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PAUL "MOON" MULLINS - DJ, MC, Bluegrass Singer-Fiddler-Mandolinist

PAUL "MOON" MULLINS - DJ, MC, Bluegrass Singer-Fiddler-Mandolinist

www.myclassiccountry.com

Paul "Moon" Mullins

September 24, 1936 - August 3, 2008

Beloved broadcaster, Paul "Moon" Mullins has passed away at age 71.

Former radio personality for Classic Country Radio, WBZI AM 1500 in Xenia, WKFI AM 1090 in Wilmington and WEDI AM 1130 in Eaton, Paul “Moon” Mullins, received the 2007 Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award for Performing Arts on Saturday, June 30, 2007during the Cityfolk Festival at Riverscape MetroPark in downtown Dayton.

The Ohio Arts Council, in conjunction with the Cityfolk Festival and the Ohio Folk Arts Network, created the Ohio Heritage Fellowships in 2003 awarding up to three Ohio Heritage Fellowships annually to individuals whose work in the folk arts has had a significant impact on the people and communities of the state. The Ohio Heritage Fellowship honors Ohio folk artists or groups who are the finest and most influential masters of their particular art forms and traditions; Ohio master folk and traditional artists who carry forward the folk traditions of their families and communities through practice, teaching or advocacy. Ohio Heritage Fellowships are awarded in any combination of these three categories: performing arts (folk dance and music), community leadership, and material culture (folk art and crafts). The 2007 Ohio Heritage Fellowships are made possible in part by the support of the Ohio Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

After nearly 45 years of broadcasting, the legendary Paul “Moon” Mullins retired from his full-time position as the mid-day personality at Classic Country Radio, March 4, 2005. His accomplishments in broadcasting and the traditional country and bluegrass music industry will remain for generations. The memories of his unique, ad-lib advertising style for the thousands of sponsors he has been a spokesperson for and his stories of real life experiences, many relating to his Appalachian heritage, will never be forgotten by his many loyal listeners.

Born in Frenchburg, Kentucky in 1936, Paul Mullins was surrounded by the music of Bluegrass pioneers such Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and The Stanley Brothers, at an early age. His life was shaped by the mountain people and experiences of rural life. During a tour in the army from 1955 to 1958, Paul learned to play fiddle. After this tour he landed his first professional job in the music business with The Stanley Brothers as the fiddle player with their band, The Clinch Mountain Boys. In 1960, Paul Mullins began his broadcasting career as a full-time on-air personality, working at stations in eastern Kentucky. His unique broadcasting style was developed at WGOH in Grayson, KY, WMST in Mt. Sterling, KY and WTCR in Ashland, KY before moving to Ohio in 1964 where he joined the staff of WPFB in Middletown. The nickname “Moon” caught on quickly after a few months on air in Ohio. From this point on, Moon Mullins was instrumental in promoting the kind of music he loved to the people of the Miami Valley.

As a native Kentuckian, Moon’s style was an instant success with the thousands of Appalachian transplants in southwestern Ohio. WPFB, reaching the metropolitan areas of Dayton and Cincinnati, had a rich history among performers and fans of traditional country and bluegrass music. Mullins’ morning and afternoon programs from the Middletown station were extremely influential in the preservation of this music and served to introduce leagues of listeners to quality bluegrass from the 1960s through the 1980s, playing with and promoting the bluegrass greats along the way. His broadcasts are valued greatly for his knowledge about the industry, learned first-hand over the years through personal relationships with artists like Bill Monroe, Don Reno, Ralph Stanley, The Osborne Brothers and Ricky Skaggs. But Mullins’ trademark was his down-home, personal style of promoting his advertisers, bringing everyday experiences into a meaningful perspective of their offering.
With the exception of management disputes, particularly in 1981 when he relocated to Jellico, TN to manage a local radio station, Moon’s association with the Middletown radio station lasted nearly 25 years, until March of 1989.

In addition to his broadcasting charisma, Moon has contributed many other experiences to the music industry over the years. As a professional fiddle player, Moon always kept a hand in performing and recording with various bands. In 1962 he wrote and recorded one of his best bluegrass contributions, the song, “Katy Daly”, which has been a bluegrass standard for 40 years. For several years beginning in 1967, he assisted the late Bill Monroe, serving as the Master of Ceremonies for the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festivals in Brown County, IN. For over 10 years, Bean Blossom was the biggest bluegrass event of its kind in the country. In addition to his role as a Master of Ceremonies at bluegrass events, he also personally promoted dozens of other area festivals and concerts. Moon also helped establish The Boys From Indiana in the 1970s, one of the premiere bluegrass festival acts, who recorded and toured extensively for many years.

His only son, Joe Mullins, began a broadcasting and musical career in the early 80’s as well. Musically, The Traditional Grass, a band formed in 1983, including Moon, Joe and Mark Rader, worked extensively throughout the region due to the popularity of Moon and Joe’s radio programs. After they both resigned from the Middletown station in 1989, the band began performing, recording and touring full-time on a nationwide basis. The Traditional Grass produced and recorded many independent recordings and eventually four CD projects for Rebel Records. Joe formed Town and Country Broadcasting in 1995 for the purpose of purchasing WBZI AM 1500 in Xenia, OH. With such a demanding business opportunity, The Traditional Grass disbanded.

Moon was right at home again behind the mic at WBZI and once again thousands of listeners endeared to his style each weekday. No other broadcast personality in the world could speak daily to listeners about planting potatoes, churning butter, grinding corn meal or curing country hams. Moon did not merely speak of these events from memory. He continued to carry on these rural traditions himself.

In October of 2000, Moon was named Broadcaster of the Year and also received a Distinguished Achievement Award, both from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), the worldwide trade organization for the bluegrass industry. Up until 2004, Moon still played fiddle occasionally when the WBZI Bluegrass Band would be called upon for special promotions. In March 2004, Moon’s workload was reduced to a 2-hour air shift each weekday from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. By July 2004, Moon could be heard on three stations with the acquisition of WKFI AM 1090 in Wilmington in June 2003 and WEDI AM 1130 in Eaton in July 2004. This network of stations simulcasts a unique mix of entertainment and information. The combined signals reach all of southwestern Ohio as well as parts of northern Kentucky and eastern Indiana. Programming is also broadcast via the Internet at www.myclassiccountry.com.

Retiring in March of 2005, Moon was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy in 2007, a neurological disease often misdiagnosed as Parkinson's Disease. He was cared for at his home in Franklin Township until 6 weeks ago when admitted to Hillspring Nursing facility in Springboro, Ohio where he passed away Sunday evening.

A native of Menifee County, Kentucky, Moon would have been 72 in September. Last year, he was awarded an Ohio Heritage Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council for his contributions to the Bluegrass music industry and his 45 years of contributions to the Appalachian community.

Fred Bartenstein has collected the "Moonisms" - linguistic anomalies from the master himself:
http://www.myclassiccountry.com/Moon/Where%20the%20Holler%20Hits%20the%20Hardtop.pdf

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