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Progressive Rock on 1490AM???

T

TimeTraveler

Guest
Back in 1974, I passed through the Nashville area, and listened to a local station, at 1490AM, that programmed Progressive Rock. They referred to themselves as W-149. Does anybody remember this station, or know any history of it? Just curious...
 
Re: Progressive Rock on 1490AM??? (correction)

Actually I now believe that it was Knoxville...Any info appreciated though...


Back in 1974, I passed through the Nashville area, and
> listened to a local station, at 1490AM, that programmed
> Progressive Rock. They referred to themselves as W-149. Does
> anybody remember this station, or know any history of it?
> Just curious...
>
 
Re: Progressive Rock on 1490AM??? (correction)

> Actually I now believe that it was Knoxville...Any info
> appreciated though...
>
>
> Back in 1974, I passed through the Nashville area, and
> > listened to a local station, at 1490AM, that programmed
> > Progressive Rock. They referred to themselves as W-149.
> Does
> > anybody remember this station, or know any history of it?
> > Just curious...
> >
>
That is now WITA AM 4190...a gospel station. I do remember hearing about
W-149, but not much about it's history. It pretty much died after WOKI
FM 100.3 went on the air as Knoxville's first FM Rock station.
 
Re: Progressive Rock on 1490AM??? (correction)

> Actually I now believe that it was Knoxville...Any info
> appreciated though...
>
>
> Back in 1974, I passed through the Nashville area, and
> > listened to a local station, at 1490AM, that programmed
> > Progressive Rock. They referred to themselves as W-149.
> Does
> > anybody remember this station, or know any history of it?
> > Just curious...
> >
>

WROL was W149 in the very early 70's targeted at the UT campus. In fact, they had studios just off the strip and a separate transmitter site for day and night. They had been licensed to Fountain City before it got annexed and the day site still had to protect a daytimer on 1470 in Alcoa. The night sight was closer in.

It was put on the air by Johnny Pirkle (programming) and Dick Sterchi (sales) while Pirkle was waiting for his 100.3 application to go through. At least one W149 alumnus is still working in sales in the market. The others are mostly out of radio except for Mike Beech who is out of radio about every six months somewhere.

Their slogan was Real Radio and their bumper stickers had pictures of Cas Walker, an eccentric old grocer, mayor and iconoclast who called himself "The Old Coon Hunter."

The studios were above a plasma clinic which is how many of its employees financed some of their more exotic tastes.

After W149 died it was a hot rocking CHR station called 15Q that lasted less than a year, since by that time Knoxville had far outgrown its meager coverage area. It played MOR music for a while after 15Q died and has been religious since the mid to late 70's, owned by the same folks that own WWCR and WNQM in Nashville. They sold it last year to a con man who flashed a big wad, but his LMA of a nearby FM crashed and burned before he could close on WITA, so it is still bringing in the sheaves.
 
Re: Progressive Rock on 1490AM??? (correction)

I remember hearing Walker Johnson talk about it some and they called it the Fountain City intercom. It's calls were WKVQ when it was known as 15Q. I think Gary Adkins (who is a lawyer now...ambulance chaser as he says in his commercial) was on the station back then as one of "The Brothers". At tha time you had WOKI doing Rock 40, WNOX top-40, WRJZ Rock, and WKGN top-40 then changed to Disco-13. Ahhhhh the good ole days, when radio was fun and you didn't know what was going to happen next.
 
Re: Progressive Rock on 1490AM??? (correction)

> I remember hearing Walker Johnson talk about it some and
> they called it the Fountain City intercom. It's calls were
> WKVQ when it was known as 15Q. I think Gary Adkins (who is a
> lawyer now...ambulance chaser as he says in his commercial)
> was on the station back then as one of "The Brothers". At
> tha time you had WOKI doing Rock 40, WNOX top-40, WRJZ Rock,
> and WKGN top-40 then changed to Disco-13. Ahhhhh the good
> ole days, when radio was fun and you didn't know what was
> going to happen next.
>
WRJZ was doing Top-40 back then, not rock. Wkgn was doing AOR from the fall of 1976 to the fall 1978, when they became Disco-13. WRJZ and WNOX was going after the same market, the Top-40 market.
 
Re: Progressive Rock on 1490AM??? (correction)

Thanks for all of the information everybody. Like I said, I remeber listening to the station, in March, 1974, and really enjoying it. Finding a station of that nature on the AM band, was always pretty unsusual, although there were a few others, during that time period. Richmond Va, had 1590-WGOE, Boston, Ma had 1550-WNTN, and Pittsfield, Ma had 1110-WGRG, and I suspect that there were a few others....



> Actually I now believe that it was Knoxville...Any info
> > appreciated though...
> >
> >
> > Back in 1974, I passed through the Nashville area, and
> > > listened to a local station, at 1490AM, that programmed
> > > Progressive Rock. They referred to themselves as W-149.
> > Does
> > > anybody remember this station, or know any history of
> it?
> > > Just curious...
> > >
> >
> That is now WITA AM 4190...a gospel station. I do remember
> hearing about
> W-149, but not much about it's history. It pretty much died
> after WOKI
> FM 100.3 went on the air as Knoxville's first FM Rock
> station.
>
 
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