Picture of broadcasters believed to have been taken about 1950 in the WDOD studio in the old Hamilton National Bank Building at 7th and Market Streets.
Front row, Cousin Clem, Spooks Beckman and Roy Morris
Second row, Red Brown, Ernie Feagans. Drue Smith, Gus Chamberlain and Harry Thornton
Third row, Pete Williams, Luther Masingill and Luke Wilson
Radio has been described as the “theater of the mind” and certainly, sometimes, leaves a lot to one’s imagination.
April 13th, 1924, two men from Ohio came to Chattanooga to begin a century of broadcasting. Earl Winger Jr. and Norman Thomas built crystal radio sets but needed a station their customers could hear.
Mr. Winger said, “We thought if we had a radio station, we could sell more sets.” The two men applied to the government to operate a 50 watt station out of a house on McCallie Avenue and WDOD was on the air. The call letters stood for “Wonderful Dynamo of Dixie.”
Mr. Winger said his first broadcast was a worship service at the nearby First Presbyterian Church.
He said, “I ran a 150-foot mic cable from our one-room studio to the church pulpit and we went on the air.”
Mr. Winger said in the early days the station broadcast live organ concerts from the “Majestic Tivoli Theater.”
Mr. Winger said he hired Florida broadcaster Chuck Simpson to host programs in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Those shows included “Breakfast Time in Dixie” and the “WDOD Radio Playhouse.” Mr. Simpson did the first talk show, “Man on the Street,” extending a microphone out the second floor studio window of the downtown Hamilton National Bank Building.
Gaylord McPherson said, “WDOD hired me from WHO radio in Des Moines as an announcer for a new, live variety show. “For over two years, the Radio Playhouse was broadcast daily over CBS radio from what later became the Capitol Theater on Market Street. George Goble, Archie Campbell, Homer and Jethro, Jack Savage, Fiddlin Bob Douglas, Swanee River Boys, John Totten, and Don Gibson were a few of the early performers.”
WDOD also broadcast two daily live morning religious programs, “Radio Revival” with Rev. T. Perry Brannon and “Gospel Dynamite” from the Highland Park Baptist Church with Dr. Lee Roberson.
WAPO signed on the air in 1936, followed by WDEF, New Year’s Eve, 1940. A short time after sign on, WAPO moved their studio to the downtown Read House. The station was the home of Country Musician Peanut Faircloth, the morning show host for a decade. The station was also the home of sportscaster Gus Chamberlain, who for 10 years was the voice of the Chattanooga Lookouts. The 1937 Baylor School graduate left WAPO in the mid 60’s and finished his career at WDXB. Gus was friends with many sports figures conducting live interviews on his “Sportsman’s Hour Program.”
WDEF’s studio was located on the fourth floor of the Volunteer Building in Downtown Chattanooga. Baseball’s Joe Engel went to the FCC to apply for a radio license. He asked for the call letters, WABC, but they were already taken. Mr. Engel asked the commission, “How about WDEF?” The rest is history. While getting gas at Bill Penny’s in East Chattanooga, Mr. Engel met an engernic Luther Masingill and gave him a job. Luther remained on the air for over seven decades and was by far the city’s most popular radio personality during the last 100 years.
Other stations would follow; WDXB, WAGC, WMFS-WNOO, WRIP, and WFLI. Some station owners felt their call letters should stand for something: WAPO – “W.A. Patterson Oil,” named for the man who started the station and WAGC – “winning a greater Chattanooga.” As for WDEF, founder Joe Engel said he wanted a set of call letters the public could remember,
When WAGC went on the air in the late 1940’s, they hired an aspiring young announcer, Harry Thornton, to go against Luther in the morning. Mr. Thornton became known as the “Milkman.” He said after a few years, he decided to do something else; “The station only had 250 watts and they couldn’t hear me across the Market Street Bridge.”
When television was introduced to the city in the mid 1950’s, radio took a back seat, but several up and coming changes brought a revival to listenership.
