Bill Graham / The Meridian StarAt 81, Ken Rainey remains active in Meridian's music scene. 

MERIDIAN — Were you in Ray Stadium when Alabama, Hank Williams Jr., George Strait, George Jones, or The Oak Ridge Boys performed?

Or maybe you were in the Temple Theatre when Garth Brooks, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, or Marty Robbins took the stage.

Perhaps you were a regular listener to a little radio show that aired from 6 to 9 a.m. on WOKK every morning for 26 years?

If so, you may know the common denominator for all of these iconic memories – Ken Rainey, Sr., radio host, promoter, showman and friend to many of the legends of country and western music.

At 81, Rainey is still going strong.

Whether it’s overseeing his radio stations in Jackson, talking with his new musical friends Randy Houser, Jamey Johnson, John Byron Calton, and Todd Tilghman, or heading on a beach vacation with his seven children, 16 grandchildren, and 10 (soon to be 12) great-grandchildren, Rainey has a twinkle in his eye when he talks about what he loves: his biological family and his extended family in country music.

“I’ve shared him with Meridian and much of the world, but he is just like a father to so many of these young musicians,” said Cheryl Rainey, his wife of 39 years. “He is a loyal friend to all of these artists. Our lives are never boring.”

Kevin Rainey remembers he and his brother growing up with their father, working 24/7.

“We are making up for a lot of lost time now,” he said. “Someone asked me once who was the nicest celebrity I ever met, and I told them without a doubt, it’s my dad. We try to have lunch once a week and catch up on what is still a busy, busy life for him.”

Rainey’s daughter, Dana, describes her dad’s infectious smile.

“He walks into a room, and it’s like a light comes on,” she said. “Everyone wants to be around him. I know we shared our dad with a lot of people, but he wouldn’t be the person he is today without all of that.”

She recalls celebrating her tenth birthday the week of the Jimmie Rodgers Festival.

“My birthday party was usually held in the Temple Ballroom, but on this particular birthday, I still remember my dad saying, ‘I brought George Jones in for your birthday party,’’ she recalled.

Looking back

In the early years, Rainey, a native of Meridian, worked in the sales department of The Meridian Star. He soon found his way to WOKK and a medium that would become his lifelong career; radio and entertainment.

He began behind the scenes at WOKK, selling advertising, working wherever he was needed. At the time, the radio station was located on the top floor of the Threefoot Building.

In his off time, he would observe the seasoned announcers and DJs as they “ran the boards.” He dreamed of a day when he would have his country music radio program.

“I watched carefully, learning from the best, hoping one day, I would have my own country music slot in the lineup,” he recalls.

One night, as Rainey was at the station watching one of the regular radio personalities working, he got his first on-air break when the regular guy had to leave his post suddenly.

“In a whispering voice, he told me, ‘You better find someone quick’” Rainey remembers. ‘“That record ends in a few minutes.’”

He laughs, “I knew I was not about to call anyone. I was about to go in and do what I had always wanted to do.”

Shortly after that, Rainey told the station owner he was ready to take that spot.

“He told me I couldn’t broadcast without a license, which requires passing a licensing exam. When I asked when the next test would be given, he told me there was test being given that Wednesday in Mobile.”

Rainey began studying immediately, and asked a friend to drive him to Mobile while he studied along the way.

“I passed that test and was given the 8 p.m.-midnight show where I could play country music to my heart’s content,” he said.

Soon, Rainey and Eddie Holladay, the station owner, were booking live shows for the  station. Those early bookings soon turned into establishing life-long friendships with legends like Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and Garth Brooks.

“One night, I got a call”

In 1972, Rainey and a group of his friends put their heads together to restart the Jimmie Rodgers Festival. As the festival gained momentum with each passing year, Rainey said he began trying to book Merle Haggard, which was no small feat.

“The first song I ever played on the radio was Haggard’s “The Fugitive.” Anytime he played within one hundred miles of Meridian, I would go to that venue. Back then, everyone smoked. The Hag was a chain smoker, and I knew the bus driver’s window would be open when they parked the tour bus. So, I began putting Jimmie Rodgers literature in the window every time a show would start,” Rainey describes.

“One night, I got a call around 10 p.m. This was in the early eighties. The caller said, ‘I’m with Merle Haggard. Are you the one who has been cluttering up our bus? Are you truly a non-profit organization?’”

Rainey explained how the festival worked, and this caller, who he learned was Tex Whitson, Haggard’s manager, only said, “Pick me up at the airport, and keep the Saturday of the festival open.”

Rainey picked Whitson up at the Jackson airport; he stayed a week before calling to tell him, “You got us!”

Haggard’s tour bus traveled from California to Meridian, that year, and as they drove, they stopped along the way and picked up musicians who loved Jimmie Rodgers. By the time they arrived for the festival, the band had grown to 17 members.

“The band was dressed in specially made black western outfits,” Rainey recalled. “Merle wore a custom-made white western suit with a white cowboy hat. Van Williams from Louisiana came to the rehearsal, and I asked him to sing for Haggard.”

After the show, Rainey and Williams met Haggard at the hotel where Haggard sang until 5 a.m.

This association led to a Texas television production company coming to Meridian to shoot the film, “Same Train, Different Time,” a tribute album to Jimmie Rodgers’ music.

“The T.V. crew came on Sunday, and Haggard stayed in Meridian for eight days,” Rainey recalls. “Haggard was a big railroad fan and while he was here, the M & B railroad let us use an engine, a boxcar, and a caboose. We rode on the train to Pennington, Alabama, and back. Hag closed the festival that Saturday night, but before he left town, he drove around with me all over town, stopping to let his wife Leona pick up groceries at Kroger on 22nd Avenue.”

Chance encounters

Rainey remarks how many chance encounters were the beginnings of associations he still maintains today.

“I remember them all,” he said, chuckling. “Once, Willie Nelson was coming with just his wife to the festival; they were going on their honeymoon. He agreed to come even though his band was traveling back to Texas. I begged him to appear again around the time he was in the middle of his IRS woes. I walked back on his tour bus to see his mattress on the floor. When I asked him why he would want to sleep on the floor, he said the vibrations from the bus ride would lull him to sleep every night.”

When Nelson first agreed to come, Rainey said he was reluctant to believe he would make it, not to mention that people would not believe he was coming even if they heard it.

Rainey encouraged Nelson to make a promotional tape to play on his radio show, and he did.

“He said, ‘Hi, I’m Willie Nelson'” Rainey remembers. “I’ll see you tomorrow night at the Temple Theater.’”

“Within 15 minutes of airing the tape, the ticket line stretched all the way around the front of the theater and around the block to WTOK,” Rainey said. “The show was sold out in two hours.”

“I brought Randy Travis to Meridian before “On the Other Hand” was a hit,” Rainey added. “After he sang it on the stage that night – twice -, the phone at the radio stations rang off the hook with people requesting it. I played it four times on one show.”  

Then there was the time George Jones performed in the Meridian High School gym.

“He came out singing, and I knew I could hear the most beautiful harmony coming from somewhere underneath the gym,” Rainey recalls. “I soon realized Tammy Wynette was down in the basement, holding a microphone, singing with Jones. Those are some good memories,” Rainey said.

“Mama slap them biscuits’

With a twinkle in his eye, Rainey is always ready to tell another story; he says he might write a book one day to preserve those memories.

As a young man, he signed off from that first country music radio show from 8 p.m. to midnight, with his signature closing, “Mama slap them biscuits against the T.V. I’m coming home, and I’m hungry.”

Since that day, there have been lots of cans of biscuits to open, and Ken Rainey has no plans to stop cooking up great entertainment any time soon.