Ken Russell spent his entire career at WIVK, from the early days of the station until his retirement...in the early 80's Ken returned to behind the mic to host a weekend program. He was "Big Music"~

Like many, I am saddened by Carson's passing. I first met him in 1978 when I was hired for weekends at WATO in Oak Ridge. Carson moved to WBIR-FM (when it was country) and later recommended me for a position there, which I was offered and accepted. Carson and I were the only two on-air personalities who survived the format change to album rock (station later became, and remains to this day, WIMZ.) We loved working together. I owe him a lot for teaching me about radio, and he was just such a funny and fantastic guy. It was great to see Carson at the WIMZ reunion in 2005, sadly the last time I saw him, although we shared e-mails on a regular basis. I took a 34-year break from radio, but have recently returned to the airwaves on Sundays (3-5 PM eastern time) at WCOM-FM in Carrboro NC, doing a "deep tracks" album rock and jazz program. My first show was last weekend and I thought of Carson often while on the air.

Larry Solomon

1982 was an interesting country year in Ktown...WIVK AM 850 was fully separated from the FM, ie- Claude Tomlinson hosted Great Day on the FM while across the hallway the CP and Walker show was on the AM. WNOX became Proud Country, Q94 (94.3) beamed its signal in from Oak Ridge, and WRJZ had flipped from Top 40. All these stations attracted top talent...Your Dave was back at WNOX and Eddie Beacon was on WRJZ.

WRJZ had brought in Steve Bridgewater to program and work morning drive alongside veteran newsman David Henley. The 101 Audio Vault features Steve aka Dr Don West...

Page 3...

Thoughts and prayers and get well wishes soon to Bob Anderson aka The Bandit, he's recovering from an accident!

~rest in peace

East Tennessee native and life long broadcaster Carson Cooper has passed away. 

Carson grew up in the Atomic City and was a big part of the WBIR-FM/WIMZ early days.

He headed south to Tampa where he became a radio fixture, hosting the morning show on WUSF for nearly three decades and as a host at Radio Margaritaville.

May his memory be eternal!

The 101 Audio Vault...Bill Page on WIVK~

I always enjoyed WETE radio, circa mid 70's! CP was an excellent morning DJ and Walker Johnson had joined from the news desk at WKGN to anchor afternoon drive. The Ernie the Bartender story is Ktown radio folklore and even Scott Sams was behind the AM 620 mic. 

When WRJZ was hatched in late '76 someone concocted the brilliant idea of teaming CP and Walker as a morning team, and as is said...the rest is radio history. But did you know, after WRJZ and before U-102, CP and Walker teamed up on WIVK AM 850.

Here's the 101 Audio Vault~

WRJZ had a well known and well remembered 5 years from '76-'81 as a popular top 40 station with excellent DJs...some may have forgotten that the station had a short lived but excellent sounding '82 playing country. I should know, as I was part of the on air staff. Steve Bridgewater was morning DJ and PD (Dr Don West). This was not Steve's first rodeo in Ktown as he had worked mornings at 15Q back in '76 (as Steve West). Steve assembled a great sounding on air line up, including Bob Ziegler from Z93 in Winston-Salem. We dust off the 101 Audio Vault and feature Bob...

The 101 Audio Vault travels back to the early 80's and Scott Black on WIVK-AM 850...

Here are a couple of pictures from the Summer 2018 Knoxville Radio Get Together held at the Buckhead Tavern in Downtown West Thursday July 5th. The first is "Bandit" Bob Anderson, the 2nd one is Randy "Arch" Bishop with Bill Beason. 70s and 80s radio stations represented include; WKGN, WRJZ, WIVK, WOKI, WNOX, WETE, and WATO. Egos were checked at the door and great fun was had by all in attendance. (Bill Beason)

1982~ where were you?

It's early 1982...

WIVK-AM 850 was separated from the FM and the DJ line up for the daytime only signal was CP and Walker 6-10, Becky Lynn 10-3, and Dan Bell at 3p! The catch phrase was "you can hear the difference".

