My W149 morning show didn’t start until 6:30, so—believe it or not—on the way in, I would often listen to the start of Doc’s show and his piano on WBIR! (Alan Sneed)
Here are some additional WBIR AM-FM “artifacts” from almost 60 years ago. Going thru the old files brought back memories of a different time, an easier world, and - most importantly - working with and learning from talented people. It’s history worth remembering. (Stole that line from YouTube’s "The History Guy.")
BJ’s artwork was really good. The images' reality and humor spared no one, not even himself. Nor his boss.
Bill was attending UT and occasionally arrived in the nick of time, especially after a dreaded evening class. Since I went on duty at 0430, BJ knew I would get things rolling at 0457:30 with the National Anthem and SignOn carts. And while he was pulling his record albums from the album cabinet, I would at 0500 do a 4:30 rip’n-read local news. It was mostly off of the clattering UPI teletype (remember them?) along with key articles lifted from the morning's Knoxville Journal.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Knoxville’s two daily newspapers were part of an important regional media communications landscape that included several vibrant radio news operations. During my early morning treks to 1513, I’d often collect a free Knoxville Journal City Final edition from the paper’s loading dock on State Street. The dock was under the building which held both the Journal and News-Sentinel offices. In the loading dock at 0400, Circulations Department managers, who all smelled like ink, were loading up thousands of newspapers into cars and trucks driven by scores of local route carriers.
Many bundles of papers also went to the L&N and Southern railroad depots and to the Greyhound and Trailways bus stations. Passenger trains and local busses would spread the Journal (and the evening News-Sentinel) all over east Tennessee, southeastern Kentucky, and even into southwestern Virginia. All of Knoxville's media — print and broadcast — was a big regional deal back then. Technology has seen to it that this busy scene will never be repeated.
Anyway, after the news and a dash of sports, I’d play the just-recorded forecast from the U.S. Weather Bureau office (then located at TYS airport). By then, Bill was ready to slip into the air chair. Cool, calm, collected. And as always, polished on the air.
Below is BJ's highly accurate depiction of one of his 4:59:30 AM arrivals. And a cartoon of one of my alleged radio interview events is not too far off the mark.
Doc Johnston had an easy upbeat banter that made his Date with Doc program a ratings winner. But he had a habit of emphasizing the time, a lot, especially when "his train of thought got uncoupled.” BJ took note of this piece of Doc’s broadcast style in another cartoon.
The 1968 RTNDA windshield card helped considerably when hitting multiple assignments. AND it had "special value" in UT’s expansive Area 9 staff lot.
When I hit WATE-TV in 1971, there was no real emphasis on feeding TV news reporting to WATE-AM Radio 620. So the Uher tape recorder went into storage. Have no clue what happened to the rig.
I do still have my old “beat-all-to-Heck” Bell & Howell 16mm camera from Channel 6. It was a gift of WATE’s great Chief Engineer Donnie Watkins. It today resides at eye level, on an office shelf. As I approach 76, good memories come back whenever I look at the old camera. If it could talk or write. The yellowing brittle memo paper on which Bill Jenkins’ enshrined his wonderful artwork now requires careful handling. BJ did not realize he was recording history. We should all be so lucky to have had a Bill Jenkins in our lives.
