(Original Caption) 10/25/1970- Nashville, TN- Since 1925, Ryman Auditorium has been the “home” of … [+]
Three years ago this month, a new TV channel called Circle launched with the intention of providing great series and performances to fans of country music. The company started with plenty of resources and ideas…but then, the world changed for the worse. “We put together a wonderful plan and launched January 1st,” explained Circle general manager Drew Reifenberger, “And by March 13th we were kind of out of business.”
Covid decimated countless companies, but it was a death sentence for many that had just gotten started. “Because we didn’t launch with a big library, we couldn’t make programs. I mean, it got really, really tricky,” Reifenberger admitted during a recent call. The fledgling network was in trouble right from the start. The newly-hired team struggled with what the world was going through in addition to all the problems associated with operating a brand new business, but they didn’t give up.
For a while, Circle aired almost nothing new and original except for performances that took place at the Grand Ole Opry, perhaps the most revered stage in the country music world. “The bright spot in that horrible situation was we were able to keep the Opry alive,” said Reifenberger. “For 32 weeks we did the Opry with no audience.” That might sound a bit dull–especially in today’s competitive TV industry–but it was better than nothing. “We were the only thing on television that was live and original each week. No other live program, no sports, no nothing.” That was no small feat in the spring of 2020, and it mattered to people.
“Remember those first early weeks and months? There was a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty,” remembered the music and TV executive. “We were this great little shelter in the storm, every Saturday night. And that was a wonderful thing to be able to do.”
Circle had access to those live performances because the channel is a joint venture between Opry Entertainment Group and Gray Television
Airing performances from the Grand Ole Opry–which continued in part due to the dedication of the artists and their love for the venue–helped keep Circle alive, but they were just a band aid. “So that’s an hour a week, so that’s awesome,” Reifenberger joked as he remembered the early days of the network. “We had to get really creative in how we made, bought, and borrowed programming for the next year and a half. And it was hard. It was really, really hard.”
While Covid was a horrible situation for countless people and businesses, the man in charge of Circle suggested that it may have held a silver lining for the network. “What you find is that pressure makes you better, it makes you more creative,” Reifenberger shared. “If you have all the time in the world, all the resources in the world, you generally don’t get a spark started. Pressure is a very healthy thing. Covid was like that to the nth degree.” He continued with a lesson that he and his colleagues likely didn’t want to learn, but which may be of use to other firms who will come to face serious roadblocks in the future:
“Growing a business in crisis can be a good thing, because it makes you focus and makes you think about what’s important. It really makes you be very intellectually honest about what you’re good at and what you’re not so good at. All the things that you can work through over time.”
Once Covid subsided, Circle was able to really get its act together. “2022 was kind of our first real full year of operation,” Reifenberger conceded. “It’s just a whole different world. We’re in production. We’ve got over a dozen original programs and we’re doing specials. Now it looks like a proper network. It’s not just a patchwork quilt of stuff we could find.” This year, additional new programs are being introduced and the company has ramped up its distribution, so it’s available to more people in more households than ever before.
Circle’s signature program My Opry Debut, which sees newcomers play the venue for the first time alongside more established acts, just premiered its fourth season. This time around, names like The Beach Boys, Allison Russell, and even former Mötley Crüe rocker Vince Neil are on the schedule. Also coming up are the long-overdue docuseries History of Country and a special documentary called Ryman 130: The Evolution of an Icon, which is all about another legendary Nashville venue.
The brand new TV channel was able to survive Covid due to the ingenuity and creativity of its staff, as well as the country music family that welcomed it to Nashville with open arms, which Reifenberger described as unlike “anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/01/26/the-story-of-how-the-grand-ole-opry-helped-save-a-brand-new-tv-network-during-covid/