Happy Hump Day!

From the 101 Birthday Club we wish special days to Jeff Hawkins aka Jeff Winters/Jeff Shannon, etc. and to Cookin' Cole Lankford!

Eddie Beacon the swinging deacon has come full circle starting at WNOX 990 in 1965 and he's back on WNOX 100.3~ in fact 101 is on Eddie's Sunday show every week...

"This is Eddie Beacon from wnoxfm.com 100.3...Jimmy Vineyard and I do a racing show..."Bumper 2 Bumper" every Sunday morning from 11am til noon...We want to thank you George for being on the show every week..and bringing racing updates and behind the scene stories week after week...George has this enthusiasm and knowledge about racing that folks just love...thank you again George! (Eddie Beacon and Jimmy Vineyard)

PS~ Thanks Eddie...I hope this means my contract has been renewed for the second half of the Nascar season!!!

Happy Monday! Blogger is not cooperating with allowing 101 to upload airchecks, stay tuned...this too shall pass!

101 was living in Atlanta in 1992 and on June 1st I made a notation that Dave Foulk was leaving WSB for Knoxville radio.

That summer Presidential candidate Bill Clinton announced that Tennessee Senator Al Gore would be his running mate.

Birmingham radio was in the Ktown mix as Dick Broadcasting had spread it's wings into Alabama a few years earlier...and the morning teams in B'ham were~ WZZK Patti and Doc; I-95 Young and Elder; Magic 96 Kurt, Tony, and John; WERC TC and Ed; Rock 99 Greg and Coutrney; and at Z102 Bill and Susan.

"I listened to the Big 99 WNOX in the 60's" is a new Facebook fan page (no affiliation to 101)...it's a fun spot to make memories!

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The 101 Birthday Club wishes the best to former WOKI DJ Joe Blackmon!

Today we feature another "101 Reload"~

What great memories! Scott Black trained me at WGAP when I was a young sprig of a girl - I had the honor of working with Jeff Caylor for several years – he’s one of the best dry humourists I’ve ever known. We lost a real talent when he went to the dark side and got a real job.

I was oh, so young when I started working at WGAP. I spent the first six months thinking that the chief engineer hated me. Harry Plumlee never cracked a smile when I said hello to him and refused to carry on a conversation with me. I found out later that he was practically deaf and couldn't hear me chattering at him. His hearing aids did wonders for our friendship.

I spent the summer of my 18th year working afternoons on WGAP and had more fun than should be allowed by law for a teen aged girl. I think management only got serious about hiring a full time jock for full time pay when they figured out that the cheap labor was going to have to go back to school in the fall. ED RUPP was hired to work the shift and did a great job before leaving to take up residence with WIVK. I stayed at WGAP for four years working weekends.

WGAP was a great radio station, a great training ground for a lot of us, and a tremendous asset to Maryville. It’s sad that local radio with live jocks is becoming a thing of the past.

Tonya Stoutt-Brown

101 wants to hear from you...send photographs and memories and all your fun radio stories~

The 101 Birthday Club salutes...

* Frank Murphy

* Allen Dennis

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

Happy Birthday wishes to WIVK morning DJ Andy Ritchie...Andy and Alison are only the third morning team at the frog station since the early 70's, having followed Wilhite and Wall, and Claude Tomlinson!

The 101 Audio Vault travels to the late 70's and WIVK weekend DJ Jamey Kerr (and Joe Grant)~

101 is on vacation this week, cheering on 50.5 in a High Tide Ripken Experience baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina...I remember traveling to the SC coast and listening to great stations like I-95 in Savannah, Rock 102 'KZQ, and "Tiger"!!! The good old days of dial twisting! (Photo is my son Spears pitching for his team the Windermere Warhawks...yep, that's Tiger Woods same Windermere, Florida hamlet). There is even a team from Knoxville, and yes they are called the Smokies!

Today we feature another classic "101 Reload"~

1978 kicked off with "Saturday Night Fever" being the big box office hit.

Over at WNOX Dr. Dave was the morning man. Rival WRJZ featured CP and Walker in the morning. Foster Arnett was piloting the Z plane and reporting on traffic.

The Vols basketball team featured current UT broadcaster Bert Bertelkamp. (Bert and I went to high school together).

In late January WRJZ added a new voice in the night time, John Boy Isley.

