The Habersham County Commission last week honored the Rev. Billy Burrell for 68 years of radio ministry to the citizens of Habersham County.
Burrell hosted “Sunshine Melodies”, the longest-running weekday radio show hosted by the same person in North America. Burrell also pastored more than a dozen churches, the longest being Hazel Creek Baptist Church in Mt. Airy for 30 years.
For seven decades, Burrell brought sunshine to the people of Northeast Georgia and beyond with his early morning “Sunshine Melodies” radio program.
But radio was not his first vocation.
Because the church he was pastoring couldn’t pay him enough to put gas in his car, Burrell was working at WLET Radio in Toccoa when the preacher he was putting on the air every morning decided he wanted to take Mondays off. Burrell says he asked for and received the opportunity to fill that spot.
“I had had this thought in the back of my mind about a program that would be musical,” Burrell said. “And it could be devotional. So, I looked down at the turntable, and there was one of them the old 78 RPM that I had played as the opening theme. And it's Herman Voss playing the organ. And the title of the song was Sunshine Medley. And I thought it said, melodies. That's where I got the name Sunshine Melodies.”
Then Burrell moved out of state but continued to send his program in on reel-to-reel tape.
On one of his return trips to the area, Burrell sought out Billy and Bobby Massey, who were operating the 250-watt WCON AM station in Cornelia.
“Being out in Mississippi, the wife and I would come back to visit you over here occasionally. We came by one time, I said, I want to stop by the Cornelia station, and I'd like to see the Massey brothers that were operating it at that time,” Burrell said. “And I wanted them to listen to the tape and see if they'd be interested in running it. They did. And they wanted the program, so I began taping out Mississippi and mailing over here. And that was aired Wednesday evenings – a 30-minute program.”
The program became a popular staple in February 1954, but when John Foster took over station management “Sunshine Melodies” almost didn’t make the cut, Burrell says.
“And when John came in, he began looking over material they had, and he began to toss out things that he didn't know anything about,” Burrell said. “So, he tossed out my tape on Wednesday night. And the first night he did it, he said all the phones lit up out at the old station. People wanting to know where that Sunshine Melodies was.”
Once Foster listened to it, he asked Burrell to do the program daily. At that time, Burrell was living in Banks County and sending the tapes to the station via a mail carrier. One day at the post office, Foster told Burrell he was short on radio announcers and was having to fill the shifts himself, asking if Burrell could help out, as Burrell recalls.
“’Would you consider just filling in for me for a little while I'm searching for somebody to do this?’ He never did come around with somebody else fill the place, so a few years ago I asked him if he had ever found anyone yet. He said, ‘no’.”
In fact, “Sunshine Melodies” maintained its 5:30 a.m. broadcast slot until July 1st, when Burrell signed off for the last time, signaling the beginning of his retirement at age 92.
Burrell says the program’s growth and ministry was an answer to his prayers over the years.
“I would be concerned that we were reaching so limited distance,” Burrell said. “And I began praying and asking the Lord if He wanted this program to go out would he open up the door for us to reach further. It wasn't long until they did get the opportunity to increase it. And they did. They did eventually on FM went on all the way up to 50,000 watts until just a few years ago, the door opened so they could go 100,000 watts. And I've had the privilege of being on the radio and that power, plus the Internet.”
Longtime Toccoa radio personality Ted Taylor, who worked with Burrell at WCON in Cornelia for six years, said Burrell had a special bond with his audience.
“He would get phone calls every morning,” Taylor said. “And his inspiration in the morning was a true inspiration to just thousands of fans all over North Georgia. He would play Gospel music. He would kind of give a Gospel message with that. And that meant a lot to a lot of people – and they still do.”
To faithful “Sunshine Melodies” listeners, Burrell became part of their household. That was never more evident than when families turned to Burrell when they lost a loved one.
“The undertaker would say, ‘Well, who do you want to be a preacher?’ And they'd say, ‘Well, I don't know anyone’. And they'd keep thinking, trying to think of a preacher they could get. And finally, they'd say, ‘Oh, get Billy Burrell’ because they'd heard my voice and my speaking over the radio so much.”
To others, Burrell became their pastor – especially those who didn’t have a home church, or who didn’t attend one regularly.
“People would call for prayer, and they wouldn't know where else to turn right then,” Burrell said. “I got a letter from a man years ago. And he wrote it out himself by hand. And he said, Mr. Burrell, I want you to know that I do belong to a church. But he said, my pastor, ‘I don't know him that well’. He said, ‘You have become my pastor on radio’. The time came for him to pass, and I was called on to do his funeral.”
And there were others who did not like radio preachers but found salvation because of Burrell and “Sunshine Melodies”.
“One man listened to me,” Burrell said. “He said that he never did listen to preachers. He just turned them off when the time came for them to come on. He loved country music. So, I was playing country music at the time. And he said I enjoyed the kind of music and the way you played it on the radio. And he said I heard you announce about that ‘Sunshine Melodies’ and he said I turned that on. And he said, it got to me. He said I had to give my life to Christ just listening to you.”
In at least one instance many years ago, Burrell saved a suicidal listener’s life by talking to him and then sending the police to his house.
Burrell said now that he’s retired at 92 years old, he may try sleeping later because he won’t have to be somewhere so early every day.
