WQLA/WWGR LaFollette - The 1980s

Radio in Tennessee during the 1980s brought on new challenges and new opportunities. It even brought in some new radio stations along the way and were committed in doing so.

Campbell County has been home to two radio stations since 1953, WLAF in LaFollette and WJJT in Jellico. Both WLAF and WJJT have served the area with the finest in music, news and local programs for many years. That's what listeners come to expect each day when they tune in to their favorite radio station. Up until the 1980s, many people in Campbell County were listening to stations out of Knoxville, Clinton and other cities such as Middlesboro, Kentucky. It was in the 1980s that new radio stations in the state of Tennessee were signing on the air to better serve their community. In LaFollette, two stations made their on-air debuts in the early 1980s.

LaFollette Broadcasters, Inc., based in LaFollette, signed on WQLA and WWGR during the early 1980s. One of the co-founders of WQLA and WWGR, Lester Fox, also founded several car dealerships in Anderson County including Fox Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge and Fox Toyota. WQLA's format was country music while WWGR's format was gospel. It is not known what WQLA's call letters stood for, but WWGR's call letters stood for "Warm, Wonderful Gospel Radio".

(WWGR-AM 1983 logo, courtesy of Kermit Geary's QSLs on the American Radio History website)

During 1986, WQLA's weekday air staff included Jim Freeman and Tony Lawson. Over at WWGR, the station continued playing gospel music. In 1987, WQLA was known as "Q-105, All American Music" while sister station WWGR was known as "Gospel 96".


(WQLA-FM/WWGR-AM 1987 logos, courtesy of Kermit Geary's QSLs on the American Radio History website)

Here are a small list of people that were part of WQLA and WWGR in the 1980s:

Jim Freeman (WQLA)
Tony Lawson (WQLA)
Scott Black (WQLA)
Charlie and Charlotte Phillips (owners)
Pam Cooke (WWGR)
Emma McCarty (general manager)
Bill Shipp (assistant manager)

In 1989, WQLA and WWGR were sold to Cherokee Communications Corp., a company headed by Ronald A. Scott, for $400,000. At the time of the sale, WQLA operated with 3000 watts of power while WWGR operated with 1000 watts of power as a daytimer. While the two stations got a new owner, WQLA and WWGR stayed with their formats well into the start of the 1990s.