Today we open the 101 InBox~
"When I was in College I was determined to get a job in Knoxville radio. I had worked in my home town of Kingsport for George Devault (big voice on the Vol Network bumpers now) at WKPT and had worked at my high school TV station at Dobyns-Bennett. Problem was I didn’t have a car. You weren’t allowed to have one as a freshman then and my dad had told me to buy one whenever I wanted. Ha! So I hitchhiked out about every couple weeks to a different radio station trying to get a job. I used to go see Don Patrick at WETE, Joe Anderson at WKGN, Mike Hammond at WIVK, Dave Foulk at WTVK Channel 26. Finally after about 9 months of doing this Mike Hammond gave me an opportunity to work election coverage at WIVK. It was for free and I told him I would if I could work with he or Asst. News Director Bill Williams. He agreed and sent me with Bill to Election Headquarters. Bill had to come pick me up because I still didn’t have a car. That night I busted it and convinced Bill to go back the next day and talk Mike in to hiring me. He did and I ended up working there until I graduated about 3 years later. By then our owner Jim Dick had bought WKDA and WKDF in Nashville and Mike had transferred there. He then hired me to come to Nashville. I ended up working for Dick Broadcasting for 27 years until they sold to Citadel and I worked for them for 4 years. The last 20 of those great years was as General Sales Manager for the Nashville Stations. All because Mike Hammond took on a hitchhiker in Knoxville. Pretty cool. I’m also glad my dad let me (with my own money of course) buy that car for $1300 when I got the job!" (Paul Lyle)
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