Comment on this story Wednesday, August 11 • According to the News Sentinel, the University of Tennessee will receive a $500,000 government grant to fight obesity across the state. We’re a bit skeptical; we’ve never heard of anyone losing weight after taking in that much pork. Thursday, August 12 • Former Sevier County resident Ernst Zundel, a Holocaust denier and author of the neo-Nazi pamphlet “Did Six Million Really Die?”, requests a hearing to challenge his 2003 deportation to Canada, where he has spent the last several months in jail. Federal prosecutors respond that Zundel is almost certainly exaggerating the number of months in a bid for sympathy. Friday, August 13 • The Sentinel reports that Knoxville City Council members may consider changing a long-standing law that forbids alcohol sales at local restaurants before noon on the Sabbath. Finally, a separation-of-church-and-state issue that really matters. Saturday, August 14 • The Sentinel tells us that a UT plant scientist was part of the team responsible for the turf grass used in the Olympic stadium in Athens. Great. Some schools have great astro-physics programs; some excel at bio-chemistry. At UT, we specialize in arena-botany. Sunday, August 15 • City Council members put in a little overtime, pondering the implications of pre-noon tippling over Bloody Marys and brunchtime champagne. Monday, August 16 • UT officials reveal that Psychology is the single most popular undergraduate major among students across the state university system. We think they’re all nuts. Tuesday, August 17 • Mike Ragsdale reiterates that he will devote county funds to a new West Knoxville school after all, so long as his $30 wheel tax increase survives a possible referendum. That crunching, slurping noise you hear is the sound of our County Mayor, eating crow. Knoxville Found 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: According to The Ghost from Knoxville’s, uh, independent radio station KFAR, this is a “picture of Sweaty King Coal Devil Head and Grungy the Smokestack.” The two were seen last week performing a skit as a protest in front of the Office of Surface Mining located in the Farragut Building on Gay Street. Apparently Earth First! mounts weekly protests against the OSM and TVA’s coal mining policies. Theater fans should note that performances are typically scheduled every Tuesday at noon. Thanks, Ghost, for participating. We have a copy of 38 Special’s latest release, Drivetrain, to add to the station’s playlist. Hey, it beats a subscription to CityView.

In the Pudding
Community members take a wait-and-see approach to the city’s new police chief

The news that Sterling Owen IV, a former FBI agent, will be Knoxville’s next police chief is being met mostly with optimism, although several people said they’ll have to withhold judgment for now.

Owen takes over for Phil Keith on Sept. 1, making $135,000 a year, the same as Keith did.

Owen—or “I-V” as he’s often called—worked for the FBI for more than two decades, investigating white-collar crimes and enforcing civil rights. He investigated criminal charges with the Butcher Bank failure, illegal gambling and environmental crimes. Nine years ago, he formed his own security consulting firm. He’s also been president of the Police Advisory Review Commission, a board established to hear citizen complaints against police officers.

Attorney Tom Dillard, president of the Knoxville Criminal Lawyers Association, has known Owen since the early ’80s, when Dillard was an assistant U.S. Attorney. Since Dillard became a defense attorney in 1987, he’s occasionally worked on the other side of bench from Owen.

“I think [Owen] was an excellent choice,” Dillard says. “He has the ability to listen but still do the right thing.”

In 1998, Dillard served on the so-called Bernstein Commission, which was established to review the KPD after three black men died in police custody over a several-month period. Dillard said the biggest problem Owen will have is one that he won’t have a lot of control over.

“The police force is fairly young. In a lot of situations you’ve got young guys supervising younger guys. That’s just part of a problem that’s going to be hard for him to address without a budget that provides more money for salaries,” Dillard says. “In a lot of instances, you don’t have the maturity you did 10 or 15 years ago.”

Ron Davis, who belongs to Citizens for Police Review (or CPR), says he doesn’t know Owen well but hopes the new chief works to improve community relations.

“We’re hoping that in the future people will die less frequently in police custody than under the previous administration,” Davis says.

Davis says he hopes Owen’s work with PARC will carry over into his new job. “I’m hopeful that as chief of police he’ll keep that style of openness, for citizens to come and talk to the chief,” he says.

Mark Stephens, the county’s public defender, also hopes relations between the police and communities they work in improves. “We’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t hear anyone questioning his qualifications. The people I know and respect, when I ask them about him, generally the response is OK,” Stephens says. “I hope our office and KPD continue to interact and build on the relationship we’ve got.”

Jim Andrews, an attorney and former police officer who ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in 2002, says “the FBI has made good police chiefs and bad police chiefs. The best police chief the country ever produced was an FBI agent named Clarence Kelley, in Kansas City. He was the most innovative police chief we’ve ever had.... I have no idea what I-V’s management style would be.”

Andrews wouldn’t speculate on the problems Owens might face. “Most police departments have cultural problems that need addressing. The police subculture creates its own problems. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a problem-free police department.”

Comment could not be immediately reached from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, an agency that the KPD has had a notoriously sour relationship with.

