Hey George,

Thanks for posting the reunion pic!

Sneedo and Gary Adkins helped me in a HUGE situation after the 15Q debacle…

They got me to the late Vic Rumore, Dr Al, and Beach for an interview (which included a phoner with ‘Mr. Green’, Kent Buckhart)…six months at 'KGN with the Body Check; and on to Big WAYS and the Funky Monkey, 

Big APE … Wow!

Love Sneedo & Bro Adkins…

Bro Mick

 

George!

Thanks so much for posting the picture of Mick and me!

I loved W149 but was not PD. Gary Adkins was PD until the last days of the station in 1976, when Bob Gross (remember him?) hired Steve Clark for a brief stint. Ron Baptist was the 15Q PD who turned Gary and me loose on late nights as The Brothers.

I left to program WKGN as a Rocker later in 1976 and was replaced as “the other Brother” on 15Q by W149 alum Bill Johnson.

A few years ago!

A.D. Sneedo 

It's early 1980 at WKGN 1340...the DJ line up featured Jeff Winters 6-11a, PD Suitcase Simpson 11-2, and Chuck Edwards 2-7p! 

 

The 101 Audio Vault features Jeff...

Page 3...

Ktown radio recently lost two of the legends~ Tony Igar and Chuck Ketron.
 

It's the spring of 1980 and the AM radio dial is still relevant...it's still relevant in some cases, but FM was taking over bigly at that time. 

WBIR was located at AM 1240 and 103.5 FM...the FM was soon to become WIMZ, and you know the rest of that monster dial position history in Ktown.

The AM featured an MOR music format. Here's the DJ line up-

6-9 Ken McGavin

9-12 Bob Ogles

12-2 Win Maxwell

2-6 Bill Page

6-12 Mike Johnson

12-6 Larry King Show

Brother Mick and AD

Here's a recent photo of 2 of Ktown's legends...Mick Rizzo and Alan Sneed.

Back in '76 Alan aka Alan Douglas was programming W149 when it morphed into 15Q. Alan stayed on at the new 15Q and was also one of "The Brothers", a very popular late night duo.

Mick arrived at 15Q with the other new super jocks...Steve West, Kid Curry, Ron Baptist, and more!

Both Mick and AD landed at WKGN before fleeing the East Tennessee coup! They went on to huge major market careers!

Jimmy Vineyard was an integral part of those incredibly high radio ratings for WIVK back in the 70s and 80s! 

I met Jimmy in 1976 when I joined as a weekend DJ, Jimmy was a midday host and handled production. Jimmy spent years at WIVK and also saw time at WNOX/WNKX when they played country. 

Fast forward to about 2009, I flew in to Panama City and knew that Jimmy was the GM of a cluster of stations up there. The then airport led straight past the station's building so I stopped in...neither of us had aged a minute, ha! Jimmy showed me around the stations, it was the midday so there were 5 empty control rooms, all voice tracked or syndicated, you would have never known by dial twisting in your heavy Chevy.  

The next year and for the next several years I teamed up with Jimmy and the legendary Eddie Beacon as we broadcast a weekly racing show on WNOX FM 100.3, Bumper2Bumper. And boy did we have fun.

Jimmy has some of the best pipes in the biz, as we dust off the 101 Audio Vault...

 

Bob Thomas remembering Tony...

Sad to hear of the passing of my friend Tony Igar. Working at WKGN in the 70s the station was bought by Lamar which brought a host of Alabama boys to Knoxville. One of those was former announcer and now sales executive, Tony Igar. Self-titled “World Famous” eventually came true. After a successful career in sales at WIVK, Tony and His wonderful wife, Maria moved to San Diego. Tony decided to be a boat Captain, no small task. He did and he captained ships across the Pacific. We visited them once in San Diego and he took Kim, Jake and me on a sunset sail out of the San Diego marina. Then Tony decided he would learn to play the harmonica and he played in several bands. They moved to Huntington Beach and we visited them there going out for a fun dinner then a visit at the condo. Rest In Peace my friend, you sir lived a life to the fullest. Prayers for his lifelong love, Maria.

Scott Sams had his plan in place from the get go...oh what a great career- Knoxville radio, Knoxville TV, Dallas TV, and Dallas radio. He even ventured to WKIN Kingsport at one point. In Ktown radio Scott worked at WBLC, WETE, WKGN, 15Q, WNOX, WOKI and...in the summer of '76 Scott worked at 15Q as Jamie Rivers. Here's Jamie signing off 15Q for the last time via the 101 Audio Vault~

 

Page 3... 

One morning in the summer of '76 Scott and I hosted the morning show on WBLC- he was Michael O'Shea and I was George Michael, so far the air check has not been found, but we did record it...

Hello George!

 

I hope All is well with you.

 

I wanted to update you on the latest accolade for WNOX's Larry Steele on August 7 in Atlanta at Backstage Atlanta he received a 2022 Radio & Records Lifetime Achievement Award and Proclamation from the City of Atlanta for his Outstanding Broadcast Career and he invited me James "Slick" Maurice Turk to be his guest.

 

I also included a pic of Larry Steele, Pete Dreyer (Station Manager) and James Slick Maurice Turk courtesy of a Book entitled Images of America Knoxville's WNOX.

--

James Slick Maurice Turk

It's early 1980 at WNOX 990...the #3 rated station in Ktown after WIVK-FM and WEZK-FM. 

Dave Dunaway had recently exited morning drive, with Eddie Rogers joining in that spot. Suzanne Dalton was anchoring the morning news desk.

530-10 Eddie Rogers, 10-2 Phil Williams, 2-6 Randy Miller, 6-10 Scott Majors, 10-2 Tom Michaels, and 2-530 James Maurice.

The 101 Audio Vault features Randy Miller...

 

 

Here's what Mike Hammond found going thru some old photos from WIVK days. Our first Traffic Tracker. A small Subaru with a row of antennas down the middle of the roof. (Dan Bell)