<P> The company gradually expanded its operations to the southern eastern seaboard and eventually covered most of the continental U.S. except for the northeastern states, the Rocky Mountain states, and the Pacific Northwest . It also began to write "ordinary life" insurance to better risks, such as middle class office workers, religious ministers, accountants, bankers, and similar persons . </P> <P> Its greatest marketing development, however, was probably its beginning WSM radio October 5, 1925 . Taking its callsign from the company's motto, We Shield Millions (which was in turn taken from its shield - shaped logo), the station began to broadcast advertising, including the company's own messages, over its powerful 1,000 watt station, which in January, 1927 powered up to 5,000 watts, and in November, 1932, became a 50,000 - watt Clear channel station (clear channel meaning no other station could broadcast on that frequency). Its studios were initially in the National Life office building in downtown Nashville at Seventh and Union Streets . On November 28, 1925, management began the program that was soon the become the Grand Ole Opry, which made country music (then generally referred to as "hillbilly music") more mainstream than it had been previously . On September 25, 1950, the company spawned Nashville's first television station, WSM - TV (now WSMV - TV). </P> <P> The company, along with nearly all U.S. life insurers, faced a crisis with the coming of the Great Depression in 1929; like many of them, it survived largely by offering its clients policy loans against the plans' cash values . With World War II came another crisis due to the manpower shortage brought about by conscription; in some areas, premium collections, at least on a weekly basis, had to be curtailed (gasoline rationing played a factor here as well) and many clients who were used to having their premiums collected in person by an agent found themselves having to take the initiative to mail in their premiums or lose their coverage . </P> <P> By the mid-1960s the company had outgrown its home office location in downtown Nashville . It had also been somewhat shamed when one of its principal competitors, the Life and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee ("L&C"), built a 31 - story skyscraper which had opened in 1957 and which was, briefly, Nashville's only skyscraper and the tallest building in the Southeast . The new National Life building, across the street from the Tennessee State Capitol, had 30 stories and was both considerably larger and located on higher ground, so it appeared to be grander than that of its rival, which was part of the intended effect . </P>

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