Page "Homer and Jethro" Paragraph 1

Haynes and Burns met in 1936 during a WNOX-AM audition in Knoxville, Tennessee when they were both 16 years old.

Known as Junior and Dude ( pronounced " dood '- ee "), the pair was rechristened Homer ( Haynes ) and Jethro ( Burns ) when WNOX Program Director Lowell Blanchard forgot their nicknames during a 1936 broadcast.

In 1939 they became regulars on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance radio program in Dayton, Ohio.