The FM side at WIVK was 6-10 Claude Tomlinson, 10-3 Bob Thomas, 3-7 Ed Brantley, 7-12 Mickey Dearstone, and 12-6 Terry Womack.

WNOX 990 featured Phil Williams 6-10, Jim Donovan 10-3, Bill Evans 3-7, Jeff Shannon 7-12, and James Maurice 12-6.

The UT basketball starters were Steve Ray and Dale Ellis at forward, Willie Burton was center, Michael Brooks and Tyrone Beaman started at guard. Don DeVoe was the head ball coach.

The news team at WRJZ included David Henley, Ernie Baker, and Brad Schulz.

In Oak Ridge at Q94 the team featured Dan King in the morning, Arch Bishop middays, and Tony Eubanks in the afternoon.

In April WNOX went country and became AM 99 Proud Country...Rick Kirk, Scott Majors, and Your Dave were the DJs.

...and that's a look back at early '82! Where were you?

I was a member of the original Q94 (WETQ 94.3 Oak Ridge) on air staff. The station signed on in late '80 succeeding WUUU and was the sister station to the iconic WATO.

The GM was Janice Bond with Mike Stewart PD and my former teammate at WIVK, Jeff Winters, morning drive. Some big names passed thru that microphone including Eddie Beacon.

The DJ line up on day one featured Jeff Winters 6-10, Mike Stewart 10-3, Rick Hudson 3-7, Daniel Collett 7-12, and Dave Brownell 12-6. I was still a student at UT so I worked weekends along with Dan Cutts. Tom Barish was the morning news man with Jan Jennings anchoring the afternoon news...day one was Tuesday November 25th 1980.

As 1981 rolled in Russ Brown was named News Director, Jan Jennings exited and Debbie Carroll came on board. 

Over at WATO 1290 Dennis Willard was PD with Mike Clark and Gary Wallace as on air personalities. PS- in April, Eddie Beacon popped up on WATO!

In March Tony Perry was added to the DJ line up at Q94 working 1-3p allowing Stewart to only be on the air three hours daily to concentrate on programming.

April '81 saw Rick Hudson exit for the all new U-102 so Tony Perry moved to afternoons, Dan Collett to middays and Debbie Carroll went full time at night. Mike Clark also took off for U-102, Joe Grant was added from WIVK...next thing you know, Your Dave Young is hired to be GM of WATO/WETQ and The Joe Show (Joe Grant) slides in to afternoon drive on Q94.

In May Your Dave offered me a great opportunity...mornings on WATO, assistant PD at WATO, and music director for WATO/Q94. YDY also named Eddie Beacon and Linda Scott as the morning team on Q94. Mike Stewart was shifted from Q94 to be PD at WATO. My time at WATO was short but sweet...not many can say they were morning drive in the Atomic City!

More shuffling occurred in June as both Your Dave and Eddie Beacon exited stage left...shorty thereafter Ken Mynatt came on board to run the stations.

...and that's a whirlwind look at year one! Fast forward- do you recognize this voice? It's Q94, morning drive, 1982...

MRB...

Wow, 48 years have flown by. June 29th will be my last day at Midwest Communications. Nothing bad, just leaving likely the last full time job I'll ever have. It's been a wild ride. Learning to pinch pennies from the master while rocking five states. My 5 1/2 year world tour to cut my hair, buy a tie and get respectable. Being a successful Sales Manager in a Top 60 market. Coming back to Knoxville for Sue's job. Building three new FM's from scratch. Being the first voice on three different Knoxville FM stations. Growing a single station to a group of ten (not my best work). And getting to wind down my career with two quality family owned broadcasters while being allowed to buy and sometimes sell four small market stations (thanks Terry and Craig). So now I write the closing chapter...not really retired, just ready to spend time on my time remaining stations. And maybe add another....

Mike Beverly 

It's Football Time in Tennessee!

Rest in Peace