During the period following World War II, the radio broadcast industry experienced tremendous growth with the return of U.S. servicemen. Small towns across Georgia began to develop their own short-range radio stations which usually encompassed a thirty-mile radius. Stations could either lease the rights to radio content material distributed by larger companies or they could produce their own material that was recorded live and re-broadcast at a later date. These stations had the advantage of being able to craft programs specifically for their small geographical audiences.

The original People Act was a radio series nationally-broadcast in 1950 and 1951 that sought to demonstrate through case histories how communities had and could solve local problems through self-help. Elmore McKee has been credited with conceiving the idea for the series. Lou Hazam served as writer for the project and the programs were narrated by Ben Grauer. This thirteen-part series was produced by the National Broadcasting System (NBC) as part of its "Living" series and funded by the Twentieth Century Fund.

The sound discs in the WLBB collection represent the beginnings of commerce and industry in Carrollton and the surrounding West Georgia region. The radio station's first broadcast on January 17, 1947, could be said to mark the beginning of the transition from the Old South cotton-based economy to the business-first New South.

The WLBB lacquer sound disc collection contains examples of the civic discussions which stimulated fundraising needed to build and open Tanner Memorial Hospital in 1949. (These civic discussions would later be detailed in "The People Act Thirteen" which is also contained in this collection.) The station's founders Roy Richards Sr., Robert Tisinger, and J. Ebb Duncan envisioned WLBB as a way to contribute to the public good of Carrollton while advancing the image of the city as a business leader.