101 kicks off the new week with Smokey Burns. Thanks to Smokey for sharing these wonderful memories. 101 wants to hear from you too~
I was drafted out of the minors (WTBC, Tuscaloosa) by Bob Baron in August of 1973. In the five days I had before I started on WKGN, I had to graduate, get the old Austin Healey ready for the trip, and get married. (I still have the degree and the Healey) I knew of Bob from his time at WHHY in Montgomery, and knew that WKGN was making some noise in the radio industry and with the people of Knoxville, starting to cut into the numbers of WNOX. The station was staffed with great talent. After my show, Bob did a couple of hours, followed by Frank Erwin, Wayne Bernard, Jack Diamond, and a guy named Jerry Steele on overnights. Joe Anderson was my newsman and Wayne was teamed up with Walker Johnson. When Jack left, Dick Winstead did nights until we hired Dave Young. Dave was a big name at that time and it was a coup to persuade him to leave WNOX and join our station. WKGN had a very high energy sound, a very short playlist (I swear “My Maria” came up in rotation about every seven minutes” and songs that were sped up so much that Cher sounded like a Munchkin. Bob was an audio engineering genius, and the station had so much compression that if you said the word “coal” into the microphone. It came out as “diamond” on the air. Good Promotion: We tied into UT football with the ‘KGN Pep Rallies, featuring lots of beer and the “ KGN 50 bazillion watt Sound System” that Bob had built out of a bunch of huge output power amps fed into giant speaker stacks. Though Bob was an audio engineering genius, he was also tone deaf, and when the sound system was cranked to “eleven”. It was not unusual to see people grab their ears as blood trickled out. I think the reverberations from 1973 are still setting off car alarms to this day. Knoxville R and B legend Clifford Curry (he of great talent and a bad wig) would frequently make an appearance and sing his latest release, “Big Orange Country” Splendid time was had by all. Not So Good Promotion: Every Halloween, WKGN invited local pranksters to forego tossing toilet paper in their neighbor’s yard, and TP our building instead. Somehow in 1973 the instructions got misunderstood somewhere along the chain, and along with tossing TP, listeners also trenched the yard, trashed the outdoor landscaping, and spray painted graffiti on the stone building, the first floor of which was occupied by some bank. WKGN was threatened with eviction, blame was passed all around, owner George Mooney made a personal appearance, and somehow it all eventually settled down. I wasn’t there for the next Halloween, so I don’t know if they continued this hallowed tradition or not. Fun Promotion: When the great Streaking Epidemic (mentioned liberally among previous posts) hit Knoxville, I was deputized into the WKGN News department, meaning Joe Anderson gave me a tape recorder and told me to go down to Cumberland Avenue and interview naked people. After about an hour of looking at guy’s junk, I found myself next to a nice naked female student who had just finished her run. I asked her how it made her feel and she replied “It makes me feel like doing it again” then promptly spun around and the last view I had of her was a southern view as she headed north. It was the first time I had interviewed a naked woman on the radio. But it was not to be the last. In March of 1974, Bob Baron called me into his office and told me that Scott Shannon wanted to bring me to Mooney’s flagship station, WMAK in Nashville. I know that Bob was very competitive with Scott and that he didn’t want me to go, and as much as I enjoyed working for him and being in Knoxville, we both knew it was the best move for me, and certainly one that I do not regret. I packed up the Healey and headed west, leaving behind the name Smokey Burns (which Bob later foisted on other DJs) and started as “Murphy in the Morning” in Nashville. All in all, I had a great time and learned a lot in my short tenure at WKGN. I made some great friends, most of whom I have regrettably lost touch with. If anyone is looking for me, my contact is DaMurphster@aol.com.
I was drafted out of the minors (WTBC, Tuscaloosa) by Bob Baron in August of 1973. In the five days I had before I started on WKGN, I had to graduate, get the old Austin Healey ready for the trip, and get married. (I still have the degree and the Healey) I knew of Bob from his time at WHHY in Montgomery, and knew that WKGN was making some noise in the radio industry and with the people of Knoxville, starting to cut into the numbers of WNOX. The station was staffed with great talent. After my show, Bob did a couple of hours, followed by Frank Erwin, Wayne Bernard, Jack Diamond, and a guy named Jerry Steele on overnights. Joe Anderson was my newsman and Wayne was teamed up with Walker Johnson. When Jack left, Dick Winstead did nights until we hired Dave Young. Dave was a big name at that time and it was a coup to persuade him to leave WNOX and join our station. WKGN had a very high energy sound, a very short playlist (I swear “My Maria” came up in rotation about every seven minutes” and songs that were sped up so much that Cher sounded like a Munchkin. Bob was an audio engineering genius, and the station had so much compression that if you said the word “coal” into the microphone. It came out as “diamond” on the air. Good Promotion: We tied into UT football with the ‘KGN Pep Rallies, featuring lots of beer and the “ KGN 50 bazillion watt Sound System” that Bob had built out of a bunch of huge output power amps fed into giant speaker stacks. Though Bob was an audio engineering genius, he was also tone deaf, and when the sound system was cranked to “eleven”. It was not unusual to see people grab their ears as blood trickled out. I think the reverberations from 1973 are still setting off car alarms to this day. Knoxville R and B legend Clifford Curry (he of great talent and a bad wig) would frequently make an appearance and sing his latest release, “Big Orange Country” Splendid time was had by all. Not So Good Promotion: Every Halloween, WKGN invited local pranksters to forego tossing toilet paper in their neighbor’s yard, and TP our building instead. Somehow in 1973 the instructions got misunderstood somewhere along the chain, and along with tossing TP, listeners also trenched the yard, trashed the outdoor landscaping, and spray painted graffiti on the stone building, the first floor of which was occupied by some bank. WKGN was threatened with eviction, blame was passed all around, owner George Mooney made a personal appearance, and somehow it all eventually settled down. I wasn’t there for the next Halloween, so I don’t know if they continued this hallowed tradition or not. Fun Promotion: When the great Streaking Epidemic (mentioned liberally among previous posts) hit Knoxville, I was deputized into the WKGN News department, meaning Joe Anderson gave me a tape recorder and told me to go down to Cumberland Avenue and interview naked people. After about an hour of looking at guy’s junk, I found myself next to a nice naked female student who had just finished her run. I asked her how it made her feel and she replied “It makes me feel like doing it again” then promptly spun around and the last view I had of her was a southern view as she headed north. It was the first time I had interviewed a naked woman on the radio. But it was not to be the last. In March of 1974, Bob Baron called me into his office and told me that Scott Shannon wanted to bring me to Mooney’s flagship station, WMAK in Nashville. I know that Bob was very competitive with Scott and that he didn’t want me to go, and as much as I enjoyed working for him and being in Knoxville, we both knew it was the best move for me, and certainly one that I do not regret. I packed up the Healey and headed west, leaving behind the name Smokey Burns (which Bob later foisted on other DJs) and started as “Murphy in the Morning” in Nashville. All in all, I had a great time and learned a lot in my short tenure at WKGN. I made some great friends, most of whom I have regrettably lost touch with. If anyone is looking for me, my contact is DaMurphster@aol.com.