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Seven Days

Wednesday, July 9
The Volunteer Ministry Center announces that it will move its shelter for the homeless from its Gay Street location to Broadway. It's the last of such shelters to relocate to the area, near 5th Avenue. Now will Mayor Ashe complete the spate of street renamings by dubbing Broadway "Skidrow?"

Thursday, July 10
The Metropolitan Planning Commission decides to devote the big hole on State Street to a surface parking lot. A couple more demolish / pave-over / fee-parking establishments and the downtown could be mistaken for Fort Sanders.

Friday, July 11
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards shows up in Knoxville in his campaign for the Democrats' nomination for president in the 2004 elections. Let's see, his name recognition is...uh...who did you say he is?

Saturday, July 12
Dateline Memphis: An altercation with a group of female impersonators led to a man's slaying, police said. Incontrovertible evidence that, in the vicinity of a nightclub, the shemale of the species is more deadly than the male.

Monday, July 14
News Sentinel headline: "TVA rate plan's fairness questioned" What's the question? Business gets the biggest break. This is the Bush era, after all. What'd ya expect?

Tuesday, July 15
The Associated Press reports that ex-Knoxville media magnate Chris Whittle wants to buy his education management company, Edison Schools, from stockholders. Hmm. It was the Edison project that broke the back of Whittle Communications here a decade ago. Is this a "...shall-rise-again" effort?

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
After two straight weeks when no correct responses came in, we received over one hundred positive IDs of this boat turned abandoned real estate office. Many readers suggested we change the name of the column to "Louisville Found" given the boat/office location on Louisville Road near Topside Road. Most interestingly, Lora Reed Ross, from Louisville, informs us that her father "painstakingly and lovingly restored this yacht in the '70s. She was a beautiful Chris Craft cabin cruiser named 'BABY DOLL': the name my dad called my mom." It seems that, after Ross' father died, her mother "decided she just couldn't keep her up and sold her." We share Ross' lament on the fate of "BABY DOLL." Anyone up for a restoration project?
The responses have been pouring in all week, but the first to reply was Wes Morgan, a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee. For his speedy ID, Wes wins a copy of Essential Klezmer: a music lovers' guide to Jewish roots and soul music, from the old world to the jazz age to the downtown avant garde by Seth Rogovoy. Congratulations, Wes!

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP
Thursday, July 17
5 p.m.
City County Bldg.
Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Discussion on Empowerment Zone with updates regarding past, current and future initiatives.

KNOX COUNTY OFFICE OF NEIGHBORHOODS
Thursday, July 17
6 p.m.
Halls Branch of Knox County Clerk's Office
7028 Maynardville Hwy.
Meet with County Mayor Mike Ragsdale one-on-one to discuss issues of concern.

CITY COUNCIL
Tuesday, July 22
7 p.m.
City County Bldg.
Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular meeting.

Drop Them in the Water
Despite growing success, 100.3 The River is canned

The story is an old one in radio, but it's still quite disheartening to the folks at 100.3 FM The River who are watching it played out once again.

Citadel Communications will take over operation of one of Knoxville's last locally-run stations Aug. 1. The staff says they've been notified they will no longer have jobs, and the format is expected to be changed.

"We did radio like we thought it ought to be," says general manager Aaron Snukals. "We were the only station to play new music in the market.... We were just catching on, and everybody seemed to like us. We lost to the corporate giant.

"We would have survived in any other conditions," Snukals says.

The Las Vegas-based Citadel bought 11 stations from Dick Broadcasting in 2000. But because of complications in the sale, Dick maintained control of 100.3. The license is technically owned by Johnny Pirkle, but he sells the air time through a marketing agreement, and that is what Citadel will take control of on Aug. 1.

When Dick sold the rights, The River employees were under the impression that the format would not change, Snukals says. But they were later given pink slips. "As of July 31, we will go dark at midnight and another format, unbeknownst to us, will take over. And The River will drown," he says.

Ed Brantley, general manager for Citadel's Knoxville stations, says the company has not decided on a format change. Citadel CEO Farid Suleman could not be reached for comment.

But rumors abound about what that new format might be. There's speculation that Wild 98.7, which features hip hop and urban dance, will move to that frequency. There's also speculation that The River was starting to take listeners away from Citadel-owned WIVK, the country station, and the company wants to protect it by shutting The River down.

The River is not the only station switching formats. WMYU 93.1 is changing from '60s and '70s oldies to adult contemporary aimed specifically at women. Owned by Journal Broadcasting Group, it is now called The Point. Journal is targeting all of its stations toward women. It recently changed WBON from hard rock to urban music, presumably to compete with Wild 97.

