The Shadow
Dale Muterspaugh has been a mainstay vocalist with The Announcers Gospel Group since its formation as a boys’ choir at the Lone Star Advent Christian Church on Nicelytown Road five miles east of Clifton Forge.
After it was formed in 1970, the group featured as many as 10 vocalists who sang at the church.
Muterspaugh recalled, “For the first four or five months, we performed as a boys’ choir.”
By 1971, the group had been pared down to five as he remembered.
“After we were down to five members, we started singing more away in other churches,” he noted.
The son of the late Boyd Muterspaugh and the late Eleanor Brown Muterspaugh, both from Clifton Forge, Dale attended Alleghany County High School where he graduated in 1973.
Dale married Brenda Hughes whose father, Bob Hughes, was a pastor at the Iron Gate Advent Christian Church for a while before moving to Pembroke, Ga.
“Brenda and I started noticing one another at the Christian Youth Camp in Blowing Rock, North Carolina,” Dale recalled.
After Brenda and her family moved to Pembroke, Ga., Dale remained in Alleghany County.
He said, “Brenda and I had almost a four-year courtship with her in Ga. and me here.”
After graduating from high school, Dale attended Dabney S. Lancaster Community College for two years and worked as a DJ at WXCF Radio Station in Clifton Forge.
Dale revealed, “In Nov. of 1975, I went to Ga. and worked at a radio station in Greenville, Ga. for seven months.”
The couple married on June 17, 1976, in Pembroke and moved back to Va. where Brenda secured a position at the First National Bank in Clifton Forge before moving on to become the secretary of Sharon Elementary School where she retired after 26 years serving in the same position.
Dale worked at the WXCF Radio Station as a DJ for a while and for UPS prior to entering the field of law enforcement on April 16, 1977, where he served as jailor and dispatcher for the Alleghany County Sheriff’s Department.
All the while, he continued to sing with The Announcers, and by 1982, he was serving in the law enforcement division on the road as a deputy sheriff.
In 1989, Dale was assigned to investigations, and in 1996, he became Sheriff Butch Simpson’s chief deputy.
Dale was elected as sheriff of Alleghany County in 2004, and he served his term and retired from law enforcement on Jan. 1, 2008.
Brenda and Dale became parents when Ryan was born in 1978. As a young man, Ryan played drums for The Announcers, and he continues to be one of the five vocalists.
Ryan married Emily Campbell, and the couple has Kylie, 17; and Caleb, 14.
By 1982, Ryan had a baby sister, Erin. She married Chris Clark, and the couple has three children, Annie, 15; Ben, 12; and Gwen, 9.
Robin became Ryan’s second sister in 1984, and she married Ryan Powell. The couple has two children, Megan, 13; and Abbi, nine.
Dale remarked, “We have seven grandchildren now, and The Announcers has released “The Announcers 50 Years” which is our 28th recording.”
Members of The Announcers besides Dale and Ryan are Alan Craft, Larry McCallister and William Nicely.
