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City Beat: David Carroll’s McKenzie Arena concert list keeps memory in check

Staff Photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press - March 06, 2012. Aerial images of McKenzie Arena/ The Roundhouse in Chattanooga/Hamilton County shot March 5, 2012. Staff Photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press - March 06, 2012. Aerial images of McKenzie Arena/ The Roundhouse in Chattanooga/Hamilton County shot March 5, 2012.

By Barry Courter February 25, 2016 2 min read

Barry Courter

Thanks to David Carroll and the crack research staff at Chattanooga Radio History (pretty sure it’s just DC himself), I now have undeniable proof that my memory should not be trusted. This will not come as news to my wife, who finds it remarkable that I can’t always remember her name, but I never forget to eat.

Anyway, Carroll went the extra mile last week and put together a nearly complete list of music acts that have played UTC’s McKenzie Arena. I wrote recently that while many people swear there used to be shows there all the time, I wrote that there weren’t more than three or four a year and that people were misremembering. I was the one with the flawed facts.

I think I know why I thought that, but I won’t try to explain or make excuses. The facts are that we had a dozen or more shows during the venue’s glory days in the ’80s and early ’90s. Heck, in 1983, a year after it opened, we had 23 shows at what was once nicknamed the Roundhouse, including B.B. King, Jackson Browne, Kiss, Barry Manilow, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Styx and Diana Ross.

I’ve always said there were a lot of great shows there, and I got to see most of them, though I don’t remember there being that many, apparently. And in case you were wondering why the numbers have dropped so drastically in recent years, it is because there are very few tours going into venues that size anywhere anymore. It’s not just us. It’s very expensive and very fiscally risky to try.

What does still work at McKenzie are the large multi-act Christian music tours and superstars like Elton John, who is there March 12 and James Taylor, who is there April 23.

* Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns NewsChannel 9, Fox Chattanooga, The CW Chattanooga, MyNetwork TV Chattanooga, StormTrack 9 WeatherNation and MeTV Chattanooga, has added “Good Morning, Chattanooga, Fox Edition” to its Fox programming.

The show will air 7-9 a.m. weekdays on Fox with Sarah Jennings, Greg Funderburg, Brian Smith, Drew Bollea and Beth Neuhoff. It will “have a more relaxed, laid-back feel – like our weekend edition,” said News Director Tom Henderson.

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.