Is it O'Doul's Time Yet?

Rumors have been circulating that beleaguered KPD Chief Phil Keith has been anxiously waiting this summer, when he can retire from the police force with a full pension.

To qualify, you must have 25 years of service (Keith has 28) and be 50 years old. He hits the half-century mark June 8. If he decides to retire, Keith's pension would be about 70 percent of his average monthly salary over his last 24 months on the job, according to the city pension office. In 1998, Keith was compensated $108,000. Keith could retire early, but it would mean a pension reduction of more than 10 percent. On Oct. 27, 2000, Keith will have 30 years of service and qualify for the maximum amount of pension benefits possible.

Named chief by Mayor Victor Ashe in 1988, Keith has not had an easy last couple of years: the deaths of three black men in police custody; large, angry crowds at City Council meetings demanding his ouster; a committee of lawyers and academics looking into problems at his department; the creation of the Police Advisory Review Committee, which he initially opposed; low officer morale; and Civil Service overturning his decision to fire two officers. And, of course, there was the infamous traffic stop where he was given a sobriety test and the patrolman suggested he get a ride home (Keith was never charged and later said he had only had a few O'Doul's).

Could Keith have been hanging on through it all, eagerly eyeing June 8 as the light at the end of the tunnel?

A phone message to Keith prompted a fax from spokesman Foster Arnett, Jr.: "This rumor is exactly that: a rumor. This is not true."

Radio Waves

A half-century old this year, WUOT is East Tennessee's oldest and strongest public radio station. Two of its longest-running shows are the locally produced Music Of the Southern Mountains, a half-hour show of bluegrass and old-time music hosted by Paul Campbell; and Live at Laurel, hosted by Craig Walker, which broadcasts recent live performances of folk music at the Laurel Theater. Moved from their original Sunday night berths, both have been running starting at 8 on Friday nights for the past several months.

The shows are consistently excellent and diverse, but their volunteer hosts just heard just this week that they're both being canceled. "With WNCW and WDVX in the market already playing that sort of [folk music] format, we don't want to compete," says WUOT program director Daniel Berry. "That gives us a chance to narrow our format." The shows will probably be replaced with more classical music programming. It's another step away from local productions for WUOT, which has been moving in that direction for several years.

Unfortunately, WNCW (in Spindale, N.C., with a transmitter in Knoxville) and WDVX (in Norris) are not accessible to thousands of Knoxvillians who can't pick up their relatively weak signals.

WUOT also plans this spring to start a second weekly airing (probably on Sunday afternoons) of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, a show that—like Live at Laurel and Music Of the Southern Mountains—celebrates folk music and community spirit. Unlike them, however, PHC broadcasts from Minnesota. (Well, it is coming to Knoxville for one night later this year...)

Legacy

David McNabb, who died two weeks ago after living with AIDS for more than 12 years, made a posthumous appearance on Good Morning America a few days ago. His appearance came in a story about Knoxville expatriate Troy Masters, who lives in New York and is participating in clinical trials for a possible HIV vaccine. He said he was doing it in memory of 12 friends who have died from AIDS, the most recent of whom was McNabb, whose picture and brief bio were flashed on the screen.

Friends of McNabb, one of the original movers in AIDS Response Knoxville, believe his presence was felt in another way recently. He had become an implacable critic of the organization for its shift in emphasis away from caregiving, and on Jan. 8, the day he died, there was a massive shake-up at ARK, which will now see some redirection.

"We hooted," said one of McNabb's friends. "David had a lot to do with that."