Today’s column is an extension of my April 30 WJSO feature story that Don Dale supplied. He also interviewed Ray Stockard and forwarded to me added facts about the once popular station. 

Top: Ray Stockard (about 1960);

Bottom (l to r): Ray Stockard, Don Dale, Jack London and Randy Jackson (about 1968)

“I started in radio at ETSC’s campus radio station, WETS, in 1957,” said Ray, “receiving much of my training from Professor Harold Frank. After auditioning for WJSO’s general manager, Bill Bachman, in the fall of 1959, I began working part-time at the station on weekends. About 1960, I was given Norman Thomas, Jr.’s afternoon shift. During that time, Bachman resigned to start his own station in Sumter, South Carolina. Don Sluder went with him. Jim Lewis was hired as sales manager and Bill Harris from Missouri replaced Sluder. A couple other announcers were hired when Bob Mattox left, but I can’t recall their names. Afterwards, others from WETS joined the station that included Eddie Carter, Norm Davis, Hugh Metheny and Don Dale.” 

WJSO initiated a new concept in radio when they became the only local station that played a formatted music list of top 40 songs. Such terms as “Top 40 Survey,” “Pick-Hit of the Day” and “Golden Oldies” were virtually unknown then. A record in the top 40 received considerable airplay over “Jayso.”  Almost overnight, the station acquired a vast listening audience.

“In the beginning,” said Stockard, “we had to record all our commercials in the control room after we went off the air because we had no recording studio. There were no tape cartridge machines at the time so we used two Ampex 601 reel-to-reel tape recorders for commercials, jingles, news openings and promos. For a couple of years we had a permanent sign-on time at 5:30 am at full-power; there were people who could hear us loud and clear in surrounding states. No one locally had ever broadcast the news like we did with all the effects and using a start time of 55 minutes past the hour.”

About 1960, WJSO applied for an FM frequency. A 100,000 frequency was available and there was much discussion about building an extra room on the back of their building to house the transmitter. However, Norman Thomas, Sr. at the last minute decided not to pursue it because he questioned if FM would survive.

Ray recalled an amusing event during a broadcast day when deejays played the same song over and over. Listeners flooded the phone line inquiring as to what was going on at the station. It seems they were doing a fundraiser for a charity and informed callers that they would switch to other records when they reached their goal. Ray was certain that this clever act of creativity increased listeners.

WJSO was the first local station to play records while broadcasting on-location remote broadcasts. They even had a “hospitality house” built to take to locations such as the annual Appalachian Fair at Gray, Tennessee. Ray recalled doing a remote with a live band performing on the roof of Gregg's Pizza during their grand opening in North Johnson City. The station also did remotes from car dealerships such as the Tennessee Motor Company on W. Market Street.

Stockard commented on WJHL’s name change: “In the middle 1960s, Jim Wilson purchased WJHL AM and FM, changing the AM station to WJCW and the FM one to WQUT. WJSO began to lose listeners in the middle 1970s when FM station listeners began surpassing those on AM stations. FM used stereo and produced a crisper, fuller sound quality than available on AM.”

Ray remained at “Jayso” from 1959 to 1969, leaving to pursue his own station in Lenoir City, Tennessee. However in 1974, he returned to the Tri-Cities area to become the sports anchor on WJHL-TV.

The pioneer broadcaster concluded his comments with Don by saying, “I often wonder where WJSO would be today if the owners had bought the 100,000-watt FM frequency they were considering in the early 1960s.”

Don Dale has a stack of memories from his working days at WJSO-AM where he once worked as program director:

“‘Jayso’ (as it became known), came along at the right time in the right place. When it first hit the airways in October 1958, it filled a niche as the first all rock and roll (Top 40) station in the Johnson City-Jonesborough area.”

The new station, located at Huffine Road in west Johnson City, attracted listeners almost overnight. Don said he wanted to be a part of it but realized he would have to wait until after graduation in 1961 before his aspirations would be realized.

(Top to bottom, left to right: Don Dale; Hugh Metheny; Ray Stockard, Don Dale, Jackie London, Randy Jackson; Clyde Carson Ad; Don Dale Caricature; Eddie Carter; Al Lefevere; Fred Story; President Nixon comes to E.T.)

