Memories from Bob Love~

Hey George,

I was pleasantly surprised to be included in the August 5, 2015, 101 Audio Vault for early 1987 when I was on the air at WNOX. I will say, that looking at the list of 101 Wall of Fame, I worked with at least half of them. I'm proud to contribute as brief as I can, some highlights of my 20 year broadcasting career.

Like many, I attended Russ Skinner's Professional Academy of Broadcasting in Knoxville where I was in class with Channing Smith. Some of the instructors at PAB during my time were Mike Hammond, Kerry Lambert, Jean Ash, Dr. Al Adams, Buster Sutton and Colvin Idol. 

My first radio job was at WSEV in June of 1982, 6pm to sign off, which was at sunset at that time. Colvin Idol was great and helped me get that job. Larry Trotter was the PD. U-102 was also in the building, so I got to work with some great people, Bill Miller, Dave Dunaway, Tom Van Hart, Mike Clark, and David Henley are some that I remember. On WSEV I worked with Sam Truen, Phil Jarnigan, Gene Vestal and Bob Bell. I got promoted to mid-days. I stayed at WSEV for a couple of years and then moved on to WIVK. I would eventually work a total of 5 times at WSEV, including during the time Chuck Ketron owned the station. I was also there when Dollywood owned it. I appeared on Dolly's Thanksgiving special on ABC TV. It's on youtube. It was really cool to see that old video on line recently. 

 I stayed at WIVK for 2 and half years. I remember not only working on the FM but also on WHIG AM 850. I recall Saturday mornings on the AM with Ron Sprowl doing news. Of course all the big names we are all familiar with worked during that time at WIVK. I was at the studio the morning Claude Tomlinson broadcast his show from the hospital bed. I think Micky Dearstone was there at the hospital and Claude stopped talking once and if I remember right, it was thought he was having a seizure. That's dedication for ya! Curtis Parham was someone I remember well during my time at WIVK. I wrote some commercial copy while working there. Curtis could make anything sound good, even something I wrote. I also remember Martin Baker and Laura Paul among others.

I moved on to WNOX, some names I recall there included Bill Beason, Dave Jeffries, Tom Miller and Jerry Caylor. I worked with Jerry again in the early 90s in the Tri-Cities and he was a super guy. I also worked more than once with Ed Arnold, who has been operations Manager at WCRK for a long time now. I've got to mention Mike Keith. He was just starting out doing some work at WNOX when I was there. I remember how nervous he was during one of his first sports reports. Wow, look where he's at now. Bob Kesling was doing the Lady Vols games on WNOX at that time as well.

 I worked for a year doing afternoons at WKGN playing oldies in 1989. That was a blast. Eddie Beacon was the PD and I was the Production Director. 

I later worked for 10 years in the Tri-Cities market at US99 in Johnson City, WGOC in Blountville, as well as WIKQ, WGRV and WSMG in Greeneville. I did lots of sports play-by-play over the years and have great memories from that as well. I still have dreams about my days in radio. I thought it was what I'd always be doing since it's all I every really wanted to do. I'm living in Oak Ridge and doing well working in the IT field these days. I'm glad to be able to share what were some of the best times of my life.

Bob Love

RIP...

 

Ron Cantwell aka Hoss

Ratings, ratings...

Yesterday's news is today's 101 history and Ktown's latest radio ratings are out. (Mon-Sun 12+ 6a-midnight)...

WIVK-FM 14.5

WIMZ-FM 10.1

WJXB-FM 8.8

WWST-FM 8.4

WKHT-FM 5.9

WNOX-FM 4.3

WCYQ-FM 4.0

WOKI-FM 3.4

WDKW-FM 2.3

WMYL-FM 2.1

WNML-FM 1.8

WNML-AM .5

Have you ever participated in being polled for ratings, me neither!

Music radio, no longer live and local 24/7 still rules the airwaves...top 7 stations are music, followed by Newstalk 98.7.

...of these 12 stations Cumulus owns 4, Scripps 4, Midwest 3, and M and M 1.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Suitcase Simpson (Bill Miller)~

Time for a rambling story.
 

Unfortunately, I have to leave out the juiciest parts.
 

The summer of my 22nd year was one of my best. I went over to Charlotte NC to visit my old friend Boo Baron, a DJ at the legendary R and B radio station, WGIV. I was between radio gigs and taking a Carolina vacation to have a little fun.
 

No, not a "little fun." In those days, hanging with Boo meant outrageous fun, 24/7. I figured a week or so would clean my pistons.
 

That week lasted about six months.
 

Felonies were involved. Those youthful indiscretions will have to remain secret and lost to time. I don't recall any property damage or serious injuries. Thankfully, no arrests were made.
 

On the lighter and less criminal side, there was the beautiful daughter of an overprotective professional wrestler in our complex, a great urban nightclub called The Birdcage, 2 AM basketball games in the projects, Al Green, séances with the dead by a jock at WAYS Radio across town, a famous trip to Myrtle Beach with Boo and another jock at WAYS, Bob Jaye, that, thanks to Boo's connections, included hanging out with The Four Tops and Billy Scott and The Georgia Prophets at The Beach Club.
 

Let's back up to my arrival in Charlotte.
 

I was just passing through town, but WGIV immediately asked if I was interested in doing lots of production and vacation fill-in. It turned out to be almost a full-time schedule. Of course! It was temporary, but the pay was excellent.
 

