WRJZ (620 AM) is a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

station in

Knoxville, TN Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

that broadcasts with 5,000 watts in a non-directional daytime pattern and a five-lobed night-time directional pattern. It is owned by Tennessee Media Associates.

Programming

Bob Bell hosts the morning show. Among the syndicated programs airing on Joy 620 are ''

Focus on the Family Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF) is a fundamentalist Protestant organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations ...

'',

Chuck Swindoll Charles Rozell Swindoll (born October 18, 1934) is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher. He founded ''Insight for Living'', headquartered in Frisco, Texas, which airs a radio program of the same name on more t ...

's ''Insight for Living'', ''In Touch'' with

Charles Stanley Charles Frazier Stanley (born 1932) is Pastor Emeritus of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, after serving as senior pastor for 49 years. He is the founder and president of In Touch Ministries, which widely broadcasts his sermons through te ...

, and other Christian teaching programs. WRJZ also airs Carson-Newman College and Grace Christian Academy football games.

History

WRJZ is one of Knoxville's oldest radio stations. It signed on in 1927 as WNBJ, owned by Lonsdale Baptist Church and operating on 1450 AM. It moved to 1310 AM in 1930 under new owner Stewart Broadcasting Corporation. A year later, Stuart changed the calls to WROL. It moved to its current frequency in 1941. The station's ownership group was part of a consortium that signed on Knoxville's first television station, WROL-TV, in 1953 on channel 6. Two years later, the call sign was changed to WATE AM-TV. The two stations went their separate ways in 1971, with the television station retaining the

WATE-TV WATE-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located in the Greystone (Knoxville, Tennessee), G ...

calls while the radio station changed its calls to WETE. The station aired an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format during for most of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1976, WETE-AM changed the call letters to WRJZ-AM, and began airing a

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

format. CP and Walker, Jeff Jarnigan, Adele (see below), Mark Thompson, Rick Kirk, John Boy, and J.J. Scott were some of the station's best-known personalities throughout the 1970s.

Adele Arakawa Adele Arakawa (born August 31, 1957) is a retired American evening news anchor for NBC affiliate station KUSA-TV of Denver, Colorado. As of June 2007, she provides the female voice of the airport train system at Denver International Airport. Sh ...

, the first female DJ in Knoxville, worked at WRJZ broadcasting Top 40 music for 5 years in the late 1970s. Other DJs from WRJZ's late 1970s Top 40 era who became well-known were "

John Boy John Isley (born August 15, 1956) and Billy James (born August 31, 1957), known as John Boy & Billy, are American radio hosts based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their comedic morning program ''The John Boy & Billy Big Show'' broadcasts from 6:00& ...

" Isley, later of the "John-Boy and Billy Big Show" in Charlotte, NC. and Mark Thompson, later of "Mark and Brian", the FM drive team who have been on 95.5 KLOS for 20-plus years. After several years as a popular Top 40 station but losing market share to FM station

WOKI WOKI (98.7 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Oliver Springs, Tennessee, and serving the Knoxville metropolitan area. It is owned by Cumulus Media and it broadcasts a talk radio format. The studios and offices are on Old Kingston ...

, WRJZ briefly switched to an

format in 1981, then shortly thereafter to a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

format, then an oldies format, then shortly thereafter went dark entirely only to return to the air during the 1980s with a Christian talk format under the new slogan "Joy 62".

References

External links

Station web site
RJZ RJZ {{Tennessee-radio-station-stub