The
Delta Cultural Center, located at 95 Missouri Street, is a nonprofit
center that houses a small exhibit on blues, gospel, and country artists
from Arkansas. The Delta Cultural Center is now the home of the King Biscuit
Time radio show hosted by longtime emcee Sonny Payne.
During
the 1930s, this storefront at the corner of Missouri and Mobile Streets
housed the Kitty Cat Club, where Robert
Johnson is reputed to have played. Helena has a rich blues heritage that
spans decades. Many juke joints once lined Elm Street to entertain rivermen
and farmers alike.
During
the 1960s, King Biscuit Time was broadcast from the top floor of the
Helena National Bank Building. Sonny
Boy Williamson held his last radio shows here.
When
Sonny Boy Williamson returned to Helena in 1965, he rented a room in a boarding
house at the corner of Elm and Pecan Streets. Although now demolished, the
Sonny Boy Boarding House site
at 427½ Elm Street is slated to become the location of a museum.
King
Biscuit Time was born in the Interstate Grocer
Co. building, located on Walnut Street between Elm and Phillips
Streets. Sonny Boy Williamson
and Robert Jr. Lockwood performed an impromptu audition here in a successful
effort to persuade Interstate Grocer, makers of King Biscuit flour, to sponsor
their show on radio station KFFA.The Floyd Truck Lines Building housed the King Biscuit Time broadcasts during the 1940s. It was here that Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Joe Willie Wilkins, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter Jacobs, and others made history by playing the blues over the radio and influencing a future generation of blues musicians. B.B. King heard these King Biscuit Time shows and later hosted his own radio show in Memphis, Tennessee.