Last week and into this week, millions have been entertained and moved by Ken Burns’ latest epic documentary series “Country Music,” which chronicles the history of a genre of music enjoyed all over the world. Lycoming County has its own connection to this wonderful music through the late Bob and Dean McNett and their “Radio Corral.”

In February 2003 in one of the first stories I wrote for Webb Weekly I interviewed Dean McNett about the experiences of he and his brother. What follows is what I wrote in that story.

Perhaps no person or persons have touched more area residents in the past 60 years than Bob and Dean McNett.

I interviewed Dean in his Clinton County home, he said he and his brother came from a very musical family. “We all got in music early,” Dean said. “My mother played the piano. Dad played the harmonica. My older brother, Frank, played the guitar. Bob and I played guitar and I also played the accordion.”

Dean recalls members of his family playing at local square dances and he remembers his musical gig at the age of 10, standing and playing on top of a piano stool.

He said he and his brother, Bob decided to drive to Nashville in 1948 to “look the place over.” They stopped in Knoxville on their way to Nashville and met the legendary Carter Family (featured prominently in the Burns series), who were performing on a famous midday radio show there at the time.

“We were unaccustomed to this, so being around the Carter Family didn’t make a big impression on us until later,” Dean said.

When the McNett brothers got to Nashville they met country music giants, Bill Monroe, the father of Bluegrass music and Ray Price, both of whom they would later bring to Lycoming County to perform.

Unfortunately, according to Dean, the brothers did not get a chance to play anywhere during their first trip to Nashville.

The following year, after returning to the Williamsport area, the McNett brothers stopped in to see the “Jim and Jane Show,” a live show of country music on WRAK.

“Someone requested the song ‘Waltz on the Wind’ and we were the only ones that knew it so we sang it on the show.” Dean said. “After that we got hired as regulars for the ‘Jim and Jane Show.’ That was our first real professional performance.”

At about the same time (1949) Bob and Dean opened the “Radio Corral,” an open air amphitheater near Dean’s Clinton Township home, off of Route 15, near Montgomery. One of the earliest acts they booked was a promising singer from Alabama named Hank Williams. Dean proudly displayed a picture of his mother with Hank at the time of the 1949 performance. Not long after that performance Hank would have his first Number One Country hit, “Lovesick Blues.”

“I could tell that Hank was going to be something special,” Dean said. “He was a real good person. During his appearance for us I remember him saying, ‘how come all these people want to see me.’ I think he was kind of overwhelmed by the whole thing.”

When Dean was called to the colors in 1950 during the Korean War, Bob got an offer to go to Arkansas to play in Patsy Montana’s band. Montana was one of Country Music’s first legendary female singers. Shortly after joining Montana she decided to break up the band.

Hank Williams asked Bob to join his “Drifting Cowboys.” Bob was with the “Drifting Cowboys” for two years. By 1952 Bob had tired of the constant grind of the road and left the “Cowboys.” Dean was discharged from the Army and the two of them returned to the area, started their own band and resumed the shows of the “Radio Corral.”

The 1950s and 1960s were the heyday for the “Radio Corral.” As well as for Bob and Dean’s own performances. During this period Bob and Dean hosted a virtual “Who’s Who” of country music that included, Webb Pierce, Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells, Bill Anderson, Jim Reeves, Tex Ritter, Sonny James, Ray Price, Roy Acuff, Stonewall Jackson, Faron Young, Bill Monroe, Tammy Wynette, “Little” Jimmy Dickens, Wanda Jackson, Grandpa Jones, Flatt and Scruggs, the Sons of the Pioneer, Smiley Burnette and Hank Williams, Jr.

It could be said that the “Radio Corral” was a “Grand Ole Opry North.”

Dean has warm memories of his experiences with these legendary performers. He speaks with particular warmth about Bill Anderson. “Bill was very personable. He was a pleasure to work with. He told some of the other performers that he knew were trying to book that we were ‘alright and were worth working for.’ That meant a lot to us.

Dean remembers another time in which Hank Williams Jr. played the “Corral.” It was at the same time that a biographical film about Hank’s father, called “Your Cheatin’ Heart” was out in theaters, and was in fact playing locally. The film generated a lot of interest in Hank Jr.’s appearance.

Dean said cars would park along Route 15 and the roads approaching the “Radio Corral.” “It was so crowded we had to turn people away,” he said.

According to Dean it cost between $8,000 and $15,000 to put on a show at the “Radio Corral,” depending on the star that was booked.

The “Radio Corral” went out of existence in 1970, victim of the higher cost of acts and the trouble of booking acts that were more affordable for people to see.

Bob and Dean McNett were also heard on their own radio show on WLYC and later WRAK. They also performed at venues all across the region, becoming one of the most recognizable musical acts in the area.

They cut a record in 1988 titled, Stranger in My Arms,” for a small regional label. It received widespread airplay throughout the area, but was not so prominent nationally.

Sadly, both Bob and Dean are gone now, Bob in 1995 and Dean in 2005.

In Dean’s final words to me in our interview, he stated, “The days of the Radio Corral were a once in a lifetime thing. We’ll never see anything like it again. We were too busy putting the ‘Corral’ on to fully appreciate what it really meant. We knew though that it gave a lot of people pleasure. And that’s not too bad a thing to have done.”