"It was so good seeing all those names from one of the happiest periods in my radio career. I joined WNOX late April, 1969. I thought a little background to my arrival may be of interest to your readers. Please feel free to use whatever you wish.I started my radio career in July 1967 at Manx Radio in the Isle of Man, right in the centre of the British Isles. Pirate radio stations had brought American style broadcasting to Britain but the UK Government was closing them down. Manx Radio was the first legal commercial station with a very limited signal but with the demise of the pirates, we had the potential to increase our power and become Britain's first legal commercial station. With this in mind, in 1968, I spent a two week vacation with my sister in Knoxville so I could get to experience American broadcasting first hand. My sister Pauline, then a beautician with Metz & Kerchner on Kingston Pike, arranged visits with a number of radio stations. Don Armstrong was the PD at WNOX and convinced me that the only way to learn was to work within the system and offered me a job.
I assumed I'd be given some menial task like stacking records in the library and could not believe what happened when I arrived at the airport. (See attached picture) The station had been telling its listeners that they were importing one of Britain's top DJs and I was going straight onto the breakfast show! I protested that I was an absolute greenhorn, a rank amateur compared to those guys on the air already. Don assured me it would be OK as long as I just kept my accent. Well judging by the ratings, it seemed to work. When Don Left for WOHO, Toledo, I joined him there about a year later. I returned to the Isle of Man in 1980, went to South Africa for a while but came back to Manx Radio in 1989 and have been presenting the Late Show there ever since. I recently did a programme celebrating the 40th anniversary of my first broadcast on Manx Radio, perhaps I could do a 40th anniversary show in Knoxville in 1969?
I've been back to Knoxville and the Smokies on vacation a number of times in the past 20 years and love the area and the people.
I do the Late Show Mon-Fri from 22.00 to 0100 (British summer time) and you can listen live at www.manxradio.com"