It's 1941 in Ktown...

 

WROL Knoxville

In 1930 Knoxville radio station WNBJ became WROL at 1310 on the AM dial.

Fast forward to early 1941 and the station moved down the left dial to 620.

The station became WATE 620 in the mid 1950s, and WROL calls vanished.

However, in 1960 Sam Thrower created a new station, WROL 1490.

Most are aware that WROL added the W-149 moniker and changed to an incredible album type format in 1971 led by Johnny Pirkle.

In 1976...15Q hit the airwaves for a one-year splash, and the calls were WKVQ.

WROL 950 Boston was hatched in 1978 as that group was unable to acquire their former WORL calls. 

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Shout out to Monroe in the Morning, the Florida panhandle's #1 superjock! (aka Curtis Knight)

This was before CP and Walker who debuted on The New 62 WRJZ in late 1976!

Per our previous post CP noted that he spent some time in Birmingham at WAPI AM-FM.

Dick Broadcasting had a presence in B'ham in 1990s up until the family sold most of their stations to Citadel in April 2000. WZRR, WJOX, and WAPI were DBC owned and operated. 

Mooney was in B'ham too, in the early 70s with WERC AM-FM.

And I was there too, from 1987-1990 managing the Grady's Goodtimes at the Riverchase Galleria. I can attest; it's a great city. 

Did you work in Birmingham? Shoutout to Kerry Lambert who resides there to this day!

Where were you?

Trumpville recently celebrated year 250...so where were you 50 quick years ago?

George...I had exited WKGN in August of '70, spent a year at WKRC Cincinnati, then gone to WKIS Orlando before rejoining Mooney Broadcasting as news director of WMAK in Nashville.  I was there for the bicentennial. I celebrate the semiquincentennial in the woods of Chatham County. Funny, haven't heard anyone use that term. Had to look it up myself. Happy 4th! (Possum Riley)

In 1976, I had just moved back to Knoxville from Birmingham where I had been doing mornings at WAPI AM-FM. I had just started doing mornings again at WETE while awaiting the sale that would turn it into WRJZ. (Curtis Parham)

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Condolences to Bob Thomas and family who lost Mom recently at the beautiful age of 97. May her memory be eternal.

Happy Birthday America

It's July 4, 1976, and I recorded this entry in my journal. I was also a brand new 18-year-old DJ cutting my radio teeth at WBLC 1360 Lenoir City. 

What was happening in Ktown radio at that time?

Scott Sams exited 15Q to become production director at WNOX. Fred Brown joined 15Q at Scott's exit.

Afternoon DJs on the radio dial included Walker Johnson at WETE 620, Dick Winstead WNOX 990, Mike Beach WKGN 1340, Mike Beverly WOKI-FM 100, and Bobby Denton on WIVK AM/FM.

Down the street in Nashville, Wayne Bernard as Charlie Chase was afternoon drive at WSM 650. 

On Friday June 18...it was my morning drive debut as George Michael and Michael O'Shea hosted on WBLC 1360 that day. (me and Scott Sams) 

Paul Oscar Anderson with his magnificent voice and personality was heard on WNOX 990.

The Brothers were heard nightly from 11p-2a on 15Q. The original twosome was Alan Douglas and Gary Adkins.

Dr Al, Steve West, Eddy Roy, Claude Tomlinson, Bob Kaghan, Frank Erwin, JL Myers, Your Dave Young, Jean Ash, Mike Hammond, Jim Humphries, Bob Thomas, Ed Brantley, etc. were all beaming through the dial positions in Knoxville at America's 200 year birthday!

Where were you?

Hi George...since it's summer I remembered a promotion...I believe Johnny did at WNOX. This is one of the BEST I have ever heard of. He asked listeners to TAN the most creative "99 WNOX" on their bodies. I think the prize was a grand. Listeners improvised tape or whatever they could stick on their bodies...before hitting the sun! Hundreds, if not thousands of walking billboards started appearing at pools all over east Tennessee. What a promotion. The DARKER you got...the more the images stood out. People were really into it and yet another fantastic idea that came out of Johnny and the BIG 99. Amazingly creative. (Mike Beach)

It's a 101 Reload...