“It couldn’t get any worse,” Dillard says. “The proof is in the pudding. I would hope there’s a better working relationship between the two agencies.”

—Joe TarrBlue Plate Special

Midday music returns to Gay Street

For the first time in nearly 50 years, downtown Knoxville has a daily live-music radio broadcast. Since WDVX recently moved to its new downtown location in the One Vision Plaza (which they share with Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation) on the corner of Summit Hill and Gay Street, they have hosted a medley of musicians for a series they call the Blue Plate Special.

The show’s time of noon till one is reminiscent of the Midday Merry-Go-Round, WNOX’s famous lunchtime live broadcast that began in 1936 and broadcast to downtowners until it moved to Whittle Springs in 1954, where it expired a few years later. The popular program, broadcast from the station’s original Gay Street studio, helped put Knoxville on the map musically, as many Merry-Go-Round performers, including Roy Acuff and Chet Atkins, went on to grace the revered Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville.

WDVX’s Tony Lawson says of the comparison, “That was a different day and time. It was incredibly special because everything was concentrated downtown.” Nonetheless, in the midst of Knoxville’s seemingly stagnant downtown revitalization, the WDVX arrival is a breath of fresh air. “We have a foot in the future and one in the past. It’s sort of a bridge,” Lawson reflects.

The name “Blue Plate Special” is a little deceiving because they don’t actually serve lunch, though they welcome folks to bring in their own. The coffee bar neighboring the stage does offer local gourmet coffees and sweets made at Magpies. The aesthetically charming space features a small stage in the back with several tables and chairs and abundant standing room.

Adjoining the stage area is the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation information center and gift shop, which features exclusively local crafts, books and knickknacks. Though there’s no binding financial agreement (WDVX simply pays rent and there’s a reciprocal agreement providing that KTSC will run advertisement through WDVX), the bond is mutually beneficial. “We had about 40,000 visitors per year at the Gateway Center [KTSC’s previous location]. Now we’re projecting 60-70,000 visitors this year due to the WDVX presence,” says Robyn Hamilton of KTSC. “I think the daily programming is a big part of that.”

So far, Lawson and his crew have garnered some pretty stellar musicians for the program. Like its WNOX predecessor, which featured everything from country to jazz to comedy, Blue Plate Special is not limited to one genre. Most performers so far, such as Bill Mize, Goose Creek Symphony, and Todd Steed have fallen into the characteristically WDVX styles of bluegrass, country and Americana. But they’ve also thrown in some more rockish acts, such as Leslie Woods and the duo of Mary McBride and Dan Baird.

The show tends to attract a couple dozen in-studio listeners on average, representing a wide range of ages, some—judging by their Burger King sacks—who drive in just for the show. For some acts, though, such as R.B. Morris and Hector Qirko, Lawson estimates they’ve packed in 50 to 70 people.

The audience includes the usual downtown enthusiasts who generally frequent Knoxville’s nocturnal haunts. But the program also provides a unique chance to see live music for people who don’t typically partake in downtown nightlife for one reason or another. “What a wonderful option to have for your lunch hour—to get some culture,” Lawson says.

The program has been scheduled pretty consistently at least three or four days a week so far, but WDVX hopes to work up to every weekday. “The chore is keeping the thing booked,” Lawson says, “but we’re not afraid to take chances—who knows who we may have in there. Hopefully, we can keep up the good quality.”

Scheduling problems may be one reason some Knoxvillians are still unaware of the program. (Blue Plate Special has yet to appear in the Metro Pulse calendar because the shows aren’t typically booked far enough in advance to make our calendar deadline.) However, performances are usually on the WDVX website (www.wdvx.com) even if only on the day of the performance. Also, a chalkboard sign outside the building always announces the “artist du jour,” so it doesn’t hurt to saunter by and check out what’s on the menu.

Though it may be a struggle to book a show every day, Lawson feels good about the outcome so far. He says, “It’s really a testament to how much good music we have in the region. And what a good outlet for musicians. Maybe we’re doing our two cents for the region in some way.”

In the days of the Midday Merry-Go-Round, live daytime broadcasts were certainly in vogue. But by today’s standards, when concerts seem to be creeping ever later into the wee hours, live music during the day might seem a little odd. Wearing office clothes and sipping a latte instead of a beer while listening to music may not hold much appeal to some.

When RB Morris and Hector Qirko played recently, Morris joked, “Now close your eyes, and pretend it’s last call.” Despite a hefty chuckle from the crowd, most attendees don’t seem to miss the beer or the early-morning hours best known to insomniacs.

Whether it’s the old-timey feel of a midday broadcast or the rootsy tinkling of mandolins and banjos, there really is an elusive aura of stepping back in time at these shows. “I guess it is bringing back a little bit of what once was,” Lawson says. It’s definitely a valid excuse to turn off your cell phone, relax, and let the music take you back.

—Molly Kincaid

August 19, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 34 © 2004 Metro Pulse