Former WOKI Location.

[radio30]

Hi all. Just wondering about something. I'm a former radio person and I pass the old WOKI Building on Tulsa Road in Oak Ridge Each day on my way to work at the services complex. I've noticed some activity in the last few days. Some cars parked there, they have cut the grass, cut the overgrown shrubbery from in front of the building. Another operation getting ready to locate there perhaps?


I did not live here in Oak Ridge until a couple of years ago but I did live in Southeast Kentucky and listened to 100.3 back in the days of Brother John, Mike Beverly and others. There was some great radio that came out of 114 Tulsa back in the day.

Thanks.

 

[southerncomfort]

Couple thoughts here, if it were to be studio space for someone, it would likely be WJZO, the new FM at 106.1 licensed to Oliver Springs. If I am not mistaken, it may also be time for those LMA's for 100.3 and 94.3 to be renewed. Given the ominous state of Citadel's stock, and that neither 95.7 or 106.7 has done much for SCC, maybe both 94.3 and 100.3 will be moving back there soon? Maybe the new owners of 106.1 really do have deep enough pockets to LMA both 94.3 & 100.3 and create a new Knoxville area cluster?

 

[BRice16]

94.3 was renewed in May by SSC. Citadel had a contract on 100.3 for a couple more years, signed a 5 year deal in 2005.

 

[Raingus]

Couple thoughts here, if it were to be studio space for someone, it would likely be WJZO, the new FM at 106.1 licensed to Oliver Springs. If I am not mistaken, it may also be time for those LMA's for 100.3 and 94.3 to be renewed. Given the ominous state of Citadel's stock, and that neither 95.7 or 106.7 has done much for SCC, maybe both 94.3 and 100.3 will be moving back there soon? Maybe the new owners of 106.1 really do have deep enough pockets to LMA both 94.3 & 100.3 and create a new Knoxville area cluster?

Unless Pirkle still owns the old WOKI building, 100.3 moving back to Tulsa Road in Oak Ridge is probably about as realistic as AM 990 getting the WNOX call letters back on it, and moving back to the old Whittle Springs Road location.

Just because WOKI's old building in Oak Ridge looks like it is being fixed up does not mean that another radio station is getting ready to move in there. It could very well be some other type of non-radio related business that is getting ready to occupy the building.

 

[cheapman]

Is this the building that has what appears to be an abandoned AM tower out back? What was that tower used for?

 

[SuperQ]

Pirkle still does own the building. That dilapidated tower in all the trees is the old WOKI (then WORI) AM 1550 tower which actually went on before the FM did by a few months. Pirkle also has a translator operating behind that building, just above ground level on 101.1 that's rebroadcasting 94.3 until he gets a better offer.

 

[tenacea73]

During a sentimental journey to my old haunt last fall, there appeared to be some security company working out of the building. Even during its heyday, the first floor was office space that was leased to small companies while the whole 2nd floor was the station studios and offices. Yes, the old WORI 1KW tower is still there. Was accidentally left on overnight simulcasting the FM one time, and the station got 3 DX responses from New York state wondering why we were only giving an FM call. I wonder if the building still has that old rickety spiral staircase in the back to comply with fire regulations & save a few bucks on some real stairs.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

I dont know but they need to put a music format back on the 100.3 Flamethrower,,, I used to love WOKI as a CHR.... Maybe put Star 102.1 on 100.3 or even at least put the Oldies from 98.7, or th Rock on 94.3 th X on 100.3...... WOKI was the best station in the south in the 80s and early 90s,,, that and the old CHR format at WKSK Asheville....

 

[SuperQ]

I worked at WOKI and it was never the best station in Knoxville, much less the best station in the South. Now if you lived in Corbin, Kentucky it was the best station you could get.

And I was back in the building several years after they moved and the rickety old spiral staircase was still there...

 

[Raingus]

I worked at WOKI and it was never the best station in Knoxville.

I realize Pirkle didn't put a whole lot of money into WOKI, and a lot of the jocks who worked there did not make much money, however saying that WOKI was "never the best station in Knoxville" is a matter of your own personal opinion.

 

[SuperQ]

Obviously the 7-10% of the market that listened at any given time thought it was the best station in Knoxville. I give Johnny a lot of credit. He made a lot of money and had a good long ride with that station. But he himself will tell you that being the best was never part of the game plan. For instance he kept the station at half power for several years because fixing the transmitter would damage his lawsuit against the manufacturer. He won that case by the way.

He was also involved in multi year lawsuit against Arbitron, so he had no access to the data his people needed to sell and program. He won that case as well.

The idea was to maximize cash flow with a minimum of financial risk. He did it well. But by any professional programming standards the station was not at the highest level. No promotions dept., no marketing budget, lots of jock turnover, A PD playing a 3 minute theme song twice a day in PM drive, an engineer who wouldn't fix anything unless the station was off the air (who was also the company accountant), jocks who had frequent flyer miles at the local bonding company, and of course the legendary low pay scale.

I'm not knocking the success of the station, but anyone who remembers it as great radio had nothing to compare it to at the time, and all our memories tend to color over the years. For instance I remember my WOKI time as fun. But at the time, it seemed like long hours for small reward. But Johnny would always have your back if you made a mistake and would build you up when you needed it...which was often.

 

[radiorob2.0]

WOKI made a mark because it was the only station you could receive in the middle of nowhere that played the hits. During the day you listen to WOKI and at night you had WLS. WOKI did well especially in Southern Kentucky and via FM Cable in Southeastern Kentucky. I've mentioned it before but WOKI had ratings in Wise County, VA.

