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Anyone remember back when "Lightning 100" was "REBEL 100"?

M

MusicDoctorRadio

I was wondering who all remembers back when, "100.1 WRLT (Lightning 100)" was "WWRB (Rebel 100)" back in the mid/late 80's.

I remember the station back during that time period was owned by REBS, Inc. which was headed up by former WABC News Man, "Rick James", which was the same company that also owned 953 WTNZ-FM and WNOX AM-990 in Knoxville along with a couple of other stations down in Birmingham Alabama and a couple of stations up North around Delaware. I also remember REBS ended up in bankruptcy which resulted in the sale of all of the company's radio stations.

I also remember when some of the DJ's who were on WTNZ-FM here in Knoxville were transferred to "The Rebel" out there in Nashville around late 1987 I believe it was. Three of the jocks who come to mind that were transfered out there to help out with the Rebel were Bill Beason (Formerly known as Buzz Dailey on WLAC), Chuck Knight, and Gil Andrews.

I never got to hear the Rebel, however I would be curious to hear from some of you folks out in Nashville who remember the station, and I would also be curious to know what it sounded like.

From what I remember someone telling me, "The Rebel" had like hard rock format at the time.
 
Nock said:
Harder Rock with a lean on alternative before alternative became alternative. I enjoyed it!

Nock
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

I thought they played some alternative along with some hard rock/heavy metal. I just wasn't for sure, plus like you mentioned that was just a few years before alternative became popular.

I remember Gil Andrews telling me back in 1988 that the Rebel had some really modern, state of the art studios back during that time period.
 
Thanks for the information on the DJs on the Rebel. I became a fan of The Rebel because I was fed up with KDF. Now I know there are some in this forum who knew KDF jocks, but let's face it, KDF was just a mere shell of it's former heritage by the time the Rebel burst on the scene. I was pretty much fed up with KDF passing their brand of mainstream radio off as album rock. Rebel came along offering a different sound and I was pulled in.

Those of you that poke fun at the bocephus guy who frequently calls in for Freebird, well that was typical of KDF of that era. I think it was Scott who said that their programmers thought of Nashville's rock audience as redneck so we got nothing but that kind of product. Forgive me Scott if that was not your comment, but I thought it was one of your comments. Not to bash Skynyrd because they have many fine tunes that KDF never played.

Yes they played some same music as KDF, but they would reach back deeper into the AOR bands and the Rebel played some of the hip alternative rock bands at that time as well.

But I seem to remember that before it became Lightning 100, there was about a year when that station was called "Lie 100 that played Petera Citera music.
 
I meant Lite 100. I think they were basically honest folks. ;)
 
To me, Rebel 100 was more alternative leaning than hard rock or metal. I didn't recall any hell raising music on the station then, just "smarter" better music. Then Lie 100 came on ... I think you got the first spelling correct, Swiss.
 
MusicDoctorRadio said:
I remember Gil Andrews telling me back in 1988 that the Rebel had some really modern, state of the art studios back during that time period.
Click to expand...

no...the nice studios were on 2nd Avenue...and atop the L&C tower...much later...
I did a few weekends at Lightning 100 in 1990 (Summer) ...when the studios were still in an ofice park in Brentwood:
home-brew CD players, console, etc...definately NOT state-of-the-art. Jim Eskew was PD at WRLT at the time.
I was way too old for the music even then.
 
Rebel 100 was one of my favorite stations during that time frame. They were playing a lot of music, especially in the rock vain, that other stations in the market weren't playing. They were also playing a lot of artists, such as Gun'N'Roses, the Black Crowes, etc. months, sometimes even years, before KDF was playing them. And they also played a lot of local Nashville artists, such as John Hiatt, Webb Wilder, Walk the West, Royal Court of China and others, years before KDF even acknowledged those acts existed. Several of my favorite music artists and acts I first heard and was exposed to on Rebel 100.

I remember Tony Pitt was the PM drive time DJ for the first year or so before he moved to morning Drive the last year of the station.
 
Thanks for the information so far. I find all of this to be very interesting.

I spent quiet a bit of time around Rebel 100's Top 40 Sister Station "953 WTNZ" here in Knoxville back in '88, and I had heard a lot of about "The Rebel" back during that time period.

Keep the information coming folks. This is good stuff.

Do any of you know if there are any air checks out there on the station?
 
What I remember about "The Rebel" most was that if the music was good, it got played on there regardless of what sub genre it might have gotten cast into. I remember I had never heard of PreFab Sprout before the Rebel came along. Tell you the truth I have not heard much of them since. LOL Rebel also played Patti Smith, which KDF largely ignored. There are other examples of Rebel playing material KDF would not have touched because it was just to bold an adventure from a musical stand point. KDF FM had their loyal base of listeners. I remember when they (KDF) would bring a caller on the air. It would sound "Hay mane' we are out here in Antioch mane. Play some Skynerd mane. I guess some other poster also heard that and now uses this as a routine, but it certainly is the truth. LOL

Rebel ran some promos on their station calming that the Rebel would rather be sorry than safe. ( A dig at the same ole same ole at KDF)

I do not think Rebel was a serious challenge to KDF, even though Rebel kicked their butts in musical creativity leaps and bounds. The powers that be at KDF knew damn well they had the bick bucks to flick the Rebel off into the dustbin of memories.
Too bad, because Rebel 100, along with radio Free WKDA FM rock radio from 1970- 1972 or so was the best rock radio Nashville has ever heard. Rock 106 also was also a great effort.
 
