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Anyone remember 953 WTNZ?

M

MusicDoctorRadio

Haven't been able to find a topic on this subject, but who all remembers "95 3 WTNZ-FM"?

For those of you who don't remember the station, it was originally 95.3 WYSH-FM many years ago.

Mack Sanders who also owned WNOX-AM bought the station around the same time he purchased WNOX-AM back in 1982.

WYSH-FM was changed to WNKX-FM, and it became "KIX 95 Country". I believe "Elf Communications" purchased both WNKX-FM and WNOX-AM from Mack Sanders in 1984.

Then in 1986 REBS, which was a company headed up by "Rick James" (Not the singer), who had at one time worked on WABC in New York back in the 60's, bought both WNKX-FM and WNOX-AM from Elf Communications.

In November of 1986 "REBS" dropped the WNKX calls from the "95.3-FM" frequency and replaced them with "WTNZ". They also dropped the country music format at the same time and replaced it with a "CHR/Rhythmic Format". The station was programmed by Chris Mack up until around late 1987.

Then sometime in late 1987 or early 1988, former U-102 Night guy the late "Screamin' Jeff Freeman" took over as the new PD for "953 WTNZ". Both Jeff Freeman and Mike Keith, who now does the play by play for the Tennessee Titans did mornings on WTNZ for several months in 1988. Jeff Freeman made some tweaks to the station's programming by changing it over to a regular "CHR" format when he took over the programming. They started calling the station, "POWER 95" after that.

John Wilkerson who currently does "Sports Talk" with Jimmy Hyams on the "Sports Animal" was the overnight guy, and he was also the Music Director for WTNZ-FM in 1988. Plus Kim Hansard who currently co-hosts the "Mark and Kim In The Mornings" show on STAR 102.1 did evenings on WTNZ.

The station sounded great! It even came very close to beating it's 100,000 watt competitor "WOKI (I-100)" in the ratings. Screamin' Freeman did a heck of a job programming WTNZ.

Unfortunately due to financial problems, WTNZ-FM's reign came to a sad end after it was forced to go dark back on September 6, 1988. It was later on bought by "The Bible Broadcasting Network" in the late spring of 1989, and was brought back on the air as a "Christian Station" with Satellite Programming about a year later after it went dark as the new "95.3 WYFC", which it is still known as today.

BBN took a station that once played some of the hottest CHR Music, and turned it into a station that now plays music that you would hear at a funeral. The people at "BBN" are clueless about what they did to WTNZ-FM. 95.3-FM has been a complete waste of frequency for the past 18 years IMO.

Of course the FOX 43 Affiliate here in Knoxville now has the WTNZ Calls. I think the calls have been on Channel 43 since 1994.
 
MusicDoctorRadio said:
Haven't been able to find a topic on this subject, but who all remembers "95 3 WTNZ-FM"?

For those of you who don't remember the station, it was originally 95.3 WYSH-FM many years ago.

Mack Sanders who also owned WNOX-AM bought the station around the same time he purchased WNOX-AM back in 1982.

WYSH-FM was changed to WNKX-FM, and it became "KIX 95 Country". I believe "Elf Communications" purchased both WNKX-FM and WNOX-AM from Mack Sanders in 1984.

Then in 1986 REBS, which was a company headed up by "Rick James" (Not the singer), who had at one time worked on WABC in New York back in the 60's, bought both WNKX-FM and WNOX-AM from Elf Communications.

In November of 1986 "REBS" dropped the WNKX calls from the "95.3-FM" frequency and replaced them with "WTNZ". They also dropped the country music format at the same time and replaced it with a "CHR/Rhythmic Format". The station was programmed by Chris Mack up until around late 1987.

Then sometime in late 1987 or early 1988, former U-102 Night guy the late "Screamin' Jeff Freeman" took over as the new PD for "953 WTNZ". Both Jeff Freeman and Mike Keith, who now does the play by play for the Tennessee Titans did mornings on WTNZ for several months in 1988. Jeff Freeman made some tweaks to the station's programming by changing it over to a regular "CHR" format when he took over the programming. They started calling the station, "POWER 95" after that.

