Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Knoxville Radio Dial - 1979

The Knoxville radio scene was changing. By 1979, WBIR-FM 103.5 would change over from country music to rock as "Rock 104". That same year, WATE-TV 6 and WTVK-TV 26 switched affiliations.

Here is the list of stations that existed in 1979:

FM Stations
WUOT - 91.9 FM Knoxville (NPR Public Radio)
WUUU - 94.3 FM Oak Ridge (Beautiful Music)
WYSH - 95.3 FM Clinton (Unknown Format)*
WEZK - 97.5 FM Knoxville (Beautiful Music)
WOKI - 100.3 FM Oak Ridge (Top 40)
WSEV - 102.1 FM Sevierville (Automated Programming)**
WBIR - 103.5 FM Knoxville (Country; "Music Country WBIR")***
WIVK - 107.7 FM Knoxville (Country)

AM Stations
WRJZ - 620 AM Knoxville (Top 40; "62 WRJZ")****
WIVK - 850 AM Knoxville (Country//WIVK-FM 107.7)
WKXV - 900 AM Knoxville (Christian)
WSEV - 930 AM Sevierville (Unknown Format)
WNOX - 990 AM Knoxville (AC; "99 WNOX")*****
WBIR - 1240 AM Knoxville (Standards) ******
WATO - 1290 AM Oak Ridge (AC)
WKGN - 1340 AM Knoxville (Disco; "Disco 13")*******
WYSH - 1380 AM Clinton (Unknown Format)
WBMK - 1430 AM Knoxville (R&B)
WITA - 1490 AM Knoxville (Christian Music) ********
WSKT - 1580 AM Knoxville (Religious)

* - WYSH-FM 95.3 would soon change formats to country when Mack Sanders bought the station along with WNOX-AM 990 to become WNKX-FM 95.3

** - WSEV-FM 102.1 was doing automated programming which included a Top 40 program that aired daily on WSEV-FM. The station would later become "U-102" with WMYU as the new call letters.

*** - WBIR-FM 103.5 changed formats to rock as "Rock 104" that year. They kept the WBIR-FM calls for a few weeks and then changed the calls to WIMZ-FM.

**** - WRJZ-AM 620 aired top 40 for the next year in 1979. In 1980 and soon thereafter, WRJZ-AM 620 would go with a variety of formats including AC, country, and oldies. The station airs a religious talk format today.

***** - WNOX-AM 990 would be bought by Mack Sanders who wanted country music stations on the radio. That very station, AM 990, would be the newest country music station in the late 1970s and the AC format on WNOX was history.

****** - WBIR-AM 1240 changed calls to WHEL-AM that year and the nickname of the station was "The Wheel".

******* - WKGN-AM 1340 would later switch from top 40 from disco in the Summer of 1979.

******** - WITA-AM 1490 had a top 40 format as "15-Q" with the calls WKVQ. Soon thereafter, WKVQ changed calls to WITA and played Christian music.

Courtesy of history, a Radio-Info member.

3 comments:

DWS said...

Does anyone remember a news dept director at WKGN back in the early to mid 70's. I think his first name was Joe.

Steve Howard said...

Joe Anderson. He was the morning news anchor on 'KGN when I started my freshman year at UTK. The morning jock was "Your Dave" (and damn, was he good), to be followed by '75 by Doctor Al Adams (and damn, was HE good!). Joe had an authoritative delivery coupled with a dry wit, the combination of which was killer on-air. Joe was at 'KGN at least thru the "Disco Sucks" experiment.

Anonymous said...

A note: In 1979, WYSH 1380 AM was Country with a format friendly crossover or two thrown in.