Synopsis |
The show is set in the late 1920's, and concerns an
enterprising woman, Hazel Hunt, of Cedar Ridge, Arkansas
who, upon her retirement as the town music teacher,
receives a Western Electric 500-watt radio transmitter and
begins broadcasting as radio station "WGAL." What comes
out over the local airwaves is a small-town diary, calendar
and stream of consciousness -- sort of a Molly Bloom
crossed with the Farmers' Almanac -- with generous dollops
of singing and playing by Hazel's "all-girl" chorus, "the
Hazelnuts," the orchestra, and that lovesick flapper,
Gladys Fritts. However, due to Hazel's habit of "channel
wandering," her broadcasts are not always so local. And
listeners as far away as Montreal and Manhattan can testify
to that. Enter O. B. Abbott, a Federal Radio Inspector,
intent on rescuing the airwaves from gypsies like Hazel
Hunt. However, Mr. Abbott soon falls prey to the
blandishments of the Hazelnuts, and the Shangri-La that is
Cedar Ridge. Inspector Abbott, it turns out, also has a
fine tenor voice, plays a mean accordion, and in the course
of things falls for the flapper... |