It's time to close out another year and start a new decade! 101 hopes you have enjoyed traveling down radio's memory lane this year. Thanks for reading and contributing.

When 101 was hatched in September 2007, our first contributor was Kerry Lambert...Happy 2k10!

When 1986 began the final AP football poll ranked the UT Vols #4...others in the top 5 were- Oklahoma #1, Michigan #2, Penn State #3, and Florida at #5!

Eddie Beacon was calling WNOX home and he was playing country music...



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Happy Birthday wishes to Bill Burkett!

As we close out this decade 101 is thankful for technology...giving olde radio friends the opportunity to reconnect.

Thanks to all our 101 ace contributors who keep this little blog purring along!

Here's my good friend and Ktown radio legend Bob Thomas~

101 ace contributor Dan Bell sent this classic photo...Football Finals at WIVK! From left...Bobby Scott, Dan Bell, Tim Priest, and Mike Hammond!

The 101 Audio Vault travels back 30 years to September 1979 and Brother John on WOKI~



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Happy Birthday to Steve Wilhoit!!!

Happy Birthday wishes to 2 Ktown DJ's...

Mike Clark and Jack Ryan

Happy last weekend before Christmas...time to "Decant and Chant"!!!

From the 101 inbox~

"Hey guys, you blew me away with that commercial Kim and I did at WIMZ back when the dinosaurs were alive. We had a lot of fun at that radio station...even if we did have to smell Lay's Packing unloading the pigs every Thursday just down the hill. It was pretty intense." (Jerry Howell)


Back in 1974 WKGN was still owned by George Mooney, the PD was Wayne Bernard...and the afternoon news anchor was a young whipper snapper calling himself Walker Johnson~

Wayne Bernard left Ktown later that year moving to sister station WMAK Nashville where he became Charlie Chase...eventually Wayne joined WSM radio and then for years hosted the telly show Crook and Chase!

In our recent very unscientific 101 poll..."What was your favorite AM dial position growing up?" the winner was 990 with 35%, followed closely by 1340 with 33%. Both 620 and 1490 were at 10% and 850 received 8%.

101 wants to hear from you...send your photographs and memories to KtownRadio@gmail.com

The 101 Audio Vault travels back in time to WIMZ and a commercial featuring Kim Mayo and Jerry Howell~

Thanks to Eddie Beacon for sending 101 this classic olde foto...this is from 1968 and features WKGN Boss Jocks Possum Riley, Eddie Beacon, and Don Smith!

One of 101's ace reporters is chiming in about the true beginnings of Eddie Beacon's radio name.

"I would almost bet my future first not yet issued but soon Social Security check on my version of the Swinging Deac's naming. Ask him and see.

There used to be a stylized metal rendition of the Scripps-Howard logo of the time, a lighthouse (beacon ~ hmmm) replete with rays emitting from its light, mounted on one of the lobby walls at WNOX. Somewhere in your blog, I think someone posted a picture that actually shows the lobby and this icon. Maybe it's still there, but sadly, the last time I was in that lobby was around 1968.

Anyway, I remember meeting Eddie on one of his first days at WNOX, and whoever introduced us used his "real" name (which time has totally obliterated in my mind). Next time I heard him on the radio from over the mountains, he was a Beacon. Coincidence? My money doubts it."

The 101 Audio Vault is from WETE (1975) and afternoon DJ Harry Robert Shaw...

Many only know 620 AM dial position as WRJZ...those call letters debuted in 1976. There is a grand history before that time with many super jocks on WATE and WETE...Hop Edwards, Ernie the Bartender, Curtis Parham, Mike Beach, Adrien Newton, Joe Crotty, Harry Robert Shaw, Jim Clark, Ben Clifton, Judy Jenkins, Eddie Beacon, and so many more!

Do you have a fun 620 story? Send it our way!

The 101 Audio Vault travels to 1975 and WETE "Iron Man" Jim Humphries~

WNOX was once known as "The Star of the Smokies" on their nightly 12 midnight station ID. Today that star still shines brightly in Ktown.

From Lowell Blanchard to Eddie Beacon to Sir Bernard to Dave Young to Phil Williams to Hallerin Hilton Hill today, the list of superstar personalities goes on...

Here's information regarding today from RadioMagOnLine...

"WNOX was the eighth radio station to sign on the air in North America and the first in Tennessee, according to Ed Hooper, author of Knoxville's WNOX. Its AM signal could be heard as far south as Daytona Beach and as far north as New York City in the day of uncluttered airwaves. It helped write the book on radio broadcasts and productions with programs like the “Mid-Day Merry-go-round” and the “Tennessee Barn Dance.”Knoxville's WNOX is the companion book to Knoxville's WIVK (see Sign Off in the August 2008 issue of Radio magazine) and loaded with a number of old photographs from the 1930s to today.

If you're near Knoxville, be sure to attend the Dec. 5, 2009, launch party at Barnes and Noble from 12 p.m. - 4 p.m. It will feature a host of people connected to the legendary station."

MY NAME~ BEACON WAS GIVEN TO ME BY MY GRANDMOTHER. I USED TO CARRY A FLASHLIGHT AROUND ON MY BELT. I LOOKED UNDER ROCKS...LOGS...ECT...WHEN I WAS 14 SHE GAVE ME A HAT WITH A LIGHT ON IT AND SHE SAID....LOOK HES GOT A BEACON LIGHT. I SAID YEA GRANNY I'M NOW CALLED EDIE BEACON AND I'M GONNA LET MY LITE SHINE....SHE GOT MADE AND SMACKED THA CRAP OUT OF ME...BUT I GOT NEW BATTERIES AND KEEP ON GOIN'...WHILE I WAS DIGGIN' AROUND UNDER A CHURCH WITH MY LIGHT ON MY HEAD...ONE OF THA CHURCH MEMBERS CAME OUT AND SAID....LOOK ITS THA BEACON WITH HIS LIGHT...LETS MAKE HIM A DEACON...I RAN AWAY AND JUMPED IN A TREE ...AND THEY SAID LOOK....THA DEACON IS SWINGIN' WITH HIS BEACON...WELL ANYWAY THAT'S HOW I GOT MY NAME...ITS INSEGREVIOUS I KNOW BUT ITS REAL THAT'S MY STORY...WORD UP...EDDIE BEACON THA SWANGIN DEACON

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101 heard from Your Dave~ "Hey GMV, this Sat. 12-4, the history of WNOX book signing at Barnes and Noble, Kingston Pike @ West Town."

Happy Hump Day!

What's in a name? Ktown has had some unique and fun on air names thru the years...Smokey Burns, Eddie Beacon, Suitcase Simpson, etc.

Did you use your real name or did you have a made up DJ name?

This DJ was called Beaver Cleaver on WOKI~