Back in the late 1960s, east Tennessee’s radio markets were undergoing significant shifts in listener demographics and increased competition. Top 40 rapidly was ascending. Simultaneously, Country & Western was pulling on long pants, so to speak, leaving the Appalachian backwoods for new territories. Big Bands and the Mills Brothers were beginning to take backseat to the Beatles and The Supremes and Cyrkle. FM was in its infancy, and an AM station’s marketplace power was beginning to truly be measured in Watts. After my brakeman’s job at the Tennessee Central Railway went away in mid-1968 due to the little railroad’s long-overdue bankruptcy, I landed at WBIR AM-FM. It was an 0430 to 0830 shift as morning radio news announcer and writer for the news breaks on Cas Walker’s 2-hour Farm & Home Hour (which took place live in the WBIR-TV studio). These hours allowed time for me to work AND get to classes at U-T. Had to keep that 2-S Selective Service classification! The TC job had carried with it a 2-A classification as the railroad served several essential war-time industries including Fort Campbell. There was a really hot war going on in Southeast Asia. I read the latest and sad KIA reports almost every morning. It was at WBIR that I met Bill Jenkins, aka: BJ. He was the 0500-0700 DJ and Doc Johnston’s “sidekick”/board operator from 0700 to 1000. Doc had a long-running, highly rated live program simulcast on WBIR AM-FM. BJ’s quick wit and great voice inflections were a great compliment to Johnston’s piano playing and community-related banter. I never did know a lot about Bill ‘s background. In spite of his upbeat outward countenance, he was pretty buttoned-up. But his occasional displays of wry humor AND the artwork suggested he had already done a whole lot of living courtesy of the US Air Force. In 1969 and 1970, things in East Tennessee’s Radio Land indeed were changing. And I suspect, in order to keep his sanity, BJ drew cartoons. They were good ones. I squirreled away a dozen or so samples of his artwork…figured statutes of limitations would run out sometime. I think it has. So, here we go, stopping first at 1513 Hutchison Avenue and the notorious 2nd Floor water fountain.
(see below)
John P. Hart, the WBIR AM-FM-TV VP and General Manager, was notoriously tight. He could squeeze a nickel until the buffalo burped (or did something else). Also notorious was the 2nd floor water fountain. It either did not work or often blasted out a 5’ water arc (much to the irritation of Willard, the custodian). BJ’s cartooning often had an edge to it. It did not take long for BJ to turn his artistic skills in my direction.
(see below)
I enjoyed getting into the field with a cumbersome Uher reel-to-reel tape recorder. And I liked “spot news”…”fuzz and wuzz”… crime, fire and police stories. BJ knew I missed the railroad, so he captured me on a hand-operated railroad track car in hot pursuit of a story. Doc Johnston was a true gentleman. Indeed, he is one of the legends of east Tennessee broadcasting. But he was a stickler for order and decorum. BJ was a significantly more laid back. And his takes on Doc often were quite pointed.
(see below)
Doc worked long long days…in just before 6 AM to do his radio show. Then he managed the AM-FM operations, did production – all of this before anchoring the 6:00PM TV newscast (with Carl Williams and Jim Holiday on sports). But Doc’s heart was in radio. The artwork above has a bite to it as it reflected BJ’s take on one of Johnston’s pet peeves and on WBIR radio’s place in the east Tennessee radio marketplace. BJ, if you read this, I would like for us to collaborate on a post about the bright orange disc we saw disappear over Sharp’s Ridge early one morning. And, thank you for all you did for me, AND for the other WBIR employees who you quietly mentored.
For years AD was on the air at the iconic W-149, then he stayed on with 15Q. Alan teamed up with Gary Adkins as the original version of "The Brothers".
Alan programmed WKGN and introduced its AOR format...then headed west to Nashville and WKDF.
As part of Alan's many years on the air and in leadership Alan hung his hat (mic) at 96 Rock in Atlanta and 96 Rock in Houston.
Alan contributes to our blog, which I greatly appreciate.
Bring on The Brothers!
I was at that show. GRITZ from North Carolina cancelled and you substituted the Knoxville Grass. You were the MC. I had heard you on the radio but hadn't ever seen you. First time I had heard Knoxville Grass -- and they were wonderful. The McPeak Brothers had a new fiddle player and twice he started a song with the wrong song. It was then that one of the McPeak Brothers told the audience the fiddle player was new. The whole show was great! I don't remember Boot Hill. Great evening.
Earl Nall
Page 3...
HBD to Eddie Beacon!
Fast forward 45 years and Jeff is still on the radio at- WHIN Sumner County's #1 Hit Music Station. (think the greater Nashville area).
Jeff Works the evening shift Monday thru Thursday and middays on the weekend. Oh, his radio name is Jeff Shannon.
