Happy Radio December!

 It's the fall of 1969 at WKGN 1340...

6  Sonny Knight

9  Possum Riley

12 Don Smith

3 Skip Broussard (PD)

6  Eddie Beacon

12 Steve Remmel

He's got 'GAS

Dan Bell started at WIVK one week after I did, it was long ago and far away, 48 lightning quick years ago in the year of the Lord, 1976. Where were you?

Dan had moved from the greater Charlotte area aka nearby Gastonia NC. 101 obtained this insegrevious newspaper ad with Dan starring on WGAS (incredible call letters). 

Dan, like the Energizer bunny, is still on the airwaves in East TN, heard weekdays from noon to 6p on Praise 96.3 WJBZ. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...who needs a turkey when we've got a Possum!

George,

I read Bill Beason’s posting and totally agree - AM was the king of the airwaves in the early 60s.

A side note - I grew up near Terre Haute, Indiana, and drove a Chevy convertible with a Delco radio in it. That receiver, and my location from their transmitters, allowed me to get a clean signal from WSM (650) in Nashville, WNBC (660) in New York City, and WMAQ (670) in Chicago.

All three were NBC affiliates (WNBC and WMAQ were o-and-os). When they took network at the top of the hour, it was like the whole left end of my car radio dial was an NBC news on the hour newscast.

Of course, WLS (and later WCFL) were the bomb, but I could also get 5000-watt KXOK in St. Louis during daytime hours. WLS, WCFL, WMAQ, WBBM, and WGN all put good signals into ‘Haute from nearly 200 miles away in Chicago, day and night.

Thanks for hangin’ with the Possum 

Page 3...

The Randy Miller link has been updated (click here)

Ladies and Gentlemen...Bill Beason (aka Buzz Daily while on the air in Nashville)

I miss AM Top 40 radio! Ever since the mid 60s, Top 40 was a BIG part of my life. As a teenager, I lived to hear the excitement of a good Top 40 radio station. For me. that happened in 1964 when 10000 watt WNOX in Knoxville switched from an AOR (All over the road) format to a format that had been developed by KLIF in Dallas. This was shortly after the British invasion and the Beatles swept America the previous year. WNOX had the loudest signal in East Tennessee. It could be heard during the daytime in most towns 60 to 70 miles away and at night that 10000 watt signal could be heard on the Carolina coast, as well as the Gulf coast! That was the power of AM radio! And, because WNOX was on the Canadian frequency of 990 kilohertz it sounded like 50000 watts. Soon after WNOX switched to the Top 40 format other stations in larger cities like Chicago and Pittsburgh made the switch. WLS became the nation's Top 40 Giant covering most of America with its 50000 watt signal at 890 kilohertz! Also. WOWO, Fort Wayne had mass appeal with their 50000 watt signal at 1190. Another radio station operating at only 5,000 watts was WABB, Mobile, Alabama! Their signal at 1480 went into Cuba at night!! But, as 1970 rolled around things began to change with the FCC pushing FM and treating AM as a stepchild. Soon FM stations started playing Top 40 music which led to AM listenership declining. For yours truly, that was a very sad time!!!

Bob Thomas

He's still on the radio, in fact he'll be on NewsTalk 98.7 WOKI this morning at 10a.

This week Bob celebrated his 50 (nifty fifty) year anniversary of his first fulltime gig on the radio, midnight to 6a on WKGN The Famous 1340.

From there it was a fast ride...decades at WIVK with the highest rated midday program in America, followed by Hollywood, think "Slammin' Sammy" on the hit Friday Night Lights, to a return to East Tennesse, hello politics as a county commissioner, then the iconic Ed and Bob Show on the WNOX-FM 100.3 blow torch, what a wonderful way to start one's day. 

These days Bob is the swing announcer aka he fills in for the fulltime personalities on NewsTalk 987...mornings for Phil, middays for Bob Y, and afternoons for Triple H. He's as fresh, vibrant, and purposeful on the air as any announcer in the industry. 

So it's this week in 1974...Bob had joined WKGN as a weekend jock. Shortly thereafter PD Wayne Bernard exits for sister station WMAK in Nashville, same as many other WKGN Good Guys had - Possum Riley, Smokey Burns, etc. 

6 Your Dave Young

9 Frank Erwin

12 Todd Martin

3 Rick Davis

7 Jay Richards

12 Bob Thomas

News- Joe Anderson, Jean Ash, and Chris Moser.

Where were you in '74?

What's in a name...

Radio is a land of make believe, you create memories when you hear a song, you visualize what a DJ looks like in your mind, and those gnarly participants can legally make up a name for him/herself while on the air. 

Did you know...

Suitcase Simpson is really Bill Miller

Alan Douglas is actually Alan Sneed

Dr Al Adams is Allen Johnson

Eddie Beacon's name is Clay Husskison

Possum Riley aka Paul Randall Dickerson

...and the list goes on, including (photo above) Hop Edwards!