Concert promoter Ashley Capps, owner of AC Entertainment, says commercial radio is no longer about serving the community. "It's about manipulation of the Arbitron numbers. I don't think Knoxville needs two hip-hop stations right now, but those two stations are trying to nip away at each other," he says. "It becomes more like a manipulation of the market, rather than a serving of the market. That's an unfortunate thing."

Virtually all of Knoxville's radio stations are controlled by three out-of-town companies: the Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcasting, the Evansville, Ind.-based South Central, and Citadel.

Snukals says he's not upset with Dick Broadcasting for selling the management rights, since it made sense for the company. However, he's dismayed that the new owners want to get rid of The River. The station had been climbing the Arbitron ratings. It had risen to the No. 4 station in the market for 25- to 54-year-olds. Snukals says the ratings coming out at the end of the month would be the best in the station's history. Whatever format it goes with, Citadel will have to spend money advertising and marketing it.

"If decisions for radio are always made out of market, we're in a lot of trouble. Radio is becoming too cookie-cutter. There's no place to hear new artists anymore," Snukals says. "We took a lot of people who left radio, and they came back. They came back because we were a breath of fresh air. [Now] I think it's become more about the bottom line."

The River's format was pioneering, playing an unusually eclectic mix for commercial radio—alt-country, rock 'n' roll for the 30-something set, modern blues, folk, reggae and some jazz pop. It also featured local artists like Scott Miller and Robinella and the CCstringband. Snukals says he shopped The River's format to other radio companies but found no takers.

"They did a lot to expose some new artists," Capps says. "That's one of the tragedies of music right now—there's a lot of great music that's getting no radio exposure. But they sell out concerts. Lucinda Williams can sell out the Tennessee Theatre but you can't hear her on the radio."

The Americana Café, a Sunday-evening show hosted by Benny Smith, championed Americana music and had been notable for live, on-air performances bringing in artists like Rhett Miller (of the Old 97's), Danielle Howle, as well as many local acts.

The station was also notable for the number of concerts it promoted, include several free outdoor shows, like the Rockin' on the River and the Sundown in the City series.

"We really worked hard trying to help bring people to downtown Knoxville, and to all of the great events that we promoted in and around downtown," Smith says. "It takes a lot of hard-working people all moving in the same direction to take on this enormous task of bringing downtown Knoxville back to being where it belongs, and we were always proud of being a part of that team with whatever event we were promoting. But it just seems like this town has been in a rut of 'one step forward and two steps backward' for too long now, and I am afraid the loss of The River will be more, further proof of this theory."

The station's staff is in the unique position of being able to say goodbye. The last day they're broadcasting is July 31, the same night of Sundown in the City. The station's managers are thinking of making it a goodbye bash.

"Normally when a radio station gets shut down, they don't get say goodbye. They're just gone and some other format is on the air," Snukals says. "We get to go out in style."

—Joe Tarr

A Minority Movement
West Knoxville has its own new organization

As a black man living in Bearden, Michael Moore shares some of the political concerns of both his predominantly white West Knoxville neighbors and his fellow African-Americans, most of whom live in the eastern half of the county.

A personal trainer and proprietor of Fitness Focus off Northshore Drive, Moore has never felt wholly in sync with either group politically. So with the help of Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership account executive Jacquelyn Moore (no relation), he's assembled the rudiments of an organization devoted to West Knoxville minority concerns.

The yet-unnamed group will hold a candidates' forum with mayoral hopefuls Madeline Rogero and Bill Haslam at The Cup Around the Corner coffee house in Homberg Aug. 6. The forum runs from 6 to 8 p.m., with Rogero scheduled to speak and field questions first.

"Living in West Knoxville, I'm not connected to most of the African-American community," Moore says. "Whenever issues come up, and people turn to the black community, they mostly go to the same people in East Knoxville. I'd like to organize a group of people who are aware, people who vote on this side of town."

According to 2000 census data, Knoxville's minority (non-white) population accounts for a little less than 20 percent of its roughly 174,000 total. Minority members are largely concentrated in the eastern-most portions of the city, however, where the non-white population accounts for 30 to 40 percent of the whole, depending on where boundaries are drawn.

But though the number of minority persons residing in West Knoxville may be smaller, it's not inconsequential. "We have our own perspective on issues," Moore says. "East Knoxville has concerns about things like crime, economics, for instance. In the West, we want to know about schools, roads, diversity issues, contracts with the city."

"This is a way of saying, 'Hey, can you come this way, too?'" says Jacquelyn Moore, who for three years served as editor and publisher of the Knoxville Black Pages, a community director for African-Americans.

Both Moores say the forum isn't directed solely toward African-Americans; local Latino groups have also expressed interest, and Michael is seeking contacts in other minority organizations.

"I envision this as a sort of network of minority professionals interested in the future of the city," he says. "We need to be in the loop, where the people in charge will say 'We need to let these people know, too,' and not just filter everything through East Knoxville."

—Mike Gibson