Paul “Moon” Mullins, Legendary Broadcaster

This is an excerpt from Industrial Strength Bluegrass: Southwestern Ohio’s Musical Legacy (edited by Fred Bartenstein and Curtis W. Ellison, © 2021 by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Used with permission of the University of Illinois Press.). The book chronicles the important roles Cincinnati, Dayton and surrounding areas played in the development of bluegrass music between 1947 and 1989. A companion CD with the same title (Smithsonian Folkways label) features well-known current bluegrass and country artists reinterpreting great music originally recorded in that era and in that region. Daniel Mullins, a broadcaster and widely read columnist, is the grandson of Paul “Moon” Mullins (1936-2008) and son of broadcaster/bandleader Joe Mullins. The nationwide popularity of the bluegrass sound increased as it established footholds on the radio airwaves of Appalachia, Nashville, the Deep South, the Washington/Baltimore area, and southwestern Ohio. Among these regions, no