Charlie Daniels at WKDF Nashville

Charlie Daniels is a big fan of Nashville radio, and especially WKDF, who broadcast his Volunteer Jam series of concerts for years. Here's Charlie at the WKDF studios with long time KDF jock Tom Bootle. Click to enlarge, and R.I.P. Tom.

WKDA-FM Nashville Survey June 22 1970

WKDA-FM brought full time AOR radio to Nashville in the spring of 1970. They immediately picked up a solid audience of album rock fans, and the station morphed into WKDF, and then just KDF. They stayed with the same format until turning country in 1993. Bob Cole, pictured in this survey at the bottom, is now seen as the father of AOR radio in Nashville.

Click to enlarge, and to learn more about the history of AOR radio in Nashville, click here.

WMAK Nashville Survey June 05, 1974

Here's WMAK in summer 1974, still riding the Top 40 wave. Roger St. John is featured on the cover. Anyone have info on him? Lots of locally produced Nashville acts are in the survey, including Jim Stafford, Jimmy Buffett, Anne Murray, and Elvis. Click to enlarge and enjoy!

WLAC-AM Nashville Boat Shot

What do WLAC-AM night time jocks do during the day? In 1978, it was lounge on a boat in Percy Priest Lake just east of Nashville. That's me, Nick Archer, splitting nights on WKQB-FM and WLAC-AM.

WWKX KX104 Gallatin TN Jeff Baker Aircheck 1980

Here's an aircheck rescued from an old cassette. It's Jeff Baker on KX104, WWKX in Gallatin TN in 1980. There are some promos, an aircheck, a couple of commercials, and even a promo from fellow jock Jon "Rock 'n Roll" Anthony. KX 104 was one of the best in straight ahead radio, click here to hear the aircheck.

Lee Masters, left, and Jeff Baker, right, in 2011.

Davy Jones at WKDA Nashville 1967

Sorry the 150th post on this blog had to be a sad one. Davy Jones passed away today from a heart attack in Florida. I don't have to remind you how many fans Davy had, and of his career, including being a child star in England, a cast member of Oliver! on Broadway, and his Monkee and solo gigs. Mike Nesmith has a nice post on FB right now, fans should check it out.

Here's a pic from Davy at his peak popularity in 1967, making an appearance in Nashville, Tennessee. DJ Dan Hoffman from AM Top 40 station WKDA is in the middle, and Nashville legend Boots Randolph is shaking Davy's hand. Click to enlarge the photo, and R.I.P. Davy.

Radio Station License Plates from Nashville

Here's a collection of license plates from some Nashville radio stations of the 1970s. Click any image to enlarge, and if you have any of these to show, post a link in the comments section.


WLAC -AM was still top 40 when this came out.


WSM-AM was news/talk all day and country at night, including the Grand Ole Opry Saturday nights.


SM95 was WSM-FM, soft pop and west coast rock.


Here's a bonus plate, the Exit/In, Nashville's hip spot for every kind of music in the 70s. Among the acts I saw there were Barefoot Jerry, Harry Chapin, Jan Hammer, and Stanley Turrentine.


If you want to see more souvenirs of Nashville radio in the past, check out the NashRadio group on Yahoo.

WKDA Nashville Jocks 1961

A snapshot of the WKDA staff in the early 1960s. WKDA was one of the first Top 40 stations in Nashville, and all of jocks here went on to great radio careers. Click to enlarge pic, and learn a lot more about WKDA's Top 40 days by visiting here.

Get Stung By the Bee! Mel Bee WRVU Nashville TN

Mel Bee was a DJ on WRVU, the Vanderbilt campus radio station, from 1971 to about 1975. One of WRVU's classic lineup of block programming specialty jocks, he was the king of soul. Mel loved being on the air, as this pic shows. Click to enjoy larger!

Wolfman Jack at WLAC Nashville

Brian Mason of WLAC sent in this shot of the Wolfman sitting in the WLAC-AM car, "The Honker", in the late 70s.

WMAK Nashville Survey October 19 1969

WMAK survey from 1969. Jock Joe Sullivan later started his own concert promotion company, Sound 70. Click to enlarge, survey courtesy of Wes Green.

WKDA Nashville Concert Poster

WKDA and WMAK duked it out in the 60s for listeners. Here's a poster for a WKDA concert at the Nashville Fairgrounds with the Lovin' Spoonful, The Turtles, The Cyrkle, B.J. Thomas, Lou Christie, and local faves the Nashville Shadows, all for $2.25. Click to enlarge.

Radio Station Belt Buckles

Back in the 70s and 80s, belt buckles were a popular giveaway item at radio stations, I guess to hold up those wide belt jeans. Here are a few that survived, click to enlarge.

RTL was 208 Radio Luxembourg, from 1980. WSM Radio 65 is from the same time at the Nashville country station. WLAC was Top 40 in Nashville and featured the famous sun logo. WQXI was from the late 70s in Atlanta.