According to the former deejay: “When I started at ETSC (now ETSU) in the fall of 1961, I immediately began working at the school’s WETS station where I shared a shift with fellow student Johnny Wood, now the legendary television personality at WCYB-TV in Bristol. In December, WJSO’s program director, Ray Stockard, offered me a part-time job at the station. Thus began a career that continued until 1980.”

Norman Thomas Sr. of Chattanooga owned and operated Mountain View Broadcasting Corp.; his son, Norman Jr., served as general manager. Some of the early personalities from that era included Norm Davis; Hugh Martin (a.k.a. Hugh Metheny); Bill Harris; Don Sluder; and Bob Mattox, who also supplied the voice of the “Old-timer” in the mornings.

Don explained that being a deejay was not easy. It meant pulling daily and often weekend shifts, spending off-air time doing twice-hourly newscasts, simultaneously working a production shift where they recorded spots (commercials), dubbing agency spots and producing station promos.

Computers were far into the future. Music was aired directly from records, which became scratchy after multiple plays. They had to be cued on turntables before playing them. The vast majority of commercials were dubbed onto special tape cartridges, or “carts” as they were called. The use of reel-to-reel recorders for ads was infrequent. Eventually, new records were copied onto tape cartridges when their sound quality was improved.

Dale served as program director from 1966-1980, the longest period in the station’s tenure. He worked with some great newcomers, broadcasting veterans and others who became successful in their careers. Eddie Carter (who also used the air name Danny King) went on to be news anchor at WJHL-TV in the 1960s and later had a long career at stations in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina. John Paul Jones also moved on to WJHL as news anchor and later had a successful profession in North Carolina.

Red Kirk came to WJSO as a broadcast veteran, bringing with him an equally impressive career in country music, both as a writer and performer. He later became spokesman for local car dealerships, most notably Sherwood Chevrolet. Jeri George, who has been one of WQUT’s most popular personalities for decades, got her start at WJSO. Bob Honeycutt, who adopted the air name Bob Gordon at WJSO when he broke into radio, was operations manager at WKOS-FM until 2008.

Top to bottom, right to left: Randy Jackson, WJSO Super Hit Survey, Norm Davis, Wayne Sparks.)

Al Lefevere signed on at “Jayso” as a deejay, eventually becoming station engineer and then chief engineer for the group stations of WQUT, WJCW and WKOS. Other familiar deejays from that period were Fred Story, Steve Castle, Charlie Knox, Jack London, Wayne Sparks and Gary Nelson.

Don shared some humorous anecdotes that occurred at the station over the years: “Wayne Sparks’ was working the morning show when he became locked in the bathroom while being the only one in the building. After about 20 minutes, he managed to pry his way out with a spoon. He rushed back to his show, where a record had long been clicking unheeded in the final groove on the turntable.

“In my early years, I worked the Sunday morning shift, which consisted of blocks of local religious programming. One minister, who was always accompanied by several members of his congregation, typically started preaching slowly but accelerated to a frenzy as his sermon progressed. Once he accidentally kicked his microphone cord out of the wall socket. I rushed from the control room to replace the cord, but not before throwing the first record I could find on the turntable to fill the void. Unfortunately, I chose an instrumental by David Rose called “The Stripper.”

“Another incident involved Hugh Martin slipping into the news booth while Red Kirk was doing a newscast and setting his long sheet of Associated Press news copy on fire. The unflappable Red coolly doused the fire without missing a beat.”

Don recalled a second prank involving Hugh. “Jayso” had an echo chamber in a back room to give the deejays' voices a distinctive echo effect. It consisted of a wooden frame covered by insulation with a microphone inside at one end and a speaker at the other that was wired to the control room console. The apparatus was later upgraded to an electronic reverberation unit. One morning, Don signed on the station and was giving the news unaware that Hugh had come in early, hid his car from sight and climbed into the echo chamber. While Don was doing the first newscast of the morning, he was stunned to hear a silly voice making comments in the background. After several minutes, Hugh came out of the chamber displaying his usual infectious, raucous laugh.

In 1968, the former program director ran a fictitious country bumpkin, known as Clyde Carson, for president, complete with campaign slogans and trinkets. The conjured-up character, played by deejay Randy Jackson, recorded nonsensical “campaign ads” that included his platform plank to “abolish wheat germ.”

