The 99.9 KISS-FM Website

WKSF, Asheville/Hendersonville/Greenville-Spartanburg

One of the most visible symbols of KISS-FM during 1985-1986 was the KISS-FM/Big WISE van. A black van with the logos of the stations painted on the side, the van went to nearly all of the station remotes and other community events. Kent Compton would often drive it back and forth to his home in South Carolina for exposure and on several occasions was stopped by the cops, who didn't like all of his "Barney Fife" jokes on the air. Another time, John Oliver (who apparently spent some "time" with a lady in the back of the van) left a pair of his jockey shorts in it and upon finding them, Pat Garrett and Kenny Buckner gave them away to some girl on the air.

Brother Bill, Pat Garrett, and John Stevens.

KISS-FM sounded its very best in the Summer of 1986, then one day we lost our edge. After receiving several harrassing phone calls from a rude woman who was cursing and demanding to hear a song, Bill gave her a dose of her own medicine. This apparently infuriated her so much that she pestered the switchboard until she was able to get our owner Ric Jorgenson on the phone. Rick acquiesced to the woman's demands and fired Bill. The station lived on, but without as much intensity.

The station covered the dayparts by expanding the hours of the others until Tim Edwards was hired in Fall '86. Tim was a Navy Sea Bee during the Vietnam war. He had recently been on the air in the Greensboro market and was hired to do the afternoon shift. G.T.--who was really starting to like working days instead of nights--was bumped back to the night shift and Pat went back to the overnight show which was being filled by Kenny B, Vic Thomas and Ric Hampton. Tim did hilarious character voices such as his southern black mother character "Lobelia Brown". He befriended the sales staff was also popular with many of the clients. This helped heal some of the past "friction" between the airstaff and the sales people.

Dawn, Diane Augram (sales), John Oliver, Jan Kahn (sales manager) in 1985.

In November '86, the staff was very surprised to learn that the Kiss-FM ownership group--which included Ric Jorgenson--had sold KISS and WISE to the Heritage Broadcast Group of Atlanta. The group was headed by Adam "Bud" Polacek, a former Air Force colonel and sales person in the Cleveland, Ohio television market. Bud later sold radio at Q99 in Atlanta and then founded Heritage with other Atlanta business partners. The sale wasn't to take place until the beginning of 1987 but for the rest of 1986 the transition took place, which included several meetings with Bud and lots of paperwork. Also, a former "Bud" employee Jeff Tanner joined the airstaff. Jeff had worked with Dennis Deason, a KISS-FM sales person and native of Sylva, at one of Bud's stations in Alabama.

Just before Christmas, the staff gathered at Jorgenson's ski chalet at Wolf Laurel for a holiday party which amounted to a wake. Everyone was given a nice holiday bonus and told "good luck". In January, Polacek took over and immediately banished the station's four pet cats--Pinky, B.C., Memphis, and Dusty--who were adopted by staffers. He then announced that staffers could no longer wear denim in the building. His reasoning for this was that clients could show up at "any time" and so everyone must look professional. Tim Edwards was moved to the morning show with Chuck Finley. G.T. moved to afternoons, Pat to 7-Midnight and overnights were manned by Ric Hampton, Vic Thomas, and Kenny B. when he wasn't in school at Western Carolina. This lineup remained fairly intact until the summer when we hired a kid from Cullowhee who would go on to become "the voice of CNN".