Retired Chattanooga broadcaster Jerry Lingerfelt said, “When Rock N Roll was born in 1956, a young businessman, Carlin French, bought WDXB and changed the format to music and news. WDXB was the first station in Chattanooga to broadcast 24 hours a day and the first station to allow announcers to play their own records.” The station was heavily involved in the community, hosting Friday night sock hops from several high school gyms. For 11 years, Larry “the Legend” Johnson was one of the many station personalities making public appearances all over. Mr. Johnson eventually left Chattanooga for a job in Chicago.
A young Billy Benns introduced WFLI in February, 1961. For the first few months, the station was little more than a Rock N Roll juke box, attracting younger listeners, but gradually expanded to full service including news and sports. WFLI was home of Tommy Jett, considered by some to be the station’s most popular DJ.
Mr. Lingerfelt said, “WDXB’s audience began to shrink and within six months of WFLI coming on the air, WDXB was forced to change its format to sweet and lively music.” He said it was WFLI and WDEF competing for the lion’s share of radio listeners.
WDEF AM, with Luther, was the adult station but their signal wasn’t strong enough for a growing city. Station owners applied for and were granted a license to operate a 100,000 watt FM station, whose signal reached out nearly 100 miles.
Mr. Masingill said, “All of a sudden I was finding dogs on Monteagle Mountain, Cleveland, Athens, Calhoun, Ga., and Bryant, Ala. I really couldn’t believe how our audience increased.”
The growing popularity of country music prompted WDOD owner Cy N. Bahakel in 1964 to change the AM station to a country format. Ratings surged with a broadcasting revival of Chattanooga’s first radio station.
Ted Turner purchased WAPO in 1968 from Martin Theaters and changed the call letters to WGOW.
In 1970, WGOW hired a national broadcaster who shook the market upside down with his on the air antics. Chickamauga Charlie (Bob Todd) was well scripted and had everyone at city hall and the courthouse listening to what he would say next. Some of his favorite characters were Fire and Police Commissioner Gene Roberts and then Hamilton County Manager Dalton Roberts.
The host also enjoyed taking jabs at the city’s radio and TV personalities. “Chicky Poo,” as he was known on the air, did a spoof on legendary television newscaster Mort Lloyd. Mr. Lloyd responded, “Well, just so they get my name in there and it’s spelled correctly.”
The 70’s brought about changes on the FM band. WYNQ, known for beautiful music, changed to WSKZ, the Wings of Rock N Roll. A young aspiring broadcaster from Sand Mountain and later popular television news anchor, David Carroll, was their first announcer, ringing cash registers for area merchants.
KZ 106 is still rocking and rolling today.
WDEF FM became the lone voice of easy listening music as WDOD FM abandoned that format for Southern Gospel Music and later a new country sound.
By 1980, WDOD FM had changed back to country music but in 1983, the Dynamo of Dixie got stiff completion when Alabama based Colonial Broadcasting bought WCLE FM- Cleveland and moved the transmitter to Signal Mountain, changing the call letters to WUSY. US-101 as they are known, has dominated Chattanooga country music radio ratings since. Big Jon Anthony was on the air at WUSY every morning until 1991 when he died suddenly of a massive heart attack.
Since 2008, WDOD FM has been programming several different flavors of new music, currently known as Hits 96.
In the late 60s, Tennessee Temple University and the Moody Bible Institute entered the market with 24-hour Christian formats, each with 100,000 watts. WDYN and WMBW attracted a large audience from Southeast Tennessee, North Georgia and Alabama.
A growing Southern Missionary College in Collegedale was granted a FM license in 1961. The FCC eventually approved the station’s 100,000 watts.
The University of Tennessee, Chattanooga went on the air with WUTC FM in 1980.
As listenership to AM stations gradually switched to the FM band, station owners experimented with different formats, including talk and older music. WDEF AM radio General Manager Ben Cagle said he caught a lot of flak when he decided to air Bruce Williams and Sally Jesse Raphael in the evenings. He said he went out on a limb but the ratings proved him right. WGOW AM was the first to adopt an all talk format with Russ Limbaugh as their centerpiece show every day at noon. WGOW AM was also home to “For the People” with talk show host Chuck Yarder, who broadcast daily from his home in Florida.
