From: noway@nowhere.com   
      
   Former radio personality for Classic Country Radio, WBZI AM 1500 in Xenia,   
   WKFI AM 1090 in Wilmington and WEDI AM 1130 in Eaton, Paul "Moon" Mullins,   
   received the 2007 Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award for Performing Arts on   
   Saturday, June 30, 2007during the Cityfolk Festival at Riverscape MetroPark   
   in downtown Dayton.   
      
   The Ohio Arts Council, in conjunction with the Cityfolk Festival and the   
   Ohio Folk Arts Network, created the Ohio Heritage Fellowships in 2003   
   awarding up to three Ohio Heritage Fellowships annually to individuals whose   
   work in the folk arts has had a significant impact on the people and   
   communities of the state. The Ohio Heritage Fellowship honors Ohio folk   
   artists or groups who are the finest and most influential masters of their   
   particular art forms and traditions; Ohio master folk and traditional   
   artists who carry forward the folk traditions of their families and   
   communities through practice, teaching or advocacy.  Ohio Heritage   
   Fellowships are awarded in any combination of these three categories:   
   performing arts (folk dance and music), community leadership, and material   
   culture (folk art and crafts).  The 2007 Ohio Heritage Fellowships are made   
   possible in part by the support of the Ohio Humanities Council, an affiliate   
   of the National Endowment for the Humanities.   
      
   After nearly 45 years of broadcasting, the legendary Paul "Moon" Mullins   
   retired from his full-time position as the mid-day personality at Classic   
   Country Radio, March 4, 2005.  His accomplishments in broadcasting and the   
   traditional country and bluegrass music industry will remain for   
   generations.  The memories of his unique, ad-lib advertising style for the   
   thousands of sponsors he has been a spokesperson for and his stories of real   
   life experiences, many relating to his Appalachian heritage, will never be   
   forgotten by his many loyal listeners.   
      
   Born in Frenchburg, Kentucky in 1936, Paul Mullins was surrounded by the   
   music of Bluegrass pioneers such Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and The Stanley   
   Brothers, at an early age.  His life was shaped by the mountain people and   
   experiences of rural life.  During a tour in the army from 1955 to 1958,   
   Paul learned to play fiddle.  After this tour he landed his first   
   professional job in the music business with The Stanley Brothers as the   
   fiddle player with their band, The Clinch Mountain Boys.  In 1960, Paul   
   Mullins began his broadcasting career as a full-time on-air personality,   
   working at stations in eastern Kentucky.  His unique broadcasting style was   
   developed at WGOH in Grayson, KY, WMST in Mt. Sterling, KY and WTCR in   
   Ashland, KY before moving to Ohio in 1964 where he joined the staff of WPFB   
   in Middletown.  The nickname "Moon" caught on quickly after a few months on   
   air in Ohio.  From this point on, Moon Mullins was instrumental in promoting   
   the kind of music he loved to the people of the Miami Valley.   
      
   As a native Kentuckian, Moon's style was an instant success with the   
   thousands of Appalachian transplants in southwestern Ohio.  WPFB, reaching   
   the metropolitan areas of Dayton and Cincinnati, had a rich history among   
   performers and fans of traditional country and bluegrass music.  Mullins'   
   morning and afternoon programs from the Middletown station were extremely   
   influential in the preservation of this music and served to introduce   
   leagues of listeners to quality bluegrass from the 1960s through the 1980s,   
   playing with and promoting the bluegrass greats along the way.   His   
   broadcasts are valued greatly for his knowledge about the industry, learned   
   first-hand over the years through personal relationships with artists like   
   Bill Monroe, Don Reno, Ralph Stanley, The Osborne Brothers and Ricky Skaggs.   
   But Mullins' trademark was his down-home, personal style of promoting his   
   advertisers, bringing everyday experiences into a meaningful perspective of   
   their offering.   
   With the exception of management disputes, particularly in 1981 when he   
   relocated to Jellico, TN to manage a local radio station, Moon's association   
   with the Middletown radio station lasted nearly 25 years, until March of   
   1989.   
      
   In addition to his broadcasting charisma, Moon has contributed many other   
   experiences to the music industry over the years.  As a professional fiddle   
   player, Moon always kept a hand in performing and recording with various   
   bands.  In 1962 he wrote and recorded one of his best bluegrass   
   contributions, the song, "Katy Daly", which has been a bluegrass standard   
   for 40 years.  For several years beginning in 1967, he assisted the late   
   Bill Monroe, serving as the Master of Ceremonies for the Bean Blossom   
   Bluegrass Festivals in Brown County, IN.  For over 10 years, Bean Blossom   
   was the biggest bluegrass event of its kind in the country.  In addition to   
   his role as a Master of Ceremonies at bluegrass events, he also personally   
   promoted dozens of other area festivals and concerts.  Moon also helped   
   establish The Boys From Indiana in the 1970s, one of the premiere bluegrass   
   festival acts, who recorded and toured extensively for many years.   
      
   His only son, Joe Mullins, began a broadcasting and musical career in the   
   early 80's as well. Musically, The Traditional Grass, a band formed in 1983,   
   including Moon, Joe and Mark Rader, worked extensively throughout the region   
   due to the popularity of Moon and Joe's radio programs.  After they both   
   resigned from the Middletown station in 1989, the band began performing,   
   recording and touring full-time on a nationwide basis.  The Traditional   
   Grass produced and recorded many independent recordings and eventually four   
   CD projects for Rebel Records.  Joe formed Town and Country Broadcasting in   
   1995 for the purpose of purchasing WBZI AM 1500 in Xenia, OH.  With such a   
   demanding business opportunity, The Traditional Grass disbanded.   
      
   Moon was right at home again behind the mic at WBZI and once again thousands   
   of listeners endeared to his style each weekday.  No other broadcast   
   personality in the world could speak daily to listeners about planting   
   potatoes, churning butter, grinding corn meal or curing country hams.  Moon   
   did not merely speak of these events from memory.  He continued to carry on   
   these rural traditions himself.   
      
   In October of 2000, Moon was named Broadcaster of the Year and also received   
   a Distinguished Achievement Award, both from the International Bluegrass   
   Music Association (IBMA), the worldwide trade organization for the bluegrass   
   industry.  Up until 2004, Moon still played fiddle occasionally when the   
   WBZI Bluegrass Band would be called upon for special promotions.  In March   
   2004, Moon's workload was reduced to a 2-hour air shift each weekday from   
   12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.  By July 2004, Moon could be heard on three stations   
      
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