WOKI had moments but then again WRJZ, via airchecks sounded tighter around the clock. Imagine if WRJZ's programming was on FM.

 

[tenacea73]

Obviously the 7-10% of the market that listened at any given time thought it was the best station in Knoxville. I give Johnny a lot of credit. He made a lot of money and had a good long ride with that station. But he himself will tell you that being the best was never part of the game plan. For instance he kept the station at half power for several years because fixing the transmitter would damage his lawsuit against the manufacturer. He won that case by the way.

He was also involved in multi year lawsuit against Arbitron, so he had no access to the data his people needed to sell and program. He won that case as well.

The idea was to maximize cash flow with a minimum of financial risk. He did it well. But by any professional programming standards the station was not at the highest level. No promotions dept., no marketing budget, lots of jock turnover, A PD playing a 3 minute theme song twice a day in PM drive, an engineer who wouldn't fix anything unless the station was off the air (who was also the company accountant), jocks who had frequent flyer miles at the local bonding company, and of course the legendary low pay scale.

Running the station at at less than full power probably had more to do with the continuous SWR problems Pirkle had with the two Collins xmitters running in tandem blowing out the 5" Heliax line (as it did in 1979, keeping the station off the air for about 4 days) than with merely improving his lawsuit chances. Replacing the transmission line every 5 years and losing 96 hrs of ad revenue is also a good reason to run at reduced power.

To say that the WOKI cheif engineer, "wouldn't fix anything unless the station was off the air" is, frankly, a cheap shot. Ernie was a consummate workaholic who, in addition to WOKI, also engineered WKGN and was contracted to stations in Jefferson City and Sweetwater at the same time. He was a CPA who did accounting and taxes for several businesses and individuals and, for a time, even taught FCC license classes at Russ Skinner's jock school. He kept to a regular maintanence schedule and did get some helpers occasionally to cover all the territory. Ernie has his own definition on what constituted a critical maintenance need; he didn't come in at 3AM to clean cart machines and replace panel bulbs. He was one of the few people that Pirkle couldn't replace at the wave of his hand, consequently, WOKI had to wait its turn. Ernie didn't really need Pirkle's money, as Ernie's checks would tend to accumulate in Pirkle's desk, but he and Pirkle were good friends who liked each other, and that's what mattered most.

Yeah, the pay was low, as you say "lengendary"; so anybody who went to work there expecting anything else was crazy, naive, or both, to begin with.

 

[SuperQ]

Fair enough. I love Buster and hope his health holds up for years to come. But Buster's definition of what wasn't an emergency included things like being in left channel only for hours, having no air monitor in the studio, having to run with two cart machines for many days, having to turn off the AM transmitter to record off the phone, and more. He ran on Buster time and frequently his other duties superceded what a truly professional operation would have demanded of a chief.

As for the transmitter issue. The transmission line problem was easily fixable as well (although perhaps not cheaply) Remember 100.3 is on a very short tower. There isn't that much transmission line. But it wasn't part of the plan. Plus nobody ever noticed the half power, and the power bill was less, so play on.

I never complained about the money I made working for Johnny. He made it up to me in many other ways over the years.

The point of the original thread was that WOKI was not a great radio station for a lot of reasons. The people who were working there who had every worked anywhere else of consequence knew it.

But I wouldn't trade my time there for anything.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

When was WOKI ever at half power,, Must have been before my time, cause I was born in 1980, and I think WOKI was around since like 76 or 77 Am I correct,,, Im sure you guys know.. I heard them mentioning sweepers about being able to be heard everywhere on FM, AM,, and if im not mistaken they may or may not have been on Shortwave,, I think I missunderstood that part. I never checked out the AM simulcast,,, but ever since I can remember, I could pick up WOKI, during the I-100 days, which is really all I can distictly remember, we could hear it in the car from Lexington KY, all the way over to Asheville, and down between Chattanooga and Atlanta. I have no idea how far west it went cause I never went out toward Nashville, but I assume it would make it to around Cookville or farther.

 

[formerradiojunkie]

Ha! I remember that old building but was only in it once or twice. When I worked there it was the "petnhouse studios" of the TIS building across from Toys R Us. "Knoxville's first and only all laser stereo station!". Ha, what fun. I miss Buster, hope he is fine. He'd walk through and say something like "These yard apes tore it up again".

 

[csneed5]

Thank goodness..
I thought that 100.3 LMA would NEVER expire.

From one listener anxious for the good ole days:
Here's hoping the old OKI can come back, the great music, the great local DJ's, the local connection (not some stupid satellite service from downtown NYC that blows the moss and the mold off the same songs all the time).
It's the best frequency from one of the highest broadcast antenna's around..
Johnny Pirkle, if you read this or somebody tells you about this:

IS IT REALLY ALL ABOUT MONEY?
END THE LMA!
BRING BACK THE GREAT MUSIC AND FANTASTIC DJ'S YOU HAD ON WOKI-FM, 100.3!

 

[trapper12]

YES PLEASE BRING BACK 100.3 THE WAY IT WAS IN THE LATE 70'S AND EARLY 80'S. THESE REMOTE CONTROL SO CALLED RADIO STATIONS WE HAVE TODAY ARE SYSTEMTIZED AND SANITIZED.

 

[Raingus]

I agree! Get rid of the lousy talk format on 100.3, and put some local talent and music back on there! No more of this satellite in a can automated programming either!

 

[howell]

I too saw the building several years ago. I spent a lot of time there and have some great memories. It was grown up. Good somebody is using it. I fell down those back stairs several times myself LOL
H