WDOD AM switched from country, in 1990, to the great American songbook of favorites, music mostly of the 40s, 50s and 60s.
WDOD AM was home to the “Hey Earl Show” for 20 years in the 80s and 90s. Programming was a mixture of talk and adult standards. After 86 years of broadcasting, the Dynamo of Dixie went dark, May 31, 2011, and the owners returned their license to the FCC.
Another major programming change occurred in the early 1990s when WDEF FM became Sunny 92.3. The station switched from beautiful music to adult contemporary to target a younger audience. Luther Masingill remained on the air until his death, Oct. 20, 2014. Volumes could be written about the world renowned morning announcer. The station has remained at the top of the ratings with James Howard and Kim Carson in the mornings.
What would mid days be without Patti Sanders, who has broadcast on WDEF FM, Sunny 92.3, almost from the beginning of the current format; Patti is Sunny–92.3.
A few (the list keeps growing) of the popular radio personalities through the years were Gaylord McPherson, Jerry Pond, Dean Wickersham, Ray Hobbs, Roy Morris, Harry Thornton, Gus Chamberlain, Bob Powers, Harv Bradley, Tom Nobles, Walter Stamper, Johnny Eagle, Ben Cagle, Gene Michaels, Chip Chapman, Allen Dennis, Bobby Byrd, Garry Mac, Dale Deason, Charlie Nicholson, Bill Sanders, Jim Reynolds, Bill Clairborn, Bob Boyer, Rick Sharpe, Jeff Styles, Chickamauga Charlie, Tom Sneed, Darrell Patterson, Parks Hall, Bill Nash, Rich and Tom Phillips, Bob Elmore, Randy Smith, Bobby Byrd, Ernie Feagans, Larry Ward, Bobby Q. Day, Wally Cobb, Larry Johnson, James Howard, Happy Howard Huddleston, Pappy Ted Bryant, Kevin West, Dave Oliver, Ken Hicks, Jack Hatcher, Peanut Faircloth, Don Welch, Fred Gault, Lloyd Payne, Red Brown, Nick Smith, Jolly Cholly, Tommy Jett, F.L. Pierce, Bill Poindexter, John Baker, Lee Cooper, T.R. Gunn, Danny Howard, Max Obrien Templeton, Mike King, Bob Bobsworth, John Gray, Hoyt Cameron, Johnny Walker, Alan Gold, Rick Govan, Herschel Nation, Bill Miller, Bob Cox, Jerry Wilson, James Howard, Bill McAfee, Jim Copeland, David Earl Hughes, Carl Human, Dean Sippel, Dick Davis, Wayne Hannah, Bill Lockhart, Howard Fuse, Dale Anthony, Larry Ward, Jim Hill, Ray White, Tom Hoge, Art Sanner, Don Wick, Peyton Bryant, Frank Hubbs, Jerry Brown, Stanley Hall Jr., Ron Daily, Jimmy Byrd, Bill Burkett and Parker Smith.
Drue Smith, Patti Hubbs, Farol Faye Finklestein, Carol Glenn, Mabel Light, Evelyn Cato, Sue Johnson, Angela Richardson, Marsha Bryant, Eleanor Jacobs, Betty Mac, Jackie Mason, Francis Wright, Melissa “Mo” Turner, Kelly McCoy, and Susie “Q” Luther, were among the female voices on Chattanooga radio.
This writer can’t forget Helen Hardin and her nearly 10 years in the WDOD radio news department back in the 1970s. Ms. Hardin changed careers and went to work for Congressmen Zach Wamp and Chuck Fleischmann, helping constituents in the Third Congressional district.
Broadcaster Lloyd Payne was 47 years old when he died. He began his career in 1948 when WDXB went on the air. In 1952, the popular radio host was strickened with polio, but he continued to broadcast from a wheelchair until his passing.
