SUTTON, TOMMY (1910-1992)

Tommy Sutton was originally a western-style singer who worked in various bands at WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia. He came to Dayton as a country deejay and worked at several area radio stations in the 1950s, including WONE, WPFB, and WING, calling himself “The Old Cornbread Eater and Buttermilk Drinker-Upper.” He used Flatt and Scruggs’s “Dear Old Dixie” as one of his theme songs. Because he came from West Virginia, he was familiar with Mac Wiseman and pretty much made Mac a star in Dayton when no one else was playing his records. Tommy was personally responsible for securing the MGM Records contract for the Osborne Brothers and Red Allen, and helped the Trace Family Trio to get a contract with King Records.
