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101 wants to hear from you~ Who are the 5 most important/influential people in Knoxville radio history?

101 proudly introduces "The Steve Howard Collection". Steve worked at WRJZ while attending UT, circa- 70's, and did alot of airchecking. We open with Mike Beach (commercial) and DJ Coyote Smith on WKGN. Coyote was also known as Robert E. Lee on WNOX a few years before working nights at WKGN in '75~

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"I really enjoy your site daily. So many great talents worked in Knoxville and East Tennessee. These times are now cherished memories." (Allen Dennis)



Back in 1980 JJ Scott was hosting a fun show on Sunday night's at WRJZ!

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101 wants to hear from you~

"Who are the all time 5 most important/influential people in Knoxville radio history?"

Send your thoughts and comments to...KtownRadio@gmail.com


Your vote will be kept confidential! If 101 receives feedback I'll tally the results!

101 hopes you had a wonderful Easter. I was bantering on email with Jack Diamond aka Coyote Calhoun on WAMZ Louisville. You can listen to Coyote via the iHeartRadio app....

"You know I was just thinkin', I have yet to see one photo of myself during my tenure at 'KGN. I know there had to be some taken, but who knows whatever happened to them. Of course I was only there 7 months! I also just remembered that Bob Baron did a short film about the THE HISTORY OF ROCK AND RADIO. He shot this feature shortly after I came to town in February of '73, and we took that around to all the high schools and junior highs to show. All of the airstaff starred in the film. Wayne Bernard...Chris Hampton...Frank Erwin...Jerry Steele and myself. I played the part of an AOR Jock which was about as far away from my act as you could possibly get. Ha! I wonder if any copies of that are floating around. Could be Baron still has a copy. To find footage of this 38 years later would be a jewel!" (Coyote Calhoun)

The good olde days, circa- '76!

This was my first radio job, WBLC 1360, in Lenoir City. Top to bottom...Earl Lauderdale, Rick Smith, and me!

got Photos? Send your golden oldie photos to 101!

The 101 Audio Vault travels to August 1979 and Rick Edwards on WNOX 990~

The DJ line up was...

530-10 Dr Dave Dunaway

10-2 Phil Williams

2-6 Scott Majors

6-10 Rick Edwards

10-2 Tom Michaels

2-530 James Maurice

It's June 1986~

The Knoxville minor league team (aka K-Jays) lost star Kash Beauchamp to AAA Syracuse.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger announced his retirement.

In the NBA draft, Brad Daugherty was selected by the Cavs, Len Bias by the Celtics.

In Chicago, WLS was known as "The Great AM 89" and featured 530-10 Fred Winston, 10-230 Don and Roma, 230-7 Larry Lujack, and 7-12 John Landecker...

And on the local radio scene...WQLA 105's drive time DJs were Freeman in the morning and 2-6p Tony Lawson.

From the 101 InBox we heard from Paul Lyle, re- Steve Howard's post...

"Since I grew up in Kingsport listening to WKIN, WJSO and WFHG I can surely relate. Hope he sends you the WKGN aircheck and you can post it. I listened to that station when I was in college and working at WIVK."

Birthday wishes this week to Smokey Burns and Kerry Lambert!

"Hey folks, Steve Howard here. I was in Knoxville for a number of years (74-81) going to the College of Engineering at UTK and driving to my hometown of Kingsport, working weekends at WKIN 1320 (which spawned Dick Winstead and Wayne Bernard). However, from July '80 to August '81 I worked 12m-6am at WRJZ. I was hired by Fred Story (whom I knew from his days at WJSO in Jonesboro/Johnson City TN) and finished my tenure under Tim Edwards. Martin Baker and I were roomies for a while and he started at RJZ while I was there. I have some airchecks of me on RJZ, but more importantly, I have a pretty comprehensive 24-hour check of WKGN from the fall of 1975. The lineup was Dr. Al Adams 6-10 am, Frank Erwin 10a-3p, Mike Beach 3-7 pm, Coyote Smith 7p-12m, and David Todd 12m-6am. It's vintage stuff, especially the Beach material. Joe Anderson, Lauren Murphy and Steven Ray King do news. Incidentally, Coyote Smith, who had worked earlier at WNOX as Robert E. Lee, used that name in the 70s at WFHG 980/Bristol TN/VA. I actually worked with him for about a month in the fall of '81 in Kingsport. I left RJZ when I got the job as PD at WKIN; they bought an existing FM which became album rock "Y-105", and Larry did Sunday mornings for about a month, using his real name, and "Smitty" some as well. (Best I remember, he was laid off when Bahakel corporate ordered that a fulltime staff member be given an additional weekend shift, and Larry was out. Haven't seen him since!) I'm now living in Charlotte and out of radio, but Knoxville radio is part of my growing-up and college years! Keep up the great stuff." (Steve Howard)

"Great job as always on the site! I was hired by program director James Freeman to work at Music Country 103 WBIR-FM – and stayed through the format change to WIMZ “We Belive in Rock!” Here are some photos (please credit James Finch for the photos) from that era. I love the WBIR automation (Music of Your Life!)" (Carson Cooper)

"Hi George...Back in the late '60s when I worked at WIVK, Bobby Denton was a good friend. I remember one year on his birthday, the girl I was dating at the time made a cake for him which we personally delivered while he was on the air. Using his nickname "Booby", the cake was...shall we say appropriately decorated...You have to visualize the "mounds" of frosting to get where this is coming from. Needless to say, it was great fun watching and listening to Booby try to explain to the radio audience what the cake looked like. Tasted great, too!" (Jack Hansen)

Back in the day WBIR 1240 AM was a leading MOR station and featured "Date with Doc" (Doc Johnston) as morning host for a quarter of a century. 103.5 FM became WBIR's sister station and played country in the mid to late 70's. In 1979 the station flipped to AOR and brought in a new group of DJs! Did you work at the soon to be WIMZ? Send your photographs and memories to 101! One of the early voices was Kerry Lambert who had gotten his start at WKGN...Kerry went on to be the station manager at WIMZ for many years.

The 101 Audio Vault features Kerry aka Keith Lambert~



Page 3...Guess who is celebrating a birthday? Happy Happy to Walker Johnson!!!

"It was April 1st 1991! Wilhite and Wall replaced the legendary Claude the Cat. We always said they picked that date so if we really sucked they could say "Nah, that's just an April Fool's joke, the new morning show will be here in a few weeks!" Our 6+ years at WIVK were some of the best times we ever had in radio. Bobby Denton was terrific and Les Acree taught us how to do a real morning show. We had a lot of help from Channing Smith, Mike Keith, Tonya Stout Brown, Hallerin Hill, Bob Thomas, Ed Brantley, Dave Foulk, Jan Oliver, Terry Womack, Ed Rupp and especially Your Dave Young who took us under his wing/pit, gave us his support and made sure we knew the history of Knoxville radio." (Darren Wilhite)

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Happy Birthday to Your Dave!!!

Today's 101 Audio Vault is an exclusive day in the life of the radio show known as "Wilhite and Wall"~