On February 2 Tony Eubanks turned 21 years old!

In March Alan Sneed (AD) became program director at WKDF Nashville.

As spring time and baseball cranked up, Knoxville's minor league team was anchored by a right fielder named Hal Baines.

WIVK's May Shindig featured Merle Haggard and Eddie Rabbitt.

In May Randy Miller began polishing his skills by becoming afternoon DJ at WATO Oak Ridge. Randy currently lives in Kansas City...

Summer time arrived and Jeff Jarnigan was added to the weekend on air line up at WRJZ.

Over at WOKI the summer of '78 began with Johnny Pirkle, Gary Adkins, Scott Sams, Mike Beverly, The Brothers, and JL Myers.

In July the ratings were announced...WIVK AM/FM scored a 25.7, next was WEZK at 16.1, WRJZ also scored a 16.1, WNOX 11.3, and WOKI 5.5.

July also saw Scott Sams becoming the full time weatherman at WBIR-TV. Sams replacement at WOKI was Michael Henry Martin. Beverly moved to afternoons and MHM became the night DJ.

Big screen flicks in August were blockbusters Animal House and Grease.

September...Jamey Kerr got his first on air gig, working part time at WOKI's AM, WORI 1550. In late September WNOX announced a new GM, Christopher T. Gallu. At that same time Win Maxwell took over the morning news anchor position at WNOX.

Things didn't slow down at WNOX. Bob Savage was brought in to be PD from WKTQ Pittsburgh. Savage's assistant PD was Bill Beason. Savage bolstered their line up in October by hiring former WNOX DJ Robin Huff aka The Aardvark to work 10p-2a. He became Scott Majors at this point.

Up in Chicago WMAQ radio had a GM named Burt Sherwood and a PD named Bill Hennes. They would enter the Ktown market a few years later....

On November 7 Lamar Alexander (R) beat Jake Butcher (D) to become Tennessee Governor. In congress both Howard Baker and John Duncan were reelected.

Early December saw the introduction of a fine addition to WIVK's weekend line up, Ed Rupp...I was there and we had fun! Bob Thomas, Suitcase Simpson and Jeff Winters also were part time WIVK jocks.

As 1978 came to a close, the #1 country song was Crystal Gayle's "Why have you left the one you left me for"...which could be a question most DJ's and radio stations ask each other!

Here's a classic 101 Reload...

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~hmm) 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."

Happy Birthday wishes to the insegrevious DJ...Eddie Beacon "The Swingin' Deacon"!!!

Eddie currently hosts a racing show called "Bumper 2 Bumper" every Sunday from 11a- noon on WNOX-FM...

Happy Hump Day...time for another "101 Reload"~

Today 101 returns to the "alpha" of WRJZ.

In October '76 620 AM was still WETE, a fun sounding MOR format station. The DJ line up featured Curtis Parham in the morning, Jim Humphries middays, Walker Johnson afternoons, and Mark McKinney at night.

Fast forward to November and WRJZ was born! The station was nicely prepared to take Ktown's rock listeners by a storm...

The new station retained the WETE drive time jocks and teamed them up as..."CP and Walker" and of course the rest is history!

Bob Kaghan was PD and worked 9-noon and was followed by production guru JJ Scott.

Tim Edwards "Tim again" was imported from WMFJ in Daytona Beach as the 4-8p jock. Lee Taylor worked nights...of course that slot was soon turned over to a youngster named John Isley "John Boy". The overnight DJ was Rick Kirk, who went on to spend decades on the air in Ktown.

Around that same time in Ktown...101 received a swine flu shot at the doc, sound familiar? And...Vols football coach Bill Battle resigned, enter Johnny Majors!

Also heard on WRJZ in its early days...Jim Riddings, Charlie Fox, Pete Michaels, Ernie Baker, and Ann Alexander.

"George...Garage cleaning is producing more than a few WRJZ memories. First thing I found was a letter from the late Bob Kaghan (PD at WRJZ) written to CP and Walker from his station in Asheville welcoming us to the new station in Knoxville. Amazing thing is it was hand written (hard to remember when one of those came to my house) and in ink. Lots of history inside it. WRJZ started in November of 1976. Second ARB we had beaten WIVK and we were not even playing country music. Also here is a picture of the first line up at WRJZ including Rick Kirk, Adele, John Boy, CP and Walker and Tim Edwards. I know there are other pictures but this is the only one I have found that has all of the original gang members it in." (Walker Johnson)

The 101 Birthday Club salutes Bill Hays!

