Listening to this certainly brings back memories – not of WNOX, but of the days of AM radio in the Summertime. This aircheck will either bring back the sound and smell of an approaching Summer storm (hence the lightning static crashes on the aircheck), or it’ll remind you why you decided to listen to FM.
Derrick Anderson himself contributed this aircheck, for which we’re grateful. We’ve gotten many favorable comments about this since it posted in the Summer of ’02. Your webmaster learned, WNOX actually had a great signal along the southern Appalacians, Kentucky and even southern Ohio. Now, listen to it again as we restore WNOX to the Airchexx Archives!
I have an old tape recording of WNOX which I believe I made sometime in the mid 1950’s. The program was called “Nocturne” and was good soft music. The sponser was The Appalachian National Insurance Co.
Does anyone know the dates (year) this program was on the air? It sure brings back good memories when I listen to it. I lived in Maryville at the time and was very young.
Thank you in advance
Bruce Trent
Sharpsburg, GA
rudder@mindspring.com
I was employed by Scripps-Howard at WNOX in 1977 & left in 1979 before Derrick came to Knoxville. I was Music Director & Assistant Program Director during my time there. Growing up in East Tennessee, WNOX was THE station for the surrounding towns. (We could not pick up WKGN due to low power on the “Famous 1340). However, WNOX was a big part of my life & the main reason I became a DJ. During my career, I spent three tours on the “Big 99” & cherish those memories.
Steve,
I could not get this to play through the embedded player.
Robyn
Me, too. In fact, I couldn’t play the Lohman and Barkley aircheck either.
I found the problem. You can listen now. Please report any further problems here.
Thanks for fixing it.
Thank you for fixing it
THIS IS THE WNOX I LOVED. To me this was when WNOX was at their best! I grew up listening to the Big 99. From the early to mid 70’s right up to the early 80’s ‘NOX was a leader. You’ll never know what an influence this station was on me!
It’s nice to hear the aircheck of WNOX 990. I worked there for seven years as studio engineer and later as chief engineer. (1973-1980) Before the station was sold I left to work for the Voice of America radio in Washington,D.C.
Steve West, did you get my story of WNOX and my entry into radio?
I lived in Knoxville from the Fall of 1976 to the Spring of 1977–my Dad worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Loved listening to WNOX during that time–my sister listened to WRJZ.
I remember old WNOX AM 990. Back then, they had a red bumper sticker that said “WNOX AM 99 Means Music And More,” since they were then competing with WRJZ AM 62, which had a black square bumper sticker with a Coca Cola logo on it. I had several of these stickers in my room. I was a 4th grader at Powell Elementary School back in 1979 fixing to go into 5th grade that summer that this air check was made and we used to listen to Phil Williams and Colvin Idol on the morning show every morning while heading to school. They both later moved on to WIMZ in the 1980s after WNOX became a country station. On Saturday nights back in 1979, WNOX used to feature an album and play it in its entirety. WNOX was where I first heard Kenny Loggins “Keep The Fire” album and where I heard about half of Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall” at. The Saturday night that they played that album just happen to be during the week that I had to go down to my grandparents’ house in Shelby, NC and my brother teased me about it because I really wanted to hear this album at the time since “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2” was really popular at the time. I reminded my brother at the time that WNOX was then a 50 kilowatt clear channel station and that I would still be able to a least hear some of the album from Shelby, NC but not all of it since clear channel stations fade in and out at night. We were also able to pick up WNOX down in Panama City Beach, FL at night where my late grandfather on my mom’s side lived at the time. Back in 1979 I lived in what was then known as Green Acres Trailer Park off Clinton Hwy in Powell, which was then owned by Jim Clayton and managed by his mother. My late father, Bob Stewart was a local Knoxville area entertainer who played many nightclubs in the area at the time and used to play at the old Amvets Post 25 club on Clinton Hwy back then and my mom was one of the bartenders there also
I Googled the phone numbers with Knoxville’s current area code 865 given out in this air check and to my surprise, these organizations still exist as of this posting. Knoxvile’s area code back then was 615, same as Nashville’s before pagers and cell phones came into existence. Here are links to these organizations featured in this aircheck:
Mount Harmony Baptist Church – //www.mymhbc.com/contact-us
Big Brothers/Big Sisters of East Tennessee – //www.tennesseebig.org/
I was able to hear the full Parts of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall” after my parents separated and we moved to Oak Ridge in 1982 when I was able to pick up WQUT out of the Tri Cities. WQUT used to play the full album version of the song since they were an AOR formatted station. That was about the same time that WNOX became a country station, so I quit listening to them and moved to FM completely.