George -
Did I ever tell you I "almost" came to Knoxville about five years before I got there?
I actually came to WKGN in August of 1969 at the age of 24. However, I was first contacted by a friend and asked if I would be interested in coming down from Indiana when I was still a teenager. Here's how that happened.
John Patton was doing middays on 'KGN in about 1964. He and I had worked together in Terre Haute a couple of years earlier and we respected each other's work. WKGN had an opening and John told program director Joe Sullivan he knew this guy (me) who might be a good hand. At Joe's urging, John called me. I really wanted to come to Knoxville and I even sent an aircheck, but I was about 18, never been out of the market and was in the middle of a semester at Indiana State University. The stars just didn't align.
A short time later, WKGN's owner, George Mooney, bought WMAK in Nashville and a lot of the Knoxville talent was sent there. That included "Sully" who was programming Nashville when I found myself in an unhappy situation in Wichita. I called Sully, who had liked my aircheck. He had nothing, but knew Skip Broussard was looking for a midday man at 'KGN. We connected and I was on the road to Knoxville.
To complete this odd little circuit, I eventually went to WMAK in 1976 when John Patton was GM there.
Thanks for hangin' with the Possum
Paul Randall (Possum Riley) Dickerson
Ashland City, Tenn.