In 1998, the state of North Carolina paid a remarkable tribute to Charles H. Crutchfield. Seven 146-acre hunks of pristine land protected under the title of conservation easement tracts were turned over to the North Carolina Nature Conservancy by Grandfather Mountain, Incorporated to honor various notables, including Crutchfield and another broadcast champion, Charles Kuralt. In terms of music history, Crutchfield is one of a group of historical radio and television producers and managers who saw the potential for country western music back before there really was such a thing. The birth of both the American recording and radio broadcast industry was his front porch and pickers were invited. Just like many a Nashville or Midwest radio producer, he put together old-time string bands, even named them, usually trying to think of something replete with that important scent of "eau de hillbilly." In 1934, he put together the Briarhoppers for a series of live broadcasts on Charlotte's WBT. While never an absolutely breathtaking old-time music group, it did involve many a fine player and singer and nobody can say the idea didn't have longevity. The group, most of the time helmed by the talented duo of Whitey Hogan, stayed together until the mid-'50s, then re-formed in the '80s and hasn't stopped since. Yet this old-time music band is hardly the main accomplishment of Crutchfield; if it was, the entire Grandfather Mountain would have been given away years ago to dozens of other talented Appalachians who put together string bands. Nay, nay, Crutchfield's role in the rise of the broadcasting media in North Carolina involves many other interesting accomplishments. The nature of abbreviated biography dictates that in the case of someone as active as this man was, these milestones will be reduced to a series of anecdotes. Beginning in 1935, perhaps in order of importance, Crutchfield made radio history by providing the first-ever radio broadcast of the notorious "Rebel Yell," supposedly used to chase the Yankees in the Civil War. Soon there would be other Crutchfield coups, including the marriage of two former slaves over the air. Incidents like these were perhaps warning shots considering some of Crutchfield's later actions. In 1941, the same year the Carter Family joined WBT, Crutchfield once again made radio history by turning down Andy Griffith's job application, supposedly because the talented Griffith wanted too much money at 75 dollars a week. This should not be construed as a slowly unfolding hatchet job on Crutchfield. It has been established that he made radio history in North Carolina, but it should be emphasized that for him, this was almost a daily thing, the way some people eat their lunch. One day he had to ad lib for 55 minutes on a live CBS feed because President Roosevelt's arrival in Charlotte for what would be the famous "Green Pastures" speech was delayed. Crutchfield was a giant in sports radio, announcing on some of the earliest baseball and football broadcasts. He also turns up in the public papers of Frederick Douglas Alexander, the Charlotte politician and civil rights leader who was the first African American member of the Charlotte City Council in the 20th century and served as a North Carolina state senator from 1975 through 1980. According to these documents, in 1969 Crutchfield sent a letter to Alexander tucked inside a copy of the -Black Panther Coloring Book. He was apparently demanding that Alexander issue a public denouncement of the Black Panthers. In a collection of Alexander's speeches, there is a strong reaction to a statement Crutchfield had apparently made that blacks were not "economically or mentally capable" to run a city such as Charlotte, a statement that would have some veracity if it was expanded to include the entire race. At the time of his racist comments, Crutchfield had risen to the position as president of both Jefferson Broadcasting Company, the original firm that had started little ol' WBT, and the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

Charles Harvey Crutchfield was born in Hope, AK, but anyone from South Carolina who is scanning his biographical records will no doubt spot one of the reasons the man could hold the types of opinions just expressed: He attended public schools in Spartanburg, one of the state's lesser sprawls. From 1929 through 1933, he was an announcer and program director for various North and South Carolina radio stations, ending up at WBT just one year prior to putting the Briarhoppers ahopping. From 1935 through 1945, he was program director of that station, appointed general manager and subsequently shoved to the top in 1963. He retired in 1977. His other professional activities included a U.S. State Department appointment for a Special Mission to Greece in 1951. In 1956, he was one of 48 businessman representing the broadcast industry on a groundbreaking early tour of the former Soviet Union. He was North Carolina vice chairman of Radio Free Europe and a presidential appointee member of the National Commission on World Population for several years in the mid-'70s. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi