It's football time in Tennessee!

 

How many 18-year-olds got hired by Bobby Denton to be a WIVK disc jockey...I did and am proud of it!

I saw this post and wanted to share it, from Jeff Jarnigan- (he was asked what was Bobby's stogie of choice)

"According to the cigar shop he and I shared, he smoked Oliva's. Bobby wanted to finish his PA in Neyland at 50 years. He made it 48. When I became PA after him I made an agreement with UT to use Bobby in pregame for at least 2 more years to get to his 50 in the stadium. I also laid one of his brand cigars across the PA mic for games in those years. Seemed like the right thing to do to honor him. He was the best and a true character."

Head West!

Back in 1959 Jim Dick decided to head west, leaving the original WIVK 860 kc studios located across the street from the Regas Restaurant on Gay Street for Bearden Hill, officially 6711 Kingston Pike. 

The property was purchased from Dr Wilson for around $52k. The building had to be remodeled and turned into a powerhouse radio station...and that it was. 

WIVK featured Phil Rainey signing on the daytime only at 5a followed by Claude Tomlinson from 7-9a, then from 9a-1p Cas Walker and The Mulls were heard. Claude came back on the air from 1-3p and was followed by Ken Russell on the air until 6p. Phil Rainey then returned until sign off.  Both Don Patrick and Bob Clark were additional weekend voices.

The move to Bearden Hill happened around Thanksgiving.

 

Kerry Lambert got his radio start in the mid 1970s at WKGN 1340. Working under PD Dr Al Adams, Kerry was Chris Lee on the air.

In 1976 WKGN had a format change from Top 40 to Album Rock and Kerry became Keith Lambert, manning the overnight show.

A few years later he became part of the new AOR format at WBIR-FM later rebranded as WIMZ. 

In the 80s Kerry's career grew enormously from PD to station manager at WIMZ.

Plucked away by WIVK owned Dick Broadcasting, Kerry headed to Birmingham, he's still there, and he was a key executive in that market with DBC, which was later purchased by Citadel.

Dan Bell hosted The Sunday Survey on WIVK for many years. Dan is still on the air weekday afternoons on Praise 96.3.

Dan is seen here with writer/singer Worley Max (McKinney) who took several songs to the top of the WIVK weekly survey.

"Coach McKinney" was a teacher and coach at Bearden Junior High and with his never-ending music passion he wrote, and recorded hit songs such as Don't Break Me Easy and How Long Will You Love Me This Time. In the late 80s the music city was calling so Worley packed up and planted his musical flag in Nashville. He's still writing and performing these days.

HBD to Mike Beach

Did you know...Mike was the teenage News Director at WIVK, and he was the one who hired Mike Hammond!

Check out his current radio world at Global Radio Daytona.

It's November 1973 at WIVK...and Bobby Denton was promoted by Jim Dick as Operations Manager. Booby joined the station in 1961. 

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Do you remember Rebel Railroad which became Goldrush Junction which became part of Dollywood.

Also, Rowdy Busch...RIP.

George - 

Interesting to hear the WIVK promo that it was No. 1 in the Pulse ratings.

Pulse, Hooper, and Arbitron have all gone to their graves. As far as I know, Nielsen is the only game in town. I’m not sure what their methodology is, but it has to be better than its predecessors. Hooper was a telephone survey and - while it strove to reach a cross section of race, age, and gender - it only measured in-home listening. Most radio listening, even back then, was done in cars. Arbitron was a diary that started on a Thursday. I read hundreds of completed diaries on trips to Beltsville, MD. They would start out strong on Thursday, show good listenership on Friday, then people would be out of routine on the weekend so they would check “didn’t listen today” for Saturday and Sunday. By Monday, they had forgotten about the diary, so there were (probably belated) “didn’t listen” checks for Monday-Wednesday. That drove down the numbers for total listenership. In 1972, I was programming a station in Buffalo that aimed for 35-49s. The book came back and showed us gangbusters with 18-24 males. I went to Beltsville and read every diary for that sweep. I found two - TWO - diaries that had been filled out by young oldies fans. Both claimed they listened to us 24 hours a day for seven days. Yep, both of those diaries were tabulated.

...thanks for hangin’ with the Possum

Back in July 1972...wanting the entire company to celebrate together, WIVK asked Johnny Pirkle to fill in on the air, this proves that Johnny really did it all!

One of our 101 Facebook members posted an unscoped aircheck of Bobby Denton's afternoon show on WIVK AM back in 1967. I grabbed a bit of the audio.

Here's a promo via Claude Tomlinson regarding the 1967 Pulse Report results which showed WIVK as #1, followed by Bobby...

                                            

 

 

Nashville and Knoxville are two of Tennessee's largest cities. In radio terms, Nashville is a large/major market and Knoxville is a medium market.

The cities had ownership connections with WMAK being part of the Mooney Broadcasting Corporation (WKGN) and WKDA/WKDF was owned by Dick Broadcasting (WIVK).

Many talented DJs exited Ktown for NashVegas...

The photo above is WMAK 1300 in 1975. Do you recognize anyone?

In the driver's seat is Wayne Bernard, then Charlie Chase, and to his right is Smokey Burns, who went on to claim fame as Murphy in the Morning. 

Were you part of the radio migration from East to Middle TN...I know AD, Paul Lyle, Mike Beck, Frank Erwin, etc. made the switch. What about you?

101 heard from a couple of WKGN legends regarding our post about the Hooper ratings from 1969.

This photo isn't from 1969 but is a classic of the WKGN DJs in the mid 70s. Front row left to right- Mike Beach, Frank Erwin, Bob Thomas, Kerry Lambert. Back row left to right- Dr Al (PD), Rick Davis, David Todd and Phil Michaels.

You know George the ratings don't tell the whole story. 'KGN had only 1000 watts and 250 nighttime. That makes this story simply incredible. The talent was amazing. Just proving to the industry today...radio was a talent driven vehicle. If you've got the people...the audience will come. A massive success for the time. (Mike Beach)

Hey George! Thanks for posting the Hooper book from 1969. This was just as I arrived at 'KGN and my midday show was not reflected in the ratings. Couple of things did stand out.

• Hooper measured only in-home listening and was a telephone survey.
• The morning drive numbers were VERY tight with several stations showing well.
• The Top 40 battle was won by WKGN from 3pm on. Skip Broussard programmed the station and did afternoon drive. Heckava jock! Night numbers were DOMINATED by Eddie Beacon (yo' Swingin' Deacon). That was remarkable because 'KGN was 250 watts at night against WNOX 10,000.

These days radio is slick and error free. And a whole lot less fun to listen to. Thanks for hangin' with the Possum. (Possum Riley aka Paul Randall Dickerson)

                                                        

Some of the WKGN on air personalities back in '69 were Sonny Knight, Possum, Don Smith, Skip, Eddie, Steve Remmel, Kevin Young and Allen Pressley (news).

Some other big names in Ktown at that time were Johnny Pirkle on WNOX, Doc Johnston's Date with Doc on WBIR, and Bobby Denton at WIVK.  

Happy Easter 2026

Here's a fun tidbit. The Brothers, originally on the air at 15Q and then WOKI-FM 100 came about when 15Q Program Director Ron Baptist recommended that DJs Alan Douglas and Gary Adkins keep a little bit of the W-149 feel on the new Q. Bill Johnson eventually took over for AD, and the rest is history. "Bring on The Brothers".

The 101 Audio Vault travels to WIVK in 1978 with Suitcase Simpson-

 

Scott Black on WIVK-FM

 

By the mid 1970s Big Jim was known as the announcer of John Cazana's Wide World of Wrestling, as well as being a very successful businessman. 

But did you know that Big Jim was on the original broadcast team at WIVK 860 back in 1953, along with Claude Tomlinson. 

This was a newspaper ad regarding WIVK launching onto the air back then. Jim Dick was good at utilizing media advertising from day one.

It's 1983 and WOKI-FM 100 is #3 in the market behind WIVK-FM and WEZK-FM.

DJs were Jeff Jarnigan (6-10), KC (10-2), Brother John St John (2-7) and Bandit from (7-12).

...and Jerry Howell joined the news crew that summer. 

The 101 Audio Vault enjoys Kris Copeland- 

Superstar Personalities Invade 101 InBox...

Alan Sneed-

Great post about ‘83. I started the year in Houston at ABC O&O 97 Rock and returned to Atlanta for my second stint as PD at 96 Rock, under new owner Gulf Broadcasting, who also owned Q102 in Dallas and Q95 in Indianapolis. (Bob and Tom arrived for mornings at Q95 early that year. The show is still on here after 43 years—although Bob retired a few years ago. They peaked in syndication with 150+ affiliate stations, but I don’t believe they were ever on a Knox-patch station, probably due to John Boy and Billy’s long run on WIMZ.) ‘83!

BTW… It’s bitter cold here with almost a foot of snow on the ground! 🥶

Cheers!

A.D.

aka Big Al the Kiddies Pal (A politically incorrect nickname given to me by Steve West in about ‘75 when he arrived in Knoxville and still used by some of my old friends from radio.)

Dan Bell-

The banking empire of Jake Butcher collapsed in early 1983, centered around the failure of his flagship United American Bank in Knoxville, which was declared insolvent on February 14, 1983. This marked the end of a vast, fraudulent Tennessee banking network, with 7 other Butcher-controlled banks failing that year and another 3 in 1984. I remember because the FDIC seized the bank but missed the drive thru branch in the parking garage. The teller, who I knew, opened at 7 am as normal. I pulled in and did an interview with her for WIVK news.  The feds heard it up on the top floor and rushed down to shut it down. (Dan Bell)

Happy 80th to Dolly

Dolly Parton is 80 today. WIVK was there in her very early days, which helped springboard Dolly to major superstar status.

WIVK was influential in assisting in the launching of Alabama, we were the 1st station to play "Tennessee River", and Bob Thomas jump started Kenny Chesney's fame. Kelsey Ballerini's Dad worked at the station. Even a local singer/school teacher rose to #1 on the WIVK survey- Worley Max (McKinney)....and there are many more claim to fame stories through the years!

Photo is Bobby Denton, Dolly, and Con Hunley!

 

AM radio was still king back in 1967...Knoxville had WATE 620, WIVK 850, WNOX 990, WBIR 1240, WKGN 1340, WROL 1490 and more!

This classic photo is in the WKGN studios on Cumberland Avenue and legendary DJ Charlie Champion!

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Check out a great article as Bob Thomas was interviewed about WIVK's history at Country Insider. (click)

It's early 1975 in Knoxville!

Frank Kotsianas is negotiating to sell the Ivanhoe House of Beef in West Knoxville (now Copper Cellar)...and yes, every young Greek worked there, Opa!

On the radio-

Sam Sharp worked weekends at WIVK

If you dial twisted at night you could pick up Spiderman Harrison on WLAC 1500 in Nashville

Johnny Pirkle was morning DJ and owner of WOKI-FM

Bert Bertelkamp was named to the All-AA first team

POA was booming his newsworthy voice on WNOX 990 in the mornings

Ron Wright and Ron Fuller were grappling in the wrestling ring

CP and Walker were on the air on WETE 620, but not yet teamed up

...and The 101 Audio Vault features The Aardvark on WNOX-

 

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Did you know that Larry Solomon was the original midday jock on WIMZ (Rock 104). Check out his link at the right side of our 101 blog.