First Night Time Black Radio Station In Chattanooga

Comments Below: 5

     February is black history month, and Chattanooga has some notable history of it's own.

     Tonight we bring you the story of the first night time black radio station in Chattanooga.
     It started in 1978, but it had a lasting effect.
     WDEF News 12's Mandy Odom talked to D.J. Terry O'Jay in this Special Report.
     DJ Terry O'Jay says after the turbulent 60's, black people needed a forum... a place for their voices to be heard.
     Terry went to a friend who owned WRIP.
     He says, "Look, your station is just sitting there idle all night long. Why don't we program music for the black community, and he said okay you can do that Terry, but you're going to have to sell your own advertisement. You're going to have to do your own engineering, having a first class FCC license, and then the rest was history."
     In 1978, Terry O'Jay started the first night time black radio station in Chattanooga.
     He says it was exciting and the first night the phones were ringing off the hook.
     Terry says, "People was craving for that type of thing. You know there's people that would stayed up at night just to heard some music, just to hear their favorite music because they didn't have that type of thing."
     Terry played artists like the Bee Gees, Earth Wind & Fire, and of course the Jackson 5.
     He says it wasn't just a job, he loved it.
     And the best part was getting out in the community.
     Terry says, "Just being a DJ in a local market like the Chattanooga area was exciting when people would come up and pat you on the back and ask you for your autograph. Those were the exciting things for me because I was fulfilling a need that was a void that was not being filled in the Chattanooga area."
     Terry says he helped build the foundations for many things to come.. Like Chattanooga's WJTT Power 94.
     In the future, Terry hopes to see more radio stations and concerts come to the Chattanooga area.
     In Chattanooga, Mandy Odom, WDEF News 12.

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WJTT

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on February 3, 2010 - 7:28pm.

I worked at WJTT FM the first 3 years it was on the air and I don't remember a Terry O'Jay being on staff much less on air.

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What is really going on

Submitted by Darnnelle Ellison (not verified) on February 3, 2010 - 12:50pm.

Somone probably needs to do their homework and get all the accurate info before this story airs. It would be wise because there are some discrepencies that definitely need to be ironed out

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night time stations

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on February 3, 2010 - 11:29am.

WNOO was a daytimer back then, sunrise to sunset. Maybe the key here is "night-time" station.

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??? First Black Radio station???Not so!!!

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on February 3, 2010 - 9:11am.

Hi,
Obviously you are not from Chattanooga.
The first Black Radio Station in Chattanooga was (and I think still is) WNOO. I know WNOO was operating back in the sixties and was still an all-black radio station in the nineteen eighties.
I was in the military during the seventies but when I returned I worked for WDXB, who's transmitter site was adjacent to WNOO's studio and transmitter( a combo-site) on Wilson Street.
I am not sure what format WNOO runs today (it seems to have gone gospel) but it definitely was the first.
(WNOO the Soul of the Citeeee!)
Now I must answer the obvious question...No I am not black.
But I do have a long interest in radio.

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