It's early 1975 in Knoxville!

Frank Kotsianas is negotiating to sell the Ivanhoe House of Beef in West Knoxville (now Copper Cellar)...and yes, every young Greek worked there, Opa!

On the radio-

Sam Sharp worked weekends at WIVK

If you dial twisted at night you could pick up Spiderman Harrison on WLAC 1500 in Nashville

Johnny Pirkle was morning DJ and owner of WOKI-FM

Bert Bertelkamp was named to the All-AA first team

POA was booming his newsworthy voice on WNOX 990 in the mornings

Ron Wright and Ron Fuller were grappling in the wrestling ring

CP and Walker were on the air on WETE 620, but not yet teamed up

...and The 101 Audio Vault features The Aardvark on WNOX-

 

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Did you know that Larry Solomon was the original midday jock on WIMZ (Rock 104). Check out his link at the right side of our 101 blog.

In the late 1970s Jimmy Vineyard and I, as WIVK air personalities, mc'd a couple of bluegrass concerts in Knoxville. Jimmy also hosted a weekly one-hour bluegrass show on WIVK called Bluegrass Today. The 101 Audio Vault features Jimmy. Thanks for a "great day" every day in 2025 and Happy New Year!

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and yes, the Osborne Brothers performed "Rocky Top".

Merry Christmas from 101

George -

Your recent note about air names forces me into a confession.

I’ve told some folks who commented on my rock ’n roll monicker of Possum Riley that it wasn’t my choice. That’s true, but what I left unsaid is that I didn’t object, either. WKGN PD Skip Broussard called me as I was packing in Wichita for my drive to Ktown in 1969 and said, “Hey, I’d really like for you to go by ‘Possum Riley’ on the air. I had been going by a reversal of my genuine name, calling myself Dick Randall. It was pretty plain vanilla. I’d used it for a half-dozen years and it was almost a place-keeper kind of name. I figured Skip knew his market and had a reason for landing on ‘Possum’, so I said, ‘yeah, OK.’

I began using my legit name when I went back into radio news at WMAK in March of 1976. Operations Manager Stu Bowers asked me, “So, you’re going to go by Paul Dickerson?” I told him, “No. If I’m going to use my own name, I’m using all of it.” When I went to work at The Associated Press in 1989, I dropped the first name because it, literally, wouldn’t fit. It was too wide to be printed in a column inch when I started doing newspaper feature stories. When I did my first print story, some AP members identified me as Paul Dickerson, some as Randall Dickerson, and at least one called me Paul Randall. I wasn’t going to let them choose, so I dropped the ‘Paul’. But after all of those years of doing radio news, most folks I know use either all three on me or just ‘PRD’, which is fine.

Possibly forgotten factoid: Sonny (Kivett) Knight’s younger brother was also on WKGN. He did some weekend jock shows and was known on air as Kevin Young. Kevin bore the distinction of once having dropped into the Tennessee River from the Henley Street Bridge on a bet and lived to tell the tale. 

Thanks for hangin’

Possum

What's in a (radio) name...

One of the many groovy things about being a DJ, particularly back in the day, was, you could make up your on-air name!

Some were born with great radio names, think "Scott Sams and Walker Johnson". Others simply wandered to the ends of the mind's universe and created their monikers.

Did you know...Dr Al Adams is Allen Johnson? Possum Riley in real life is Paul Randall Dickerson. Sonny Knight's real last name was Kivett. And when Wayne Bernard left Ktown for NashVegas, Charlie Chase was born. 

Two classic names were Suitcase Simpson (Bill Miller) and Eddie Beacon (Clay Huskisson).

Oh, and A.D.- Alan Douglas is Alan Sneed.

The 101 Audio Vault features Dr. Al...

 

 

Can you believe...

This was 50 years ago at WKGN 1340. Dr Al Adams had returned to Ktown as PD and morning DJ teaming with News Director Joe Anderson, Frank Erwin anchored middays, and Mike Beach drove us home.

The 101 Audio Vault features an incredible promo via Mike, followed by Dr Al on the air waves.

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George! Happy Holidays!

When I was PD at WKGN in the mid ‘70s, John Boy was doing nights across the street at WRJZ for the late Bob Kaghan. Over the years, I consulted several Rock stations that carried The Big Show. (All were in South except Rock 105 in Charleston, WV.) Nice run!

