Bill honored longtime friend A. O. "Red" Healan on stage at the Grand Ole Opry February 27th as having been the first disc jockey anywhere in the world to play a Bill Anderson song on the radio.

"Red was a d.j. at WRFC Radio in Athens, Georgia, in late 1956," Bill recalled, "and I had just received the first copies of a song I wrote recorded by an artist in Texas. I picked up the records at the post office, and ran to the radio station to catch Red while he was still on the air. I asked him if he'd play the song, and he said he would. Then I asked him to wait about twenty minutes so I could run back to my room and hear it on my radio...which he did.

[More:]

"I'll never forget that moment, and my recognizing Red from the Opry stage was long overdue."

Healan, 82, is retired now and living in Gainesville, Georgia. A party of 18 family friends and relatives accompanied him to Nashville.