Mr. Payne moved to WDOD in 1971. At his death, station manager Bill Nash said, “Lloyd didn’t let his handicap stop him; he was the most faithful employee I’ve ever had to work for me.”
Jolly Cholly Krause came to Chattanooga in 1963 from Kentucky to work at WDOD. A year later he moved to WDEF and hosted the Roadshow until his un-expected death in 1974. He was known for his quick wit and restaurant ad-lib commercials.
This list is far from complete and could go on and on, if the writer’s memory was better. This dinosaur radio man is proud to know or knew most these announcers.
Chattanooga broadcasters can’t forget the hard work of their chief engineers; Julius Vessels, Eddie Walker, Charlie Stokley, Milton Hazel, Bob Briscoe, Buford Young, Joe Poteet, Bo Bo Anthony, Ron Wilson, Gene Landau, S. Parks Hall, Sam Hall, Lou Watson, Glenn Williams, Glenn Morgan, F.L. Pierce and this writer’s mentor, Merrill Parker.
Since the introduction of satellites and computers, station owners have drastically reduced their staffs, doing away with a lot of local news and going to what’s known as syndicated shows and voice tracking.
WGOW FM, Talk Radio 102.3, is one of the few Chattanooga radio stations with live shows from 6:00 in the morning until 7:00 in the evening. It’s still nice to have real personalities taking telephone calls. I must say waking up is fun again, listening to television veteran Jed Mescon, Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame inductee J.R. “Jim” Reynolds and their producer, a young and talented Natalie Gard.
So many of the radio personalities Chattanoogans grew up listening to have retired or are deceased.
Chattanooga can be proud of inductees into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame; Luther Masingill, Tommy “Jett” Reynolds, Keith Landecker, Bill “Dex” Poindexter, “Hey” Earl Freudenberg, J.R. “Jim” Reynolds, Gene Lovin, Scott Chase, Larry Ward, Johnny Eagle and Billy Benns.
Buddy Houts was very much a part of Chattanooga radio for three decades before he left WDEF and went to work as automotive editor and assistant city editor for the News Free Press. The quick-witted personality remained in contact with Luther on WDEF in his many years with the newspaper. We can never forget Buddy calling Luther with two tickets to sell to the Tennessee Alabama football game on the 50 yard line. Buddy would hang up while giving the telephone number.
New vehicles now have Sirrus radio channels which afford the traveling motorist hundreds of stations to listen to other than the traditional AM or FM frequencies. Sirrus hasn’t exactly figured out a way to localize some of their many channels. Motorists still have to tune to a local station to find out why there’s a backup on the expressways.
Veteran broadcasters say local programing is certainly what’s missing from radio. This writer asked a seasoned broadcaster recently what’s next for radio. He just shook his head and said, “Maybe something will come along that will have public appeal and we’ll see another revival like that of the late 50s, 60s and 70s, but there’s still no substitute for the live radio personality.”
Morning icon Luther Masingill didn’t get upset very much, but one morning when his news anchor filled a local newscast with national stories, he let his true feelings be known. After the newscast, Luther told the reporter his listeners didn’t care about what was happening in New York (we leave that to CBS) but they want to know what’s going on on Market Street. He looked the reporter in the face and said, “If you can’t find some local items, come see me, I have four pages of lost dogs and cats you can read.”
There are probably a few listener lines left, but wouldn’t it be nice to call your favorite radio station, request a song and a “live” DJ play it for you. We can only wish that the “Golden Days of Radio” would happen again in the second one hundred years.
From the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame, “Never to be forgotten are the men and women who have made a difference in the lives of their listeners by greeting them with their voices, informing and entertaining them for 100 years.”
Don’t you miss the days of, “Am I caller number ?”
If you have a radio story, this writer encourages they be sent to [email protected]. We’ve only touched the surface in this article with a few of our radio memories.
“Images of Chattanooga Radio and Television” by David Carroll has more broadcasting stories and pictures and can be purchased from the author.
Station promotional photo of Roy Morris to plug his daily live radio program, “Laugh and Live Show”
This article was originally published by a www.chattanoogan.com . Read the Original article here. .