A.D.

It's a new morning...

 ...at WIMZ 103.5!

If you go way back at this dial position, in early 1977 they decided to go head-to-head with WIVK for the country music listeners. 

The DJ line up included Ktown newcomer Karl Shannon (from Louisville) along with WIVK jock Tony Eubanks, Ken Johnson, Kathy Hill, Dave Foulk, Don Lindsey, and more. The station call letters were WBIR-FM.

And then in August 1979...WBIR (We Believe In Rock) debuted with an album rock format. Keith Lambert and Carson Cooper were on the air. It wasn't too much later that the call letters were switched to WIMZ.

Fast forward to today, the station maintains the format that debuted in 1979, and John Boy and Billy have hosted their syndicated morning show there for years. But, all good things come to an end, even in radio, John Boy and Billy are hanging up their mics and headphones.

...enter stage left, as of January 2026 the new morning team will be Jay Mac, she's been the nighttime host for nearly 20 years, and she'll team with Drake Meredith, who has been with the station since 2019.

Happy Trails to JB & B, and good morning to Jay Mac & Drake!

 

 Hooray for Heupel Hillbillies!

It's early 1980 at WKGN 1340...on the air were Suitcase Simpson, Chuck Edwards, Jim Byrd, Keith Brunson, and Bernard Addison.

At that time the October/November ratings were released-

WIVK- FM 20.9

WEZK-FM 16.4

WNOX-AM 11.9

WRJZ-AM 9.9

WIVK-AM 8.5

WOKI-FM 7.7

WBIR-FM 6.3

WKGN-AM 1.3

The 101 Audio Vault, Chuck Edwards...

The Possum and The Rat

 Dear George -

Most people reading your blog will remember WKGN when it was housed in really nice studios atop a Hamilton Bank branch in Alcoa Highway. I was the program director when we made the move there.

When I first arrived at ‘KGN as a midday jock, however, the station was in an old building (probably a grocery store) at 22nd and Cumberland on “The Strip.”  It was actually two long, narrow buildings with a hole punched through a wall to connect them. There was still an overhead rail inside a back door where animal carcasses could be hooked and moved into the building. One day copywriter Patsy Hess asked me to record a few commercials after my 9-12 noon shift. When I walked into the production studio and turned on the lights, there was a large rat sitting on the console, looking at me and making no move to leave. It took throwing heavy open reel tape mailer containers, a broom, shouts, and two or three minutes before I had sufficiently wounded the beast and he limped out of the studio.

 I felt it necessary to explain to a couple of fellow staffers that - no - Possums and rats are not related. My genus is marsupial and the interloper’s was rodent.

Thanks for hangin’ with the Possum (Riley)

The 101 Audio Vault features the debut of Eddie Rogers on WNOX 990 (as recorded via my cassette recorder on January 7, 1980) ...

 

It's January 1980 and Eddie Rogers is the new morning DJ at WNOX 990.

530 Eddie Rogers

10 Phil Williams

2 Randy Miller

6 Scott Majors

10 Tom Michaels

2 James Maurice

The 101 Audio Vault features James Maurice (Turk)...

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...and spending the entire month at or near the top of the weekly WIVK survey- Worley Max with his hit "How Long Will You Love Me This Time".

Randy Miller interviewing Crystal Bernard back in '82 at 96KX in Pittsburgh. 

It's truly a moot point but the truth is the truth. 

In no way did yours truly have anything to do with inventing a frog mascot. 

However, growing up and dial twisting in the early '70s I enjoyed tuning in to Wacky in Louisville (WAKY) and Wisby in Atlanta (WSB). 

Fast forward to the fall of '76 and I'm hired to be a very raw 18-year-old UT freshman weekend DJ at WIVK. 

This weekend I was going thru some cassette airchecks and found one of me from December 18, 1976. I was on the air that Saturday night. 

If you listen closely (and even chuckle at my neophyte ability at that time) ...by golly, I was croaking WIVICK! 

And I did so throughout my five years jocking at East Tennessee's Jolly Green Giants! 

The official story is the WIVICK croaking was hatched in '78 in a production room. 

...as Paul Harvey would day, "and now you know the rest of the story".

 (George Michael Vavalides)