For 70 years, this radio station has been like church for loyal listeners

Amid the numerous radio stations in the Knoxville market is WKXV.

Through its focus on the niche market of gospel music and religious broadcasting, it has long been popular to its faithful listeners familiar with its radio dial setting at AM 900 and more recently also at FM 100.7 and online at wkxvradio.com.

This past Valentine’s Day marked a milestone − 70 years on the air − for this station now located in a former midcentury home up a hill in a large tree-covered lot at 5106 Middlebrook Pike.

Although this is not its original location, the station in many ways visually seems to harken back to the days of the 1950s when Knoxville was a smaller city. It still has an old-fashioned local look and feel in this era of large corporate-owned stations and even competition from satellite radio and downloaded music and podcasts from the internet.

The audio responses and rapport with listeners also seem like the old days, or at least of a station found in a small town.

Personal connection with listeners

Eddie Manuel, an account executive and announcer, said while giving a tour of the facility recently that the station likes the personal connection it has with listeners.

“We have live broadcasts, and it’s like family once you come on the air,” he said, adding that he even gets Christmas cards from listeners. “People call in and you get used to them, and they call every day.”

This format of playing traditional Southern gospel music, broadcasting local and national religious programs, offering prayer time, and even having church services broadcast from a couple of studio rooms set up like small church sanctuaries harkens back to another era.

Manuel said they do all that with a small staff that also includes Margaret Hill, Shane Pratt and DJ Zack.

According to some old Knoxville newspaper articles found at the McClung Historical Collection and online, the station signed on the air on Feb. 14, 1953. It had initially planned to sign on Feb. 5 before “crystal difficulties” resulted in a delay, one story said.

It was operated by Ra-Tel Inc., which initially was headed by Roy Carr of Savannah, Georgia. His son, Tom Carr, was to become general manager, while Marvin Thompson was general manager and John Caylor was chief engineer. The 1,000-watt station was to use the former WIBK studio and transmitter, and was given the call letters WKXV, the significance of which, if any, was not mentioned.

An early article said the station was to focus on “religious, hillbilly and recording programs.”

Although the corporate ownership name of the station has remained as the local Ra-Tel Broadcasting Co., a 1957 story said Knoxville attorney Henry T. Ogle and Fountain City accountant Bill Boring had taken over ownership of the station. Now, the Ted Lowe Sr. family owns Ra-Tel, Manuel said.

The station was initially located on the third floor of the Vester Building in the 400 block of Church Avenue downtown but soon remodeled the old Bowlitorium building at 411 W. Main Ave.

One story from 1962 said that WKXV was then airing the Cas Walker Show, Mull’s Singing Convention, and the Big Jim Show featuring Jim Hess.

Old city directories reveal the station had moved to 844 N. Central by 1970, before relocating to 1518 N. Broadway more than a decade later. It moved to Middlebrook Pike in the early 1990s.

The midcentury structure – with plenty of original interior and exterior features still visible today for the nostalgic at heart – was formerly lived in for at least a period by C.E. Peels, a contractor with the Standard Glass and Supply Co.

Manuel said he started working at the station in the 1990s after visiting the building and telling the then-office manager, Nancy Ford, that he thought he might enjoy learning how to be a deejay. About three months after that conversation, she told him of an opening.

He was also working at Kmart at the time, and eventually left to run a store in Tullahoma, Tennessee. He moved back after the store there closed, and the station heard and asked if he had any interest in returning. “I said yes, and I’m here now,” he said.

He said he has greatly enjoyed the radio work and believes the station has been an inspiration and blessing to countless people, including the elderly and those unable to get out to church.

“I hope it has meant a lot,” he said, adding that it has been fun work for him, and he also enjoys traditional Southern gospel music. “We give the sick and shut-ins a way to have church without having to get out.”

And he hopes the station, which is looking at having a celebration event later this year, can continue to be a blessing and positive force in the community.

“We made it 70, and 70 more might be nice,” he said with a smile. “We are all about spreading God’s love.”

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville gospel radio station WKXV celebrates 70 years on air