Seated behind the mics at the WFLI-AM 1070 studios in Lookout Valley, Gene Lovin and Max O'Brien are not only surrounded by history; they are part of it. They helped make history at this venerable radio station, and they are making it again.
Lovin, a longtime announcer in the area, is back at the station, broadcasting live weekdays from 2 to 7 p.m. While he's not actually spinning stacks of wax, he - or rather a computer - is playing many of the same songs he did when he first worked at the station from 1969 to 1973.
"How many of the songs do you sing along with in the afternoons?" O'Brien asks him.
Lovin smiles and says, "Most of them."
O'Brien works at WGOW, but on a day made for "Where were you?" reminiscing, he has driven over to his old stomping grounds to recollect with Lovin and WFLI listeners about the moment 41 years ago when he let Chattanooga know that Elvis Presley had died in Memphis.
"I was on the air at 3:30 on Aug. 16, 1977, when one of the sales people came in and said I needed to interrupt the song," O'Brien recalls. "We never interrupted a song, but I did that day."
WFLI signed on in 1961 with 10,000 watts and increased that to 50,000 watts in 1967. It was powerful in terms of popularity as well, garnering most of the younger listeners in the area and making stars of Lovin and fellow disc jockeys such as Tommy Jett, Ron Daily, Johnny Eagle and Ringo "The Music Man" Van.
The station was founded by Billy Benns and remained in the family until 2017, when it signed off the air. Its absence lasted only a short time as Evan Stone and Marshall Bandy bought it and converted it to talk with some oldies music. At the press conference announcing the purchase and new format, the two said they planned to house a national Top 40 radio museum and hall of fame in the O'Grady Drive building, which has been largely untouched for decades.
In the studio, Lovin is surrounded by framed album covers from the '80s and racks of carts, the tape cartridges once used for on-air music and advertisements. While there have been changes to the lobby area, the wood paneling hasn't been touched in years.
The back of the building still houses the massive power supplies and Western Electric transmitter affectionately known as Bertha, originally put there in 1961. It looks more like a movie set than a modern-day radio station. Stone and staff have been gathering up memorabilia for the museum and felt the format needed to match the museum's mission.
"We just thought that if people were coming here for a Top 40 radio museum, they would expect to hear classic Top 40 radio songs," Stone says of the return to format and bringing Lovin back.
The weekday schedule features Logan Carmichael playing hits of the '60s and '70s, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; Ben Cagle playing '60s music on "Daily Down Beat," 1-2 p.m.; Lovin on air 2-7 p.m.; Phil Randolph, 7-10 p.m.; and "Night Train" with Jack "Rockin'" Roland, 10 p.m.-1 a.m.
On Saturdays, the station airs Dick Clark's "Rock, Roll & Remember," 5-9 a.m., and Casey Kasem's "American Top 40," 4- 7 p.m. On Sundays there's "Live From the '60s With the Real Don Steele," 7-10 p.m. The station also can be heard at 97.7 FM.
Recently, Lovin has begun having special guests on the air during his Wednesday shows.
"At first they will be former employees and radio people," Stone says, "but we will have other media people on as well."
Lovin, who began his career in the Atlanta area, was lured away from WFLI in 1973 by a station in Huntsville, Alabama. He returned to this market in 1978 at WGOW and has worked as either a producer or on-air personality since. When he was rehired at WFLI, his new bosses, Stone and Bandy, gave him simple instructions, he says.
"They said to have fun. Sound happy and excited."
Which hasn't been a problem.
There's something magical about radio, Lovin says. "It's almost mystical."
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.