George -
I was reminiscing the other day,
which I do more often as I age, and up came a memory worth sharing from
Knoxville radio. This involves WKGN and happened a year or more before I
got there in 1969. It was told to me by my late friend Sonny (Kivett)
Knight, whose memory I cherish.
When 'KGN was
still in the old grocery store at 22nd and Cumberland, next to Brownie's
(home of mett and beans), the station did a charity fund-raiser. Might
have been for Red Cross, maybe some other good cause. The bit was
simple; Sonny got up on the roof of the station and vowed to stay there
until a monetary goal had been met. It was after fall had set in, so the
weather was nice. The station put up a platform and a wall tent in case
of rain. There was also a bucket on a rope by which listeners could
send up contributions.
All went well for a
couple of days and then some knuckle dragger got it into his head that
Sonny was up there with all of that money. The station kept announcing a
running tally to encourage donations and this fool apparently thought
it was all still up on the roof with Sonny. Sonny was sitting in his
lawn chair, having a cup of coffee shortly after Brownie's closed for
the night, when he heard a scuffling sound. Ronnie Redneck had grabbed
onto a sign standard and was trying to pull himself up to the roof. When
his head popped up, Sonny told him to get back down. The fool kept
coming. He hooked one leg over the edge, muttering about how "it ain't
right, you havin' all that money and me bein' broke." About that time, Sonny pulled out a .45-caliber revolver, cocked the hammer back, and said, "Git." Bubba
moaned a few expletives and managed to get about halfway down before he
lost his grip and fell onto the concrete below. The last Sonny saw of
him, he was limping down Cumberland Avenue, bemoaning his station in
life. The fool never came back.
Your superannuated radio pal,
Possum Riley
who thanks you for hangin' with the Possum