On a serious note, Don recalled the major event that occurred in November 1963 while he was doing his midday show. Charlie Knox, who worked the wire room, ran in to announce that President Kennedy had just been shot. Don immediately put him on the air. Ironically, he remembered that the record “Last Date” by Floyd Cramer was playing on the turntable.

Other interesting events that transpired over the years were chaperoning a contest-winning Little League Baseball team on an all-night bus ride to Yankee Stadium to see the Yankees and Dodgers in the World Series; sponsoring the March of Dimes Superwalk in 1978; covering visits by President Nixon in 1970 and President Ford in 1976; and interviewing Peter, Paul and Mary, KISS, Brenda Lee, and listening to John McEwen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band play several tunes on his banjo at the station.

Don concluded by saying, “Working at WJSO for 19 years was a unique and interesting experience. I am grateful to Norman Thomas and Ray Stockard for providing me that opportunity.”

Tuesday, September 14, 1915 was an exciting day for circus lovers in Johnson City. At 6:00 a.m., as the sun slowly began to disperse the darkness in the morning sky, the first array of circus trains began to appear in the city.

The Gentry Brothers Famous Shows, known as “the cleanest circus in the world,” had arrived, bringing with it the promise of an entertaining spectacle for its residents. Four Gentry brothers, Henry B., Frank, Walter W. and J. W., all from Bloomington, Indiana, originated the circus in 1887; it remained in business off and on until 1934.

Because of the number of cars coming to Johnson City, officials had to make provisions with the railroad for track space. The number of railcars on hand was said to be twice that used in previous shows.

Early risers desiring to witness the circus unload were rewarded with sights of showmen who had tumbled from their berths, ready to go to work after a night’s slumber. While most residents were still in bed, the surrounding lots were magically transformed into a city of canvas tents. To the casual observer, the exhibition appeared to be one of disorder and confusion, but the operation was performed as it had been done so many times before with not a single worker wasting time and energy.

At 10:30 a.m., the circus was ready for its famous street parade, which was billed as “taking place rain or shine.” By this time, the parade route was aptly populated with curious spectators of all ages.

Although the procession route is not known, it was advertised to be “a solid mile of gold and glitter.” Based on this clue and the previous carnivals and circuses that came to the city over the years, the likely starting point was at the railroad tracks near Model Mill (later General Mills). It probably turned left onto W. Walnut Street, took another left onto Buffalo Street, bore right onto E. Main Street at Fountain Square and traveled straight ahead to the large open field that the city’s Municipal Building now occupies.

The parade was a precursor to and an advertisement for what would later be presented in the big canvas circus tent. Oldsters and youngsters were caught up in dreams of fantasyland. The owners hoped this public display would attract scores of paying patrons to the performances.

The circus offered two exhibitions in Johnson City that day. Doors opened for a complimentary inspection of the animals in the menagerie at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Each performance commenced one hour after the gates opened. The displays were of a larger and grander scale than those previously offered. Children attending the show in the afternoon slot were permitted to ride an elephant or pony under the care of a trained and courteous attendant.

The Gentry Brothers Famous Shows, which were promoted as “the world’s pioneers in trained animal exhibitions,” had been extensively enlarged to offer realistic taming of jungle leopards and other ferocious beasts within “canvas coliseums.”

In addition to several feature acts, three of them were new to America: The Carr-Thomas Trio, sensational burlesquing acrobats; The Cole Troupe, novelty artists of breathtaking and difficult acts on the high wire; and The Krannell Sisters, aerial butterflies swinging by their teeth in a fascinating display of grace and splendor in mid-air. 

A funny story circulated about the circus. A fire once caused workers to scamper about pulling hose lines to extinguish the blaze. The next day, a trained monkey was observed pulling hose from a box in a corner of the menagerie. This action destined the primate to become the first monkey fire chief in the world. Soon, other monkeys mimicked the act and they, too, learned to battle a fake blaze. The act became an instant favorite with circus fans.

After the final show, the circus promptly returned to the railroad cars and discretely departed for its next destination, ending an exciting day for Johnson Citians.