million dollar palace. When we came through customs at the airport, people were kneeling down.”
From humble roots growing up on the farm singing into a stick and idolizing radio man John R., a white host for the black rhythm and blues sound of WLAC, to broadcasting and flying as an adult, Tate has no intention of slowing down.
His wife Audrey is a recently retired speech therapist from the Watauga County Schools and is helping Tate set up a new broadcasting studio in the Mystery Hill office complex, located between Boone and Blowing Rock on Blowing Rock Road.
On the family front, the couple has three children: Erica, Samual and Alisa. Tate’s mother Dora Tate will celebrate her 100th birthday in a few months. She taught the young Sam to play piano and he has been known to tickle the ivories now and again with an old blues or gospel tune, as well as play piano for church. Dora Tate’s brother was married to the late Etta Baker.
Tate extends an open invitation to the public to listen to his two radio shows.
“Our motto is, Gospel Gems, where every program is a collector’s item,” said Tate.
Story by Celeste von Mangan for The High Country Press.
