Happy Birthday
The life lines of a city, the growing pains of a paper
On June 29, 1989, the Nashville Scene published a 24-page paper. The cover story had been written by a local doctor, Bill Frist. The copy was clean; best of all, we didn’t have to pay for it.
That was our first issue under new management; as far as we are concerned, that was also our first issue as a new newspaper.
As we look back on 10 years of Nashville and the Nashville Scene, we can only give thanks for our grand experiment in journalism. We have laughed, we have cried, we have died a thousand deaths and been born again. We have lived through the Boner years, watched buildings tumble, done the Donahue show, matched wits with libel attorneys, and seen daily newspapers crash, burn, and crash again. We have seen politicians go to jail, find Jesus Christ, and shoot themselves. We have yelled, we have begged, we have cajoled, and we have run lots of corrections.
This 10th-year anniversary issue is about a city we love and a paper we love putting out. Sometimes we have careened unmercifully out of control. But sometimes this city has, too. It has been a damn fine decade to be reporting on this city. We have no complaints, only thanks.
What a difference a decade makes.