SwissVol said:
Rebel ran some promos on their station calming that the Rebel would rather be sorry than safe. ( A dig at the same ole same ole at KDF)
Click to expand...

I wonder if those same promos or sweepers were recorded by Rick James who was the CEO/Chairman of REBS, Inc. the parent company that owned "The Rebel".

Rick did a lot of the promos/sweepers for WTNZ-FM here in Knoxville. The guy had some really deep pipes I remember.

That is really cool hearing about how a lot of these alternative groups and artists who were later on big in the 90s were already receiving some airplay in the mid/late 80's. Take the Black Crowes for example. When their mainstream hit "Hard To Handle" came out in 1990/91 I had never heard of them before that.

I also like the way Rick James came up with the name for the Nashville Station "The Rebel". I would guess that it had to do with the fact that they were willing to go outside of the main stream and play music by artists/bands that other stations refused to play. So in a sense "The Rebel" was a "Rebel" when it came to mainstream radio.

Plus the fact that their parent company was called, "REBS, Inc." may have had something to do with it also.

I would love to get some air checks of, "The Rebel", if there are any out there.
 
Before Rebel, I remember 1240 KDA being the alternative actually sounding pretty good, Back when I had an 82 Ford Escort, vinyl seats no ac and an am radio.

Nock
 
You know, I was reading Lighting 100's website. They have thier history all wrong. The station started in the 60's with the call sign WFLT-FM, with studios in downtown Franklin. I think Jim Hayes at WAKM could tell us all about how the 100.1 allocation made it to Franklin. Jim built WIZO-AM (now WHEW) and bought a Bauer 707 transmitter that was purchased as a kit. It was the only 1 KW transmitter at the time you could by put together at the factory or "do it yourself". I was told Jim did it himself. I remember when Lighting 100 was WIZO-FM and was just a plan ole "Top 40" station in the early 70's, just serving Franklin.

Scott
 
And before Rebel they were KZ Country when they moved to the tower in Brentwood attempting to get the NVille folks.

Nock
 
Nock ---

I remember 1240 flipping to New Wave! It was a damn good sounding AM station. How times have changed.
I think I had finally gotten rid of the U.S. Postal Jeep (complete with right side steering wheel) that my dad
bought me to keep the girls off me in high school.

Now, I have Denny Jiosa's jazz CD's to keep the girls away!!! lol.
 
U.S. Postal Jeep (complete with right side steering wheel) that my dad
bought me to keep the girls off me in high school. .. I owned a postal jeep sevral times, kept buying/selling it with a buddy of mine...although i had a rare left hand drive model..bought it originaly from Conway
 
sorry..Twitty's guitar player...but i was 30 years old at the time..i don't remember a woman EVER being in that thing...now in high school, had a 64 GTO........yea..chick magnet for the terminal ugly......lol
 
I wonder if those same promos or sweepers were recorded by Rick James who was the CEO/Chairman of REBS, Inc. the parent company that owned "The Rebel".
Click to expand...


REBS stood for Rick (James), Erlene (James), Bob (Dearborn) and Steve (Hunter), the owners of the company. Dearborn was the programming guy for the group and PD/MD of The Rebel. He also did the image voicing for The Rebel and several of their other stations.

It may have been Ned Horton, their sales manager at the time, who came up with name The Rebel.
 
DeltaDon said:
I wonder if those same promos or sweepers were recorded by Rick James who was the CEO/Chairman of REBS, Inc. the parent company that owned "The Rebel".
Click to expand...


REBS stood for Rick (James), Erlene (James), Bob (Dearborn) and Steve (Hunter), the owners of the company. Dearborn was the programming guy for the group and PD/MD of The Rebel. He also did the image voicing for The Rebel and several of their other stations.

It may have been Ned Horton, their sales manager at the time, who came up with name The Rebel.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I do know that back when The Rebel's Top 40 sister station "953 WTNZ" in Knoxville signed on in November of 1986 that the imaging/voicing had a different voice up until around January/February of 1988.

Sometime around January or February of 1988 after WTNZ started calling themselves, "Power 95" Rick James started doing the imaging/voice for WTNZ after he came to Knoxville. Rick James also went by the name "Powerman" on the air. He would usually do a couple of hours on the air each day. He pretty much became the voice for "953 WTNZ" (Power 95) in early 1988.
 
I wonder if Bob Dearborn might have also been the same one who did the imaging and voice over for 953 WTNZ-FM in Knoxville before Rick James started doing it in early 1988.
 
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