The Late Mike King - News Anchor - WDEF-TV

This is what happens when old broadcasters get together to discuss "the good old days."

In December 1985, Bob Elmore, prominent civic leader  and radio/television personality, asked Chattanooga philanthropist and businessman  Jack Lupton about his vision for Chattanooga.

On November 15th 2005, I had the distinct honor and pleasure of meeting JAC Chambliss. When I left, I felt that I had known him my entire life. I will remember him as one of the most honorable men I have ever met. He was a Chattanooga civic leader and legendary atty. 

~ Ben Cagle

My friend, Chattanooga Legendary Entertainer Jimmy Harris sings "Rockin' in the USA."

Digging around in my attic a while back, I found an old video addressed to me from the City of Chattanooga. I had no idea what it was. surprisingly enough, it played. Then I remembered the event from the early 1980s. I was Vice President General Manager of WDEF and was invited to the city commission meeting to accept a proclamation on behalf of WDEF. Dang, I didn't have a single grey hair.... in fact, Commissioner Paul Clark remarked about my youth.... ha, those days are long gone.

Video from the 2010 saddle up, chuck wagon cookoff  in Pigeon Forge Tennessee. This was a four day celebration of the American West. This four day event  features some of the best cowboy music & poetry in America. 

I was 26 years old and this was a radio promotion that General manager Bill Nash & I worked out with Northgate Mall in Chattanooga.  Back then, we would have coffee and dream up promotions The city of Chattanooga already had a promotion called, "sparkle day" coming up so we tied into that promotion with the bathtub in the mall idea. It got media attention and was a lot of fun.  WDOD was a top Radio station in 1973.

The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is  one of Chattanooga's many jewels. It was founded as a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in 1960 by Paul H. Merriman and Robert M. Soule Jr. along with a group of local railway preservationists. 

I loved making this video for the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

My special thanks to the Bright family for giving me total access to record this video at the Three Sisters Bluegrass Festival a few years ago. It’s not just feel-good music because of combining two New York state farm kids with Swiss-German immigrants who were anointed by Doc Watson many  years ago - it’s great music by any measure that will span the gamut from acoustic bluegrass to fully electric country rock.  Lots of great music on this recording, so pull up a chair and enjoy. 

Thank you Bright Family for allowing me full access.

Wreaths Across America, Chattanooga is proud to be honoring our Heroes at Chattanooga National Cemetery. Our mission is to ensure every veteran is honored with a wreath each year.  As there is no government funding for the honoring of our Heroes with wreaths in December, we rely on local Patriots like you to sponsor wreaths to make this mission happen. (Wreaths Across America, Chattanooga has no paid employees). 

 The world famous Les Elgart Orchestra made a stop in Chattanooga Saturday night, November 4th 2023 at the Fairyland Club on Lookout Mountain.  The band is best known for 

“Bandstand Boogie,” theme song of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.

The Les Elgart Orchestra is one of the few remaining famous big bands from the 1950’s and 1960’s that is still in demand.  Their popularity gained them their tagline “The Band with that Sound."

Brad Walker is the conductor and makes his home in Knoxville.  He said

Borrowing a line from the musical Oklahoma “We’ve gone about as far as we can go,” Chattanooga City Court Judge Russell Bean completed 22 years on the bench on 8/31/22.

Judge Bean spoke of several good friends through the years, including Criminal Court Judge Steve Bevil, close friend Gary Anderson and "Dr. Basketball" Gary Haskew from the radio  show “Sport Talk.” The judge was known as the great defender on that popular radio show.

Judge Bean said he heard over 80,000 cases while on the bench.

The city of Morristown commissioned me to make this video.  The Crossroads Partnership, whose purpose is to improve the appearance, value & quality of downtown Morristown's central business dist. by applying the national main street center's four point approach focus on design, economic restructuring, promotion & organization. On a personal note, I was thrilled to get to eat breakfast for two days with James Drury and Robert Fuller.

Cornel J. Martin CEO and President of the Delta Queen gives some of the Queens incredible history. Many Chattanoogan's hated to see her go. The day of departure was March 22nd 2015.

 Chattanooga broadcaster Earl Freudenberg interviewed Johnny Wright in December 1992 on WDOD Radio. Johnny Wright was a Chattanooga police officer who was inspired to help his community from an event that took place on Christmas Day 1961. This is a conversation as to how that tradition started.

This is a recording of a press conference when Red Skelton visited Chattanooga in April 1979.

It was an honor for me to meet this man while he was performing in Gatlinburg TN.  It's a song of total love and devotion for our Country, the United States of America. While recording this video, I was hearing it for the first time and was mesmerized by Dave's passion and love of Country. 

The song title is Sweet Grass County Line.

On my way up to the Christmas get together at the Walden Club this evening, I saw the Choo Choo Chorus  In the lobby as I walked in. I asked for permission to record part of their warm up. They were a part of our program this evening of  the Military Officers Association of America. As always, they were awesome.  The Choo Choo Chorus is indeed a Chattanooga treasure.

The date was December 11th 2024

In 1983, Country music legend Roy Acuff visited his dear friend Charlie Louvin at Charlie's home place in Henagar Alabama. Legendary Chattanooga broadcaster Earl Freudenberg caught up with Roy Acuff that day & had a great conversation with Roy before he went on stage. The video is faded & worn but I decided to post it anyway because of it's historical content.