Courtesy the Daily Times

(August 19, 2010) A variety of syndicated programming intended to serve as nothing more than a test run currently fills the local radio airwaves during daytime hours on 1120 AM.

Next month, it will begin transforming into Blount County’s own sports talk station.

Maryville’s WKCE-AM will debut as an ESPN Radio affiliate on Sept. 1, completing the first step in new station owner Jason Bailey’s long-term plan to provide local sports programming focused on Blount County high schools and Maryville College.

“As I started looking at what we could do (with the station) and I started talking to people, it just seemed like Blount County could use their own sports station,” Bailey said. “With as many high schools that are there that are really great at football — I doubt there’s another county anywhere in the state that can say they have two contenders for the state championship every single year — and then, with Maryville College there, they’ve got a lot of great things going. ...

“It’s almost like a whole other sports town from Knoxville. I mean, Knoxville’s got the Vols and a few other things. But when you really start looking at it, there’s a lot of great sports in Blount County.”

Bailey said he wants many of those sports, at both the high-school and college levels, to be represented in the future programming of 1,000-watt WKCE.

For now, the station will air ESPN Radio’s top syndicated shows — including “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and “The Scott Van Pelt Show” — along with national broadcasts of major sporting events.

Bailey said he envisions some of the ESPN programs gradually being replaced by local shows and, if everything goes according to plan, a Blount County high school game of the week.

Bailey purchased WKCE and ESPN Radio Knoxville, WVLZ-AM 1180, in January from Oskie Radio Group after co-hosting a top-rated morning show on country music stations in four different markets over a span of 16 years.

WKCE was an affiliate of ESPN Radio’s Spanish-language network, ESPN Deportes, when Bailey took over the station. It didn’t take him long to decide on a format change.

Bailey opted to pursue his dream of owning a station after his longtime co-host on the “Bandy and Bailey” morning show, Michael Bandy, died in December 2008.

Bailey, a Cookeville native, said the opportunity to own two sports radio stations in the Knoxville area was “a perfect fit” for him as a “huge” University of Tennessee fan who enjoys the sports-talk format.

But while the 10,000-watt ESPN Radio Knoxville boasts a local schedule focused on UT sports, Bailey said WKCE will be entirely different.

The station has a few issues to resolve.

First and foremost is finding a way to work around the booming 50,000-watt signal from St. Louis’ KMOX-AM 1120 that currently reaches more than half of the country at night. Federal Communications Commission regulations require many AM stations, including WKCE, to reduce their signal’s power at night to avoid interfering with clear-channel stations such as KMOX.

Bailey said he’s working to acquire an FM translator that would allow the station to continue broadcasting beyond its current nightly sign-off time, which varies from month to month.

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