Gay, Connie B(arriot)

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(b Lizard Lick, nr Knightdale, NC, Aug 22, 1914; d Falls Church, VA, Dec 4, 1989). American country music radio announcer, station owner, television producer, and concert promoter. He studied agriculture at North Carolina State University (BS 1935) and then joined the US Department of Agriculture. From 1935 to 1945 he produced the department’s network radio program, The National Farm and Home Hour. After World War II he launched a number of country music enterprises around Washington, DC, using the moniker Town and Country Time as a unifying brand. His activities included a concert series in Constitution Hall, a morning radio program on WARL (Arlington, VA) called Let’s be gay, and an afternoon program called Town and Country Time, which was later syndicated on radio and television. Gay owned radio stations throughout the upper southeast, and his were among the first to experiment with full-time country music broadcasting. He was also a pioneer in television. In the mid-1950s he produced a three-hour NBC network television show, ...