In January 1977 WBIR 1240 and 103.5 announced format changes. The AM was exiting all news for a middle of the road music format and the FM was adding live DJ's to its country music format.WBIR 1240 had featured the all news format for 2 years, but NBC announced they were ending their all news programming. 1240 planned to feature a news block in the morning with Dave Foulk and Judy Jenkins and then provide 5 minutes of CBS news every hour on the hour.
On the FM side Karl Shannon was brought in from Louisville to be the morning DJ, long time WBIR DJ Ken Johnson did middays, Tony Eubanks, formerly of WIVK worked 2-6p, Kathy Hill was on 6-8p, followed by The Mulls and then Don Lindsey and Mike Johnson.
From Dave Foulk...
I have experienced many format changes and dramatic talent exits in my career, but none as memorable as when WBIR Radio flipped from the NIS all-news format back to music. I was on my honeymoon, and my wife and I were driving through New York City on the way to Cape Cod. I tuned in the NIS station and heard what I thought were some odd remarks from the anchors there...including the outcue: "this is your news and unemployment station". I put it to some inside joke. But when we called home in a few days to get someone to turn the furnace back on in the apartment, I found out about the NBC announcement, and knew the days of Knoxville's first all-news station were numbered.