Did your favorite station give away belt buckles?

SM95 WSM-FM Nashville Rainbow Sticker 1982

Here's the second iconic sticker logo from SM95, WSM-FM Nashville in 1982. This appeared on all sorts of merchandise that the station sold and gave away, replacing all stuff with the old logo that you see Program Director Donna Brake selling below:

ADVERTISEMENT: A couple of years ago I set up a cafepress shop to sell SM95 swag. If you're into it, take a look:  http://www.cafepress.com/SM95

WLAC Nashville Christmas Card from Hoss Allen

I worked with Hoss Allen at WLAC in the 1980s, and later worked with him in my studio doing voiceovers for commercials. One Christmas he sent me a card. Click to enlarge.

WSM Nashville Promo Package 1974 Part 3

Here are the final scans from the 1974 WSM sales package. There were three individual pamphlets on the left side of the package as you opened it:

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Here's the inside of the City folder.

The Country folder.

And the FM side. This was before the adult contemporary years, WSM-FM was still playing beautiful music.

There you have it. A snapshot in time from 1974 and the WSEmpire, as we used to call it. Thanks again to Wes Green of WSM for providing this look back in time.

Donny Osmond at WLAC Nashville May 1978

Here's a group shot for the ages. WLAC, which at the time was Top 40, had their spring party at the Centennial Park Bandshell in Nashville in May 1978. It was a day long promo event, with many local bands on hand, and most of the WLAC jocks. Highlight of the day was an appearance by Donny Osmond. He honored an old booking, which was amazing because he was on his honeymoon at the time. A limo picked he and his wife up at the airport and brought them to the event for a half hour. Click to enlarge pic.

L-R David Page as the KQBee, Stu Evans (now of KMEL Phoenix), Captain Sunshine, Bob Robison, Eva Wood, Donny, PD Mark Damon, Mike Shane, and Smokey Rivers.

Here's one more never before published pic of the KQBee and the WLAC Prize Van from this event.

WSM Nashville Promo Package 1974 Part 2

Time for part 2 of the WSM 1974 Sales Promotion Package. Thanks again to Wes Green for the goodies. Here are scans of the interior pages, one for each show throughout the dayparts. Click on any pic to enlarge.

The broadcast day started with John McDonald and the farm report. He was so popular as a commercial spokesman that he charged sponsors on his show $3 for every time each spot aired.

Ted Johnson was the morning man, smooth and knowledgeable with a great radio voice. He later owned a television production studio, and was the national voice of Lenscrafters for years. Listen to an aircheck of Ted from 1976 here.

I believe WSM was the last station in the country to have a live band in the studio each morning. The band members would do the morning radio show, the midday TV show, then roll down the hill to the bars, where I got to know a lot of them.

What can you say about Ralph Emery? A legend.

Teddy Bart started out as a piano player, but quickly became a radio star in the talk arena. He is still active today.

Pat Sajak started in radio as a comedy writer in Chicago. His afternoon radio show was in the same league as Dr. Don Rose, with many groan-inducing puns. Pat also was a live booth announcer for WSM TV, and a weekend weatherman. He left in 1975 to do the weather in Los Angeles, an experience I think Steve Martin used in L.A. Story.

Remember when radio stations had real news departments? WSM and WLAC were always locked in battle for ratings and news scoops.

Hairl Hensley knows more about country music than anyone. His mellow voice on the radio and as an announcer on the Grand Ole Opry was the touchstone for many listeners. You can't think about Martha White Flour without thinking of Hairl.

Cap'n Jim and Flight 65 had the most popular air traffic reports in town for many years. Jim eventually took his plane to San Diego, where he was equally popular. In each city he ran out of fuel in the air at least once, and glided down to safety in a field. Flight 65 was later manned by long time reporter and policeman Richard Thomas, who switched to a copter.

Tom Bryant was a true production master. He came up through ham radio, so he knew the technical end cold. He also had one of the best voices ever, in the "Voice of God" catagory. And he could make spots. He would always call my commercial sound studio and let me know when my azimuth was off on the tape dubs. Find out more about Tom on his website here.

Part 3 will be posted soon.

WKDA Nashville Survey November 01, 1969

Another WKDA Top 40 survey from late 1969. Note the jocks Jay Thomas, now famous jock and actor, and Don Sullivan, who later became a concert promoter at Sound 70. Click to enlarge, as always.

WKDF Nashville John Lennon Tribute Dec 9 1980

The day after the death of John Lennon, local group The Piggys played a rooftop concert in his honor at the WKDF building near downtown Nashville. The crowd was still in shock, but the music was great. Here's a couple of pics that I took with my 110 camera. Click to enlarge.

 

It was a very good tribute to John. The Piggys were Tom Deluca, Howie Watson, and Ronnie Brooks (later a Budweiser frog).  Check out one of their YouTube videos here.