I was hired at WIVK to be a weekend DJ back in '76, same time I started UT as an 18 year old freshman...Bobby Denton was running the on air operations at that time, and he was Music Director too.
We had two turntables in our control room...actually had one control room, a production room, and the news room. A few years later the boarded up "old" control room was rebuilt into a nice AM facility.
Our formatting was simple...Bobby picked the records but the DJs on the air picked what to play...we had 5 categories, pick hits and A, B, C, and D groupings...and a back wall filled with hundreds of albums. Our conscience was our listeners who called the request line...the old "you say it and we play it" format...and it worked. I recall WIVK owned about 1/3 of the Ktown audience at that time.
Back then the station was located on Bearden Hill...and the "addition" was still a few years away. The lower level had space for a couple of offices, including Bobby's which always had stacks of records piled on it.
...and of course the sweet smell of stogies was always in the air, to this day when I smell a cigar I'm instantly returned to WIVK.
It was a good time...good people that were part of a special company!
So goodbye 2011...101 is looking forward to a grand new year! Keep the photographs and memories coming our way!!!