CTV’s Archives Reveal a Hidden Version of Knoxville During the Cable TV Era

In Inside the Vault by Eric Dawsonleave a COMMENT

If you’ve watched community television in any city, you might have an image of what a typical CTV show looks like. Maybe a talk show of the type parodied by Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns, with a host and a guest sitting on a modestly dressed set, earnestly discussing a topic of varying interest to the wider public? After digitally transferring dozens of hours of video tapes from Community Television of Knoxville, I can tell you there is a fair share of such shows in the archive.

But there is also more variety than you might expect, with inspired and bizarre creativity shining through in the pre-YouTube days, when artists, actors, musicians, politicians, and garden variety narcissists would use CTV as an outlet. Community Television of Knoxville donated hundreds of tapes to the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound, representing dozens of shows throughout their 40-year history. General manager David Vogel asked us to transfer some of the shows in advance of a public screening to celebrate the channel’s anniversary.

Unsurprisingly, there are many shows devoted to local music in the CTV vaults. It was a good way to get yourself seen and heard. The Knoxville Hammer Dulcimer Club, Sacred Harp singers, lots of Southern gospel groups, live performances at Laurel Theater, local jazz musicians, and Knoxville songwriters all make appearances.

Singer/songwriter Nancy Strange produced a show in 1980 and ’81 in which she interviewed and performed with local musicians such as Terry Hill, Hector Qirko, and Red Rector. Strange interviewed Lois Short at the Highlander Center, and Steve Horton of the Lonesome Coyotes shows up at Strange’s Fort Sanders apartment, which was in the house that stood in for James Agee’s childhood home in the film All the Way Home. There is an unforgettable meeting with R.B. Morris at the original Longbranch Saloon, a few minutes of which can be viewed on TAMIS’ Vimeo page. Strange also interviewed residents of 4th and Gill when it was just starting to be gentrified. Jimmy Ballard sits on the porch of an old Victorian home and tells the history of the neighborhood.

The late ’80s/early ’90s show Knoxville Rocks generally produced episodes featuring singer/songwriters, WUTK’s Benny Smith, or a hair metal band performing at the West Knoxville club, Rumours. One tape labeled “Rage Us” turned out to be a collaboration between the Bijou Theatre and the Chroma art group: raw footage of a day devoted to art and music, during which a trolley carried passengers from the Bijou to houses in what looks to be 4th and Gill and Fort Sanders, each destination full of art and performers.

On the Edge is reminiscent of any number of comedy sketch shows, only way more surreal and loose. In addition to written vignettes, there’s a Slacker vibe to recurring scenes of the cast wandering around Fort Sanders and the Cumberland Avenue Strip, at one point having the good fortune, televisually speaking, to run into a guy who is obviously tripping.

There are a few shows produced by teenagers, including Hey, Watch This, which featured an episode built around one girl’s obsession with early ’90s Knoxville alternative favorites the Judybats. An entire segment is devoted to her displaying more Judybats merch and ephemera than you’d think even exists. (If she’s reading this, TAMIS would love to hear from her.)

You can watch several local politicians in more informal settings, including a very casual Victor Ashe stopping by with his wife to chat with the hosts of a Mardi Gras parade in the Old City. And while it’s easy to be flip about the aesthetics of the talk shows, it’s more difficult to write off the content. Several shows devoted to discussing books and social issues feature lengthy conversations that reveal progressive perspectives that might surprise anyone who thinks Knoxville in the 1980s was strictly conservative. The episode list for Controversy shows the topics “Abortion,” “Can Christians Be Homosexual,” “Youth Gangs What? Why?” and the hopefully less controversial “Pro Wrestling: Is It Real?” (Speaking of wrestling, Terry Landell’s call-in show dedicated to the regional branch of the sport can be amazingly entertaining, even if you don’t like or follow wrestling.)

What CTV has facilitated is a unique record of Knoxville’s cultural and political history from 1975 to today, and it keeps going. Community members given voice through this medium offer a side of the city’s story you’re not going to get through traditional media like newspapers or network-affiliated television stations. Long may it run.

Community Television celebrates its 40th anniversary with a screening of at the East Tennessee History Center, Friday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m.

Inside the Vault features discoveries from the Knox County Public Library’s Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound, a collection of film, video, music, and other media from around East Tennessee.

Eric Dawson is Audio-Visual Archivist with the Knox County Public Library's Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound, and with Inside the Vault combs the archive for nuggets of lost Knoxville music and film history to share with us. He's also a longtime local music journalist, former A&E editor of the Knoxville Voice and a board member of the nonprofit performance venue Pilot Light.

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