After a few weeks, I took a position as the afternoon on-air personality at the big Top 40 station in San Bernardino, CA, KFXM.
 

Despite warnings that management people at KFXM were difficult and sometimes irrational (which turned out to be true). I was excited about living on the west coast. I was a young, country boy in search of adventure. The shadow of Los Angeles seemed to be a good place to find new experiences.
 

Stuff happens.
 

Driving from North Carolina to California, my parked car was hit in Tennessee and damaged in such a way that it couldn't be driven. Repairs were to take over a week. I called KFXM to set a revised arrival date. Two days and several increasingly hostile calls later, I wished them good luck and headed back to Charlotte.
 

WGIV welcomed me again. I moved back into the apartment that Boo shared with Happenin' Herm Newell, a cool guy and terrific talent from Los Angeles who found life in Charlotte to be a little slow for his tastes. Along with Boo and Herm, my teammates included the great Sunny Joe White, Jerry Stowe, Manny Clark, and Sister Joanne (Graham). Todd Branson was the station GM.
 

WGIV was one of the most pleasant and enjoyable radio experiences of my life.
 

By late summer, it was time to say goodbye to North Carolina and hello to Oklahoma City and another legendary operation, Gaylord's WKY Radio and Television.
 

That was then. It's a different world now.
 

Since my 22nd summer, San Bernardino's military based economy has collapsed. Once one of the country's shining markets, I understand it has been a dreadful place to live for years, despite being in the shadow of L.A.
 

Time, the deregulation fever of the 1980s, and new technologies have marginalized or destroyed most of the radio stations I worked for as a young adult.
 

Sunny Joe, Manny and Jerry have moved on to the master control room in the sky. Boo and I lost track of Happenin' Herm decades ago.
 

Boo was elected to the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame in 1997. He richly deserved the honor.

I never lived in California and don't think I will. I lost interest in the idea years ago.
 

It's been a grand life. I'm a lucky man!

 

101 travels to 1973...W-149 was a unique sound at 1490 AM, powered by Johnny Pirkle, AM radio was still king but FM was knocking on the door, in fact WOKI-FM 100 was only a year away.

Here are some radio line ups from early '73...

 

WKGN 1340~

6 Bob Baron

9 Gary Drake

12 Chris Hampton

3 Wayne Bernard

7 Frank Erwin

12 Jerry Steele

 

WNOX 990~

6 Eddy Roy

9 Chris Stanley

12 Fleetwood Gruver

3 Dave Young

7 Robert E Lee

12 J Worthington Smith

 

Over at WBIR 1240 Doc Johnston was still hosting his morning drive program!

 

Hop Edwards exited his AM show on WETE 620 in early '73 and was replaced by Jim Clark.

 

Also in early '73 Jack Diamond starting rockin' the night time at WKGN 1340.

 

On the TV side...WATE was anchored by Pete Gardner, Margie Ison, and Mike Thurman. WBIR Channel 10 featured Doc Johnston, Carl Williams, Wallene, and Jim Holiday.

 

Where were you in '73?

'Possum remembers WKGN~

One of my favorites involves Bob Crenshaw, who managed the station and was a master salesman. He came back from a sales call to get a message from a new car dealer to cancel his spots because he was placing his business on 10000 watt WNOX, instead of 1000 watt WKGN. Crennie blew into the dealership, walked past the secretary who was trying to stop him and stood before the dealer's desk. 

 

"Now, you can put your spots on any station you want to," Crenshaw said, looking at the WNOX business card still on the man's desk. "But you need to know what you've bought into." Crenshaw put down his own card and pointed to the "10 kw" notation on the WNOX card. "You've put your money on a station that only broadcasts with 10 kilowatts.
  

"Look here," he said, pointing to a line on his own card. "WKGN has a thousand watts. A thousand, not just 10! I just thought you ought to know that." The dealer picked up the phone, called WNOX, canceled its spots and said he never wanted to see their salesman in his office again. He told Crennie to put his spots back on the air at WKGN.

 

Another involves the still-living, but I think I can get by with it.

 

Eddie Beacon (yo' swingin' deacon) did the night show in 1969-70, during the time I came in as a midday jock and became the program director. Before his show began, Eddie would go next door to Brownie's restaurant (home of mett and beans) and buy at least three Falstaff tall cans of beer. He'd line them up on top of the console and start rockin' at 6 p.m. His program started out strong and only got better from there. I think the beer had a positive effect.

 

WKGN moved from 22nd and Cumberland on "the UT Strip" to the second floor of a Hamilton Bank building on the Alcoa Highway in 1970. It lost its funk in the move. Gone were the days when a jock would go into the production studio and have to throw things to chase a rat from atop the console (was there, did that) and work in an on-air studio that never saw a vacuum cleaner. While we would have liked a remodel, the move to tall cotton pulled us off the strip and waaaaay down the road. Too far, it would turn out. When engineer Bob Goodman ("Goodie") switched over the line connection at the transmitter at 6 p.m., the air monitor sounded like we were trying to listen in Chattanooga. WKGN's little old 250-watt night signal was beyond the receiver's ability. We listened to the studio monitor until Goodie installed a feed line off of the transmitter's final stage the next day. We literally had to "pipe" the night signal to the new studio location. I looked through the packing boxes for the funk factor, but we had failed to move it.

Here's Possum on you,

 Possum Riley
 Middays/PD 1969/70