John Wilkerson who currently does "Sports Talk" with Jimmy Hyams on the "Sports Animal" was the overnight guy, and he was also the Music Director for WTNZ-FM in 1988. Plus Kim Hansard who currently co-hosts the "Mark and Kim In The Mornings" show on STAR 102.1 did evenings on WTNZ.

The station sounded great! It even came very close to beating it's 100,000 watt competitor "WOKI (I-100)" in the ratings. Screamin' Freeman did a heck of a job programming WTNZ.

Unfortunately due to financial problems, WTNZ-FM's reign came to a sad end after it was forced to go dark back on September 6, 1988. It was later on bought by "The Bible Broadcasting Network" in the late spring of 1989, and was brought back on the air as a "Christian Station" with Satellite Programming about a year later after it went dark as the new "95.3 WYFC", which it is still known as today.

BBN took a station that once played some of the hottest CHR Music, and turned it into a station that now plays music that you would hear at a funeral. The people at "BBN" are clueless about what they did to WTNZ-FM. 95.3-FM has been a complete waste of frequency for the past 18 years IMO.

Of course the FOX 43 Affiliate here in Knoxville now has the WTNZ Calls. I think the calls have been on Channel 43 since 1994.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen those group names in years, ELF Broadcasting and REBS. I remember WNOX and WNKX being owned by Mack Sanders/Jaco, Inc (and the other groups you mentioned) because they also owned WVOK-AM and WQUS (later known as WLTB) here in Birmingham back in the mid to late 80's. Seems like there were some other stations (country formatted?) in Nashville that were a part of that group as well; I don't think Mack Sanders ever owned any stations which didn't program country. IIRC, REBS, a company which was in the construction business rather than radio, were the ones that finished all those stations off prematurely when the company went bankrupt in the late 80's (what possessed them to buy those stations when they were totally lacking any sort of experience in the radio business is beyond me...) Some of those stations, including the ones in Birmingham, were sold off to Dick Broadcasting.

As far as BBN goes, they obviously weren't going to continue a CHR format on that station. Their main purpose is to share the gospel. I'm not a big fan of BBN myself, but I don't really think the music they play sounds like "funeral music". :)



________________________
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Oh, I knew that BBN would never keep that station a "CHR Format" from day one, because I knew it was a "Christian Broadcasting" Company. Everyone who was ever associated with the WTNZ will always remember the bad news when BBN bought WTNZ-FM back in 1989 because we knew that was the end of the station.

Plus I don't listen to the WYFC, and I am only basing it on what I heard when BBN first signed the station back on the air as "95.3 WYFC". It was a sad day for me personally, along with some of the people who worked for WTNZ back then.

I will admit that I am not a fan of christian radio, however my comments were not meant to attack christians or christian radio. I apologize if that offended anyone. It was not my intentions to do so.

The thing that bothered me so bad about the loss of WTNZ-FM was that people such as Jeff Freeman, John Wilkerson, Kim Hansard, and several others who were DJ's and part of programming really put their heart and soul into that station. Two months later around November after WTNZ-FM went dark back in September of 1988, some of these former DJ's that I just mentioned were willing to practically work for nothing with a skeleton crew just to bring the station back on the air at least from 6am to 12midnight, however the creditors never allowed that to happen.

On a more personal note, my good friend the late Jeff Freeman, never really got the recognition I feel that he deserved with the programming of WTNZ IMO. Most people probably don't even remember the days of WTNZ-FM. Screamin' Jeff Freeman had a lot of great radio talent that never really got to be used. I had known Jeff Freeman since 1984 back when he did nights at "U-102". I knew the guy had talent, however he was never able to utilize that talent when he worked at "U-102", due to it being an "Adult Contemporary" Format. Screamin' Freeman was hilarious. He did get to utilize his talent when he did mornings and afternoons on WTNZ back in 1988, however it was only for close to 10 months. Jeff was at his best back then, and I regret that I did not save any airchecks of him from his days of doing mornings with Mike Keith on WTNZ.