Happy Friday from 101...did Booby Denton ever sell cars? Not on the lot but he sure sold a ton on the radio! The 101 Audio Vault features this classic East Tennessee Ford spot...

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The 101 Birthday Club salutes Allen Free and Dan Bell!!!

It's another "101 Reload"...we first featured this story back in January 2008~

Where do I begin. First let me try to remember the cast of characters. Me...The unfortunately late Bob Kagan...and others whose names escape me. Hell, I can't even remember my on-air name at WRJZ. Maybe it was Chris Marshall, that's the name I used at WQXI under Scott Shannon (name dropper! ed.)

To begin, yes, I worked with the amazing Johnny Walker at WDXB, Chattanooga during the early 70's. Also there was Alan Dennis (PD), John Reed (whose whereabouts I don't have a clue) and others.

My clearest memory of WRJZ was new years eve, 1976, I believe. Kagan had worked his *#% off producing a spectacular midnight piece of audio and had it cued up and ready to go. On the air at that moment was a part-timer. Here is where the story gets weird. Since we were all relatively new to the station, Bob suggested that we all get together in the studio and do the countdown live. Now, back in the day, it was not at all unusual to see dj's tugging on what we now affectionately refer to as 'jazz cigarettes' and that night was no exception. When you throw in a few beers and a new years eve attitude, we had a pretty good party going. This is exactly why the FCC frowns on having booze in the studio.

When it came time for us to go on the air, yours truly decided that since this was his usual time slot, he should be running the board. And since this was going to be an outrageous piece of live radio, we should record it. So, being the idiot that I was, I immediately flipped the switches on the reel to reel (pre-loaded and properly labeled by Kagan with his masterpiece midnight audio) to RECORD, hit the play and record buttons, made sure the mic's were in audition so we could warm up our voices and that we did. Someone made a joke, he said something to the effect that I was born with a 'joint' hanging out my mouth. I said something like 'you were born with a joint hanging out your *#%'......(are you getting the picture?)

It was at this very moment that Bob Kagan, who we could see thru the window sitting in the production studio, had this quizical, horrified look on his face. He immediately starting waving his hands and screaming at us thru the window. The part-timer was equally shocked. Why, you ask? Well, yours truly forgot to bring down the faders for the reel to reel on the console. Everything we had just said, even though the mic's were in audition, had now been leaked on the air...live. It was about this time that I actually saw my life flash before my eyes! After examining the board, I realized what I had done. What an idiot I was. Not only had I aired our private conversation replete with expletives and accompanying dialogue, I had erased and recorded over Bob's magnificent midnight audio. As we all realized what had happened, they all looked at me with fear and growing horror. Bob's brain had seized up after going into shock at what he had just heard and the prospect of losing his job; we all realized our jobs were at stake and the part-timer had by this point in time fainted in the corner.

This is not the end of the story. There is much more. After what seemed like an hour (in reality it was about 30 seconds) we all stared at the phone expecting the owner to call on the hotline and fire all our butts right then and there. But the phone didn't ring.....not until about 5 minutes later. I answered it and to my relief it was just a kid. After I asked him what he wanted to hear, he asked me if I wanted to hear something. I said 'what'? He then proceeded to play a perfectly recorded aircheck of what we had just done. Holy S*%t! Not only had we screwed up, there was now documented evidence to be used against us at a later date. We couldn't catch a break.

In the end, I think Bob bought the kid off with some concert tickets, tee shirts, his office desk, etc. Needless to say, I left the station soon after and returned to Huntsville, AL. Not long after that Charlie Maddox and I accepted gig's at KIKI, Honolulu, Hawaii, and life returned pretty much to normal. Whatever that is!

Do I wish it never happened? Yes. Do I still get a chuckle now and again? Absolutely. Many years later I did learn how to be a proper recording studio engineer and have shared that story to a few select individuals. And I still get that same sick feeling in my stomach....even now.

I'm now retired from radio and am a Realtor with Keller Williams, Atlanta, GA. They won't let me near a microphone or a reel to reel either....can't blame 'em.

Tony Taylor...

Most recently, PD, 98.5 Breeze FM, Bangkok, Thailand...and yes, I have stories to tell about that place, too!