In 1964, Roy Davis of Chattanooga,
Tennessee, was granted a license for AM 1520 in Brownsville.
The original call letters for the station were WBHT.
WBHT-FM’s (95.3) license was granted in 1967.
The first live play-by-play sports announcer on Brownsville Radio
was Harold Burroughs.
The longest running program on Brownsville Radio is The Baptist Hour
with Dewey Jones. The program began in April 1969.
Brownsville Radio’s first open-lines talk show host was Paul
Jackson.
The original studios for WBHT were on the second floor of the
Brownsville Bank — now the Banks Law Firm at Washington and
Jefferson Street.
Western Auto, City Taxi and Joe Myatt’s Tire Company were regular
advertisers on the Cowboy Lee Show. At least one partial Cowboy Lee
Show is recorded and kept in a safe at Brownsville Radio.
Jakie Powell debuted an hour-long radio talk show focused on the
ladies of Brownsville. Nell Haynes took over the show and hosted it
for decades.
Roy Davis sold the stations to Ben Gaines and Ed Perkins of McKenzie
Tennessee in 1969.
WBHT-FM’s call sign was changed in about 1976 to WTBG-FM.
WBHT-AM’s call signal was hanged to WNWS-AM in 1987 as the station’s
owners prepared to put WNWS-FM on the air in Jackson, Tennessee.
Gaines and Perkins sold the station in about 1976 to Bill Pope and
Harold Butler of Union City, Tennessee.
The radio stations came under local ownership for the first time in
1978 when Carlton Veirs, James T Haynes and Lyle Reid purchased
them. The local group coined the slogan, “Brownsville Radio.” The
ownership company eventually became The Wireless Group Inc.
The Wireless Group Inc eventually owned WTNE-WWEZ, Trenton, The
Brownsville States-Graphic, Mid-South Hunting & Fishing News and
WNWS-FM, Jackson.
General managers of the Brownsville radio stations have included
Barney Beatty, Mike Sweeney, Robert Moore, Bill Pope and Carlton
Veirs.
Minister James Wolfe made his debut on Brownsville Radio in 1972. He
hosted an R & B show on weekends. At the time, Wolfe was an
assistant football coach at Haywood High School.
Ivory T Ellison claims the spot as the station’s longest running
on-air disc jockey. His show, the Ellison Family Gospel Show, has
been on the air since about 1980. Rev BJ Holmes was the station’s
first gospel DJ.
95.3 changed its daytime format to all talk June 1, 2010.
