Barry CourterFor the last several decades, Chattanooga has been doing a lot of soul-searching, or at least it has been doing a good job of pretending it has.
We've spent tons of man-hours trying to figure out just what our identity should be. We seem to have settled on a couple of things: We claim to be a tourist town, an outdoor destination, a technology hub with screaming-fast internet and increasingly, we make the claim that we are an art/artist-friendly town (it has gotten better).
In recent years, movers and shakers have sought to present us a music-friendly city, something I applaud since I'm a big fan of music, and we have a lot of really good music being made here. You can hear samples of it once a week at noon on a Facebook Live program Lesley Dale and I host called Music Wednesdays. (facebook.com/timesfreepress or timesfreepress.com/music).
But, the question has been raised: Do we have a particular identity when it comes to music? Are we a bluegrass town, a country town, a rock, jazz or a symphonic town? The answer is no, of course. We have those, but neither defines us.
Recently, the same type of question has come up about food. Do we have a signature dish or food type that we are known for? Again, the answer is no.
We lay claim to being the home of MoonPie, and the first Coca-Cola bottling company was here. We used to be home base for Krystal, but it's now in Atlanta. We do have those great burgers at Zarzour's and its almost 100-year history in the same location. Nikki's has its fried shrimp and Bea's its lazy Susans and pulley bones, but I don't think those are identified with us like chili is Cincinnati, Cajun food is to New Orleans or pizza is with Chicago.
Which, truth be told, is probably not a big deal. These things really only matter to marketing folks, but it is interesting to talk about. For a minute.
» After 24 years, "CCM Sunday" will sign off the air on Oct. 29. Begun in 1993, the Christian music program has been at WDEF-FM Sunny 92.3 for almost 20 years.
DMI Concerts (Dove Ministries Inc.) began "CCM Sunday" as an all-day, every Sunday program that was hosted in the beginning by Roy McCollum, Bobby Daniels, James Howard, Jason McKay, Rhonda Miskowski and Matt Stockman.
Competition from several stations playing similar music is given as the cause for the end of the run. Listeners are invited to call 423-451-6760 or email a greeting to bdaniels@wdefradio.com. Comments will be aired during the final broadcast.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.