Hop was a radio and TV star in East Tennessee in the 60s and 70s. Hop's a Nashville native and Alabama grad, and his real name is "Edward Horde".

If I was back in radio I would be Andy Spears or Noodles Theodore, you got name?

Page 3...

World, Rumore, “Dan Todd” and Paul! All good ones and sadly all are gone now. 

I worked with Tony, Vic, and Bob at WKGN—and Vic in Nashville, too—and Paul at WKDA-WKDF in Nashville. He helped me find an apartment when I went to work for Jim Dick and Bill Hays in Nashville. (Alan Sneed ~ regarding our previous post)

It's a 101 Reload from 2011...

 We hear from 3 greats in the 101 InBox~

"In 1972 I had just left WBIR to do afternoons at WETE; I came over with the PD Howard Gunter (what a set of pipes) when Hall Communications bought the station. After Hop Edwards left, Jim Clark did mornings and eventually I took over AM drive. That was really a fun station and became even better when it changed to WRJZ." (Curtis Parham)

"In '72 I think I was finishing up as "Tony the Tigar" at WRMA Montgomery and heading up to Tuscaloosa  to work PM drive and sales for Vic Rumore at WNPT. A couple of years later Vic brought me to Ktown and WKGN. Looking back on all of those great DJ's I met along the way is really something special. They are a breed of talent that does not exist anymore. It was live, on the fly, radio. No script, no do overs, just open the mic and let it happen. (The World Famous~Tony Igar)

"Speaking of the difference in WKGN’s 1000 watts and WNOX’s 10,000. Legendary radio salesman Bob Crenshaw was working at WKGN. He had a car dealer on the air that ran with him every month. One month Bob went to see his guy to change copy. They told him someone from WNOX had come to see him and he’s decided he was going to try WNOX for a month.  Bob happened to look at the guys desk and he saw the person’s business card from WNOX. On the card it said WNOX 10KW. Bob quickly whipped out his card and showed it to the client. Look he said…WNOX has 10KW but we have One Thousand Watts!!! Do you want 10KW or 1000 Watts!!! The guy stayed with Bob. Why would you ever want 10KW (or as we know 10,000 watts) when you can have 1000 Watts!!!" (Paul Lyle)

It's 1985...

Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley are the Today Show hosts with John Palmer on news and Willard Scott weather.

The news team at WIVK features Jean Ash, Channing Smith, and Beecher Bailey.

Rusty Ensor was the Sports Director at WTVK NewsCenter 26.

My apartment rent was $225 per month!

Pete Rose was the player/manager of the Cincinnati Reds. 

James Freeman and Lindsey Brooks were behind the mics at WQLA.

Some of the personalities at WOKI were The Animal, Jeff Jarnigan, Charlie Wheeler, and Shotgun Stevens. 

Doug Dickey becomes Vols Athletics Director!

In the fall Jean Teague beat Bobby Denton in the Knoxville City Council election.

Where were you in '85?

Bob Kesling, the football and basketball Voice of the Vols is set to retire after this season of football and basketball. 

Bob succeeded John Ward 25 years ago and has been bringing the Big Orange excitement into our transistor radios ever since. 

I worked with Bob at WIVK in the mid 70s until he exited in late 1980 to join WBIR-TV as sportscaster.

Bob hosts with Bert Bertelkamp on the basketball side and has worked with Tim Priest, Pat Ryan, and others on the grid iron. 

Who's next...Brian Rice, John Wilkerson, Mike Keith, Chip Guberalski? Stay Tuned!

It's a 101 Reload with Bob Thomas, 1st posted in 2010...

 

...Some people tell me that my 20 years at WIVK was a long time. Compared to Ed I was a flash in the pan. I don't think there is a person that has put in more hours contributing to the success of WIVK than Ed Brantley. Remember Coats for the Cold? That was his idea. Ed would arrive at the station for the 8am sales meeting, then hit the streets calling on his list of small businesses (he didn't have the big gravy clients). He would have clients that may only spend $1,000 a month but he would have a hundred of them! And he was an expert at the cold call and getting people on the air that had never advertised. Then after a well-planned day of sales calls, he would do his shift from 3-7 and finally leave the station around 7:30pm. Then do it all over again the next day. Weekends? He would do two remotes and host the number one listened to show on Knoxville radio, Sound Off, on Sunday morning. Who can do that type of grueling schedule week in and week out for YEARS??? Only Ed Brantley, easily the hardest working man I have ever met in radio. I am lucky to call Ed my friend. Not only is WIVK lucky to have had him there, Knoxville radio is fortunate to have had such an outstanding person as one of its leaders. So Ed...I hear there's a radio station for sale in Hawaii! (Bob Thomas)

It's February 1960 and this promo ran in the Knoxville newspapers...

 

Back in 2010 I was in Ktown for a family wedding and I visited Ed and Bob at WNOX FM 100.3 NewsTalk. Like almost every guest to their morning show, I brought donuts, ha!