My brother Phil Vavalides also passed away on Sunday, suddenly and unexpectedly. May your memory be eternal.
(regarding the WKGN ad from 1965)
That sure brings back memories. Our studios (formerly a bar) were on Cumberland, near 22nd? Jack Sorbi got a gig in Denver as I recall. May have gone with La Monica. Jim Mack bought some stations in Florida...them were the days!! (Bob Baron)
The station I listened to when was a kid..then about 10 years later Dt. Al came back to program the station! (Mike Clark)
I snapped this photo in the late 1980s... I'm sure many of you were on the air and reporting the events of that day. God Bless America!
It's the fall of 1937 and Ktown radio station WROL 1310 kc received the exclusive rights to broadcast UT football...and behind the mics were Alan Stout and Vols coach Blair Guillon.
Yes, the station occupied 1310 on the dial, then in 1941 they moved to 620 kc.
Stewart Broadcasting, the WROL operator via station manager Stewart Adcock, purchased the rights for $2000.
Both home and away games were broadcast.
Go Vols!
Art Miller
The station was on the air daily from 5am and signed off nightly at 1am.
5-7 Bob Wilson
7-10 Doc Johnston
10-1 Ken McGavin
1-3 Don Lindsey
3-7 Rich Teeters
7-1 Dave Elrod
The post summarizing football season radio programming served to remind all of us how for fortunate The University of Tennessee has been when it comes to the outstanding quality of its play-by-play announcers. I recall the booming pipes of George Mooney and the perfectly contrasting tones of John Anderson's analyses. Their timing was beyond perfect..."outstanding" is too weak of a term. But, they were classics. When you heard them, you knew who it was, instantaneously. Ditto for Ward. And Kesling. And Keith.
Gone forever, I suspect, are most of their broadcasts. (I hope I'm wrong). It would be wonderful if the Vol Network folks might dig back in their archives and prepare a "Great Vols Plays" program. Perhaps Mooney's PBP calls and Anderson's analysis could be synced with historical game footage.
A footnote of this reminiscing of great things Big Orange. At WBIR-AM in the late 1960s, Promotion Manager Walt Martin teamed up with WBIR-TV Sports Director Jim Holiday to prepare 60 to 90 second radio drop-ins called "Coach Haddekick Predicts" (pronounced "had-to-kick"). Ten to twelve comedic bits were prepared for each football season weekend. They featured Martin as the coach answering Holiday's questions about, and predicting the winners of, upcoming SEC and national games.
Martin is a major unacknowledged influencer of the 1960s and 1970s Knoxville radio. I'd like to share some memories of his impactful work in another post.
Art Miller
Page 3...101 found an old newspaper article-
How many 18-year-olds got hired by Bobby Denton to be a WIVK disc jockey...I did and am proud of it!
I saw this post and wanted to share it, from Jeff Jarnigan- (he was asked what was Bobby's stogie of choice)
"According to the cigar shop he and I shared, he smoked Oliva's. Bobby wanted to finish his PA in Neyland at 50 years. He made it 48. When I became PA after him I made an agreement with UT to use Bobby in pregame for at least 2 more years to get to his 50 in the stadium. I also laid one of his brand cigars across the PA mic for games in those years. Seemed like the right thing to do to honor him. He was the best and a true character."