Jeff Freeman had a very jolly and likable personality. He was a cut up. What you heard on the air you pretty much got off of the air. It is a shame that a wonderful and great guy's life got cut so short just a couple of years ago.
 
MusicDoctorRadio said:
Haven't been able to find a topic on this subject, but who all remembers "95 3 WTNZ-FM"?

For those of you who don't remember the station, it was originally 95.3 WYSH-FM many years ago.

Mack Sanders who also owned WNOX-AM bought the station around the same time he purchased WNOX-AM back in 1982.

WYSH-FM was changed to WNKX-FM, and it became "KIX 95 Country". I believe "Elf Communications" purchased both WNKX-FM and WNOX-AM from Mack Sanders in 1984.

Then in 1986 REBS, which was a company headed up by "Rick James" (Not the singer), who had at one time worked on WABC in New York back in the 60's, bought both WNKX-FM and WNOX-AM from Elf Communications.

In November of 1986 "REBS" dropped the WNKX calls from the "95.3-FM" frequency and replaced them with "WTNZ". They also dropped the country music format at the same time and replaced it with a "CHR/Rhythmic Format". The station was programmed by Chris Mack up until around late 1987.

Then sometime in late 1987 or early 1988, former U-102 Night guy the late "Screamin' Jeff Freeman" took over as the new PD for "953 WTNZ". Both Jeff Freeman and Mike Keith, who now does the play by play for the Tennessee Titans did mornings on WTNZ for several months in 1988. Jeff Freeman made some tweaks to the station's programming by changing it over to a regular "CHR" format when he took over the programming. They started calling the station, "POWER 95" after that.

John Wilkerson who currently does "Sports Talk" with Jimmy Hyams on the "Sports Animal" was the overnight guy, and he was also the Music Director for WTNZ-FM in 1988. Plus Kim Hansard who currently co-hosts the "Mark and Kim In The Mornings" show on STAR 102.1 did evenings on WTNZ.

The station sounded great! It even came very close to beating it's 100,000 watt competitor "WOKI (I-100)" in the ratings. Screamin' Freeman did a heck of a job programming WTNZ.

Unfortunately due to financial problems, WTNZ-FM's reign came to a sad end after it was forced to go dark back on September 6, 1988. It was later on bought by "The Bible Broadcasting Network" in the late spring of 1989, and was brought back on the air as a "Christian Station" with Satellite Programming about a year later after it went dark as the new "95.3 WYFC", which it is still known as today.

BBN took a station that once played some of the hottest CHR Music, and turned it into a station that now plays music that you would hear at a funeral. The people at "BBN" are clueless about what they did to WTNZ-FM. 95.3-FM has been a complete waste of frequency for the past 18 years IMO.

Of course the FOX 43 Affiliate here in Knoxville now has the WTNZ Calls. I think the calls have been on Channel 43 since 1994.
Click to expand...

This is a very interesting story. I didn't realize Kim Hansard worked at WTNZ-FM in the late 1980s.
 
This is a very interesting story. I didn't realize Kim Hansard worked at WTNZ-FM in the late 1980s.
[/quote]

Yep, Kim did evenings right before the station's reign ended, and went dark on September 6, 1988.
 
I loved this radio station. I moved to East Tennessee in 1988 and it was the only station around here that played the Rhythmic CHR format that I listed to when I lived in Florida.
 
JasonMichaels said:
I loved this radio station. I moved to East Tennessee in 1988 and it was the only station around here that played the Rhythmic CHR format that I listed to when I lived in Florida.
Click to expand...

95-3 WTNZ was a great radio station that went way before it's time. It's a shame that it ended up being sold to the "Bible Broadcasting Network".
 
Yeah I agree. It was a sad day when I turned on the radio one day and heard the different format.
 
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