Top 40 radio in the Carolinas was defined in the 60s and 70s by Raleigh’s WKIX, the Giant of the South. Dozens of people launched distinguished broadcast careers at Big KIX. People like Hollywood’s Rick Dees, musician/TV host John Tesh, and media mogul Ken Lowe, now President & C.E.O. of The E. W. Scripps Company.The visionary who launched WKIX in 1959 was an ex-Marine and former CBS announcer Hugh Holder, who owned and managed the station until it was sold to Southern Broadcasting Company in the late 60s.

There have been several Raleigh Radio Reunions bringing together former WKIX air staffers. However, the reunion that drew the biggest number of WKIX alumni was staged by oldies station WTRG in Raleigh and broadcast live on that station on May 1, 1993. It was produced by Mike Smith and Mike Mitchell.

Featured on this reunion broadcast are the following WKIX alumni, in alphabetical order: Charlie Brown, Rick Dees, Gary Edens, Bob Jones, Jack Kane, Bob Kelly, Steve Roddy, Tom Scott, Clay Sledge, Russ Spooner, John Tesh, and Tommy Walker.

A special thanks to Bob Jones, Walter Knox, Rich Reim, Mike Smith and Ed Weiss for supplying most of the photos and logos used in this exhibit. Also the WKIX alumni owe our gratitude to the then WTRG owner, a courageous Tom Joyner, for turning his whole radio station over to the KIX Men of Music for nine hours on a Saturday in the middle of a spring ratings sweep.

Raleigh Radio Reunion, Part 1 (22:08)

The first segment of the broadcast is opened by WKIX alum Rick Dees. Jack Kane introduces a prepared piece by Gary Edens, “Memories of WKIX”. Kane plays the earliest existing aircheck of Charlie Brown from WSSB, Durham in 1961. Charlie Brown and former KIX morning personality Russ Spooner spin tales about Tommy Walker and then play a Walker early 60s WKIX aircheck.

Raleigh Radio Reunion, Part 2 (7:00)

Charlie Brown and Gary Edens talk about the popular Piggy Park Drive-In remote broadcasts. A 1971 Steve Roddy aircheck. Former WKIX sales rep Clay Sledge chats with Gary Edens about promos and commercials on KIX in the 60s. A 1963 Gary Edens aircheck. A Charlie Brown WKIX interview with the late singer Sam Cooke.

Raleigh Radio Reunion, Part 3 (13:08)

Charlie Brown and Jack Kane learn from Tommy Walker how he became the original KIX Man of Music in 1959 at the age 17. Russ Spooner and the “Fat Cat” remember the many KIX-sponsored concerts in Raleigh, especially beach music concerts by the Tams. Bob Kelly plays a 1962 Tommy Walker aircheck. Charlie Brown interviews Bobby Tomlinson of the Embers, a popular band started at North Carolina State University in 1958.

Raleigh Radio Reunion, Part 4 (10:33)

Bob Kelly admits to having heated music debates with Charlie Brown and Tommy Walker over the issue of beach music vs. national hits. Brown and Walker always won the debates and the station played lots of beach music as well as nationally charted hits. CB interviews John Tesh and Steve Roddy. Both men were part of WKIX’s traveling basketball team, the KIX Kagers. Bob Jones introduces a brief aircheck from Tom Scott’s “Underground”, the first KIX program to play “progressive music.”