Knoxville's WNOX

by Ed Hooper

Overview

WNOX was the eighth radio station to sign on the air in North America and the first in Tennessee. No station has left a bigger footprint on American popular music or the radio industry as WNOX. Its AM signal could be heard as far south as Daytona Beach and as far north as New York City in the day of uncluttered airwaves. It helped write the book on radio broadcasts and productions with programs like the Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round and the Tennessee Barn Dance. Its legendary programs helped pioneer an entire genre of American popular music and served as a launching pad for country music's greatest stars and some of the nation's best broadcasters. The call letters remain an iconic landmark of Knoxville and East Tennessee.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738566535
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	11/30/2009
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Images of America: Knoxville's WNOX is author Ed Hooper's fifth book for Arcadia Publishing. He is a journalist and writer who resides in Knoxville and has covered the region in broadcast and print.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 Country Music's Songwriting Legend 9

2 Lowell Blanchard 15

3 The Scripps Howard Era 23

4 The Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round and Tennessee Barn Dance 35

5 WNOX Goes Top 40 77

6 Back to Country and Beyond 115

Editorial Reviews

Title: Legends of WNOX to sign new book

Author: Wayne Bledsoe

Publisher: Knoxville News Sentinel

Date: 12/5/09



It's not always easy piecing together parts of history, but elements of Knoxville's music history will converge at noon today at Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Kingston Pike. Personalities who appeared on legendary radio station WNOX will gather to celebrate and sign copies of the new book "Knoxville's WNOX."



Personalities will include Sunshine Slim Sweet, one of the stars of the famed "Mid-day Merry-Go-Round" show in the 1940s and '50s, John Pirkle, one of the station's best-known personalities of the 1960s as well as the station's rock-era program director, Dave Young, who started at the station in 1968, Phil Williams, who remains an active radio celebrity and many others associated with the station.



The book is a showcase for vintage photographs from the 1930s through the 1960s, along with chapters on the history of the station.



WNOX was most famously the launching point for many of country music's biggest stars for three decades, including Roy Acuff, Chet Atkins, Archie Campbell, Don Gibson, Kitty Wells, Homer and Jethro and Carl Story.



"Everyone knows about the station's role in country music, but it was just as much of a powerhouse in rock radio," said Ed Hooper, author of the book.



Dave Young, who was a contributor to the book, said that just finding station alumni was a challenge.



"There's not really many old-timers left," said Young, adding that Sunshine Slim Sweet may be the only surviving "Mid-day Merry-Go-Round" alumnus. "A bunch of people went through the door during the rock 'n' roll era, but there's no telling where they are."



The book-signing will be at noon today at Barnes & Noble, 8029 Kingston Pike. Other book signings will be 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, at Rickard Ridge BBQ, Cove Lake, Caryville; 2-4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11, at UT Bookstore, 1502 Cumberland Ave.; and 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, at Waldenbooks, Knoxville Center.

From the Publisher