 

"Hey George....Jut wanted to set a part of the record straight. My first job at WIVK was news director. I replaced the great Norman Majors. Jim Dick hired me at the ripe old age of 19 years old. I found myself sitting across the hall from one of the men/legends I had listened to throughout my youth...Claude The Cat! It was great working with and learning from one of the best...not to mention seeing him switch between 3 characters (live) without missing a conversational beat! As ND at WIVK, I hired a young weekend anchor who was going to UT at the time...his name...Mike Hammond. One of my worst career moves was leaving WIVK to do afternoons on W-149! Of course at that time I was a young hippie destined to play on one of the few real rock and roll stations in the U.S. As they say...you can't cure stupid!!  LOL. My best to all for the holiday." (Mike Beach)

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RIP Bill Cody, iconic DJ and WSM 650 Nashville host for decades! Bill was also a longtime announcer at the Grand Ole Opry.

Happy Birthday wishes to Alan Sneed; you knew him on the radio in Knoxville as Alan Douglas and as one of The Brothers with Gary Adkins. 

AD went from selling beer in 1975 to DJing at W-149, which morphed into 15Q. Later in 1976 AD moved to WKGN 1340 to program the station with its AOR format.

Dick Broadcasting plucked him away to take over programming at WKDA/WKDF in Nashville, circa 1978-1980.

From there AD was PD at 96 Rock in Atlanta, PD at 97 Rock in Houston, back to 96 Rock...and his talents were recognized as he became an industry leading programmer and consultant starting in 1986.

In his career AD worked with stations in over 90 markets, including 11 of the top 12 cities. 

Alan went on to own WEYE-FM and WFYE-FM located and serving the upper East Tennessee and SW Virginia listening areas which he sold in 2012.

These days Alan is having fun living in Indianapolis.

"Bring On The Brothers"...

Elwood P Suggins...

Happy Birthday to Eddie Beacon "The Swingin' Deacon"!

The question is not "did you" work with Eddie, but "when did you" work with Eddie.

I spent 1982, The World's Fair summer, working with Eddie at 62 WRJZ My Country of Country. What a cast of happy campers we were...GM Mark Heiden, PD Steve Bridgewater (Dr Don West), Jessica James, Bob Ziegler, Martin Baker, Jim Montgomery, Bill Beason and newsies Brad Schultz, Ernie the Bartender Baker, and David Henley. 

In 2010 I reunited with Eddie (and Jimmy Vineyard) as he hosted a racing show called Bumper 2 Bumper on powerhouse 100.3 FM WNOX, a Johnny Pirkle station that featured Ed and Bob in the morning time slot.

For those who don't know, Eddie was born Clay Huskisson and adopted Beacon as his radio surname after debuting back in the 60s as Eddie Knight.

Oh, as most DJs do, Eddie has a made-up sidekick named Elwood P Suggins. 

Send your Eddie/Elwood stories to KtownRadio@gmail.com, fact or fiction.

Bandit...

 

Bob Anderson landed at WKGN in the early 70s...as Bob Parker. 

I air checked this, it's a classic via The 101 Audio Vault.

Bob was a world-famous DJ under the name Bandit and other monikers.

(foto is AI...his senior high class photo and a WKGN studio, awh modern technology).

The 101 Audio Vault travels way back (about 50 years) to Mike Beach on WETE...

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Happy Birthday to Martin Baker!

It's 1973...

 ...and on February 19 Jim Clark was new at WETE 620.

On February 26 it was Jack Diamond and Guerilla blasting the evening time slot at WKGN 1340. (Jack became even more famous as a DJ/PD in Louisville as Coyote Calhoun).

In late March Bob Baron and Jack Diamond visited Bearden Junior High (I was in the audience).

I was dial twisting that summer and listening to Ron Gregory on WOWO (incredible call letters).

In late July UT volleyball captain John Blair, and my neighbor throughout childhood, was named to the United States team and participated in the Student World Games in Moscow. 

It was happy birthday time on August 21 to WKGN News Director Joe Anderson.

That fall Mike Beach was morning DJ at W-149 and Gary Adkins hosted afternoon drive.                                                                                                                                                                           

TV featured Clayton Startime with Jim Clayton, Kathy Hill, and Karen Clayton.     

Smokey Burns joined WKGN...what an all-time great DJ name!                                                                                                                                                                             

...and holy cow, Your Dave Young debuted on WKGN 1340 on Sunday night December 16 after a long run at WNOX 990.

Where were you in '73?