Ron Arnold has called Dalton home for almost half a century. The Shelbyville, TN native first made an impression on North GA radio listeners with his on-air work as disc jockey Ron Dailey on the legendary WFLI in nearby Chattanooga in the early 1960's. He served in the Marines in Okinawa with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network. After his discharge in 1968, Ron came to Dalton and was hired in a sales and marketing position at WTTI. Ron quickly was promoted to station manager of the radio station and the co-owned upstart cable company. He had a radio studio constructed at the cable TV office for the DJs to do a nighttime "radio show" after the WTTI sign-off for the cable TV viewers. Ron was active in the community and served on various boards during his nearly 20 years at the helm of WTTI.
Deane Clark was born in Dayton, Ohio on March 13, 1944, but grew up in Toledo where he attended a college-prep high school and won a full scholarship to the University of Toledo. His first radio job was at WMHE-FM. He left school at 19 to become Production Manager at WVKO, Columbus, Ohio. A year later he was back in school and working for WTOD/WKLR-FM as a jock and FM PD. In 1970 he made it to KIRL, St. Louis. In 1973 Deane became PD at WYSP, Philadelphia, followed by eight years at WKLS, Atlanta. He always ended his show with "Come get me mother, I'm through". Clark is now retired from stage and voice acting.
George Van Voorhis, aka George Mason Dixon, was born September 23, 1953 in Atlanta. He was captivated by the radio industry from a young age and often fell asleep with a transistor radio under his pillow. At the age of 3 his family moved to Jacksonville, Florida where he completed his public school education and went on to Jones Business College to study radio station management. He began his radio career in 1973 at WKTZ in Jacksonville and spent 38 years in radio. George retired in 2011 to care for his grandchildren and tend to the family farm.
Greg McClure was born in Atlanta in 1947. He graduated from Southern Tech and was co-founder of the student station. After college he joined the U.S. Coast Guard. His first station was WDGL in Douglasville. He then went to WFOM in Marietta, as Program Director; then to WWID in Gainesville. In 1985 Greg went to Y106. After that, he spent Fourteen Years with WSB Radio/TV. In 2009 he worked with Clear Channel doing traffic reports for WSB and retired in 2014. McClure devoted many years to The March of Dimes and Parents without Partners.
Val McGinness was born in 1948 in Warrensburg, Missouri, and started in radio in 1968 at WQSN, Charleston, South Carolina. In the ‘70s Val worked in Columbus at WCLS, WDAK, and WRCG, and the ‘80s at WCGQ. He worked in Macon during the ‘90s at WPEZ and WMKS. In the 2000s Val co-hosted mornings on WSTH in Columbus with Bear O'Brian. They were nominated for a national country morning show award. Val was later news director for the Columbus Clear Channel cluster. Now, Val operates his own voiceover business in Columbus.
Bob Noble was born in Brunswick on August 5, 1932. In 1939 his family moved to Savannah. While in high school, Bob worked as a weekend DJ at WCCP and WDAR. After graduation in 1949, Bob entered Emory University and became a member of the Emory Radio Workshop supervised by WSB's Elmo Ellis. In 1950 Bob became part of WSB Radio's "NightBeat" program. In 1954, he returned to Savannah as news director for WTOC-TV. In 1965, he moved to LA and then in 1971 to Orlando where he was anchorman for WFTV's "Eyewitness News," until he retired.
"Southside" Steve Rickman was born in Atlanta on March 16, 1965. He attended Georgia State University and worked at student station WRAS.. In 1994 he joined 96 Rock as a part time jock and the next year became the producer for the Wake Up Crew. In 1998 he joined the cast of The Regular Guys. Steve teamed with Tim Rhodes to do afternoons on the station from 2004 to 2006. In 2007 he did mornings on Eagle 106 with Rhubarb and Dallas. He was named co-host of The Regular Guys show on Rock 100.5 in 2008 and remained until 2014. He is now the host of Rock Mornings on the station.
Mary Catherine Sneed was born in Dover New Jersey. She got into radio by accident- her Auburn sorority volunteered her to help build a student station. From college she worked at WVOV in Huntsville. She moved to Nashville and became music director at WSM, then program director at WSM-FM. When her husband accepted a job in Atlanta, she did news at WSB. She later programmed WSB-FM and consulted for some of the Cox stations. She became VP of Operations for Summit. In 1995, Summit was acquired by Radio One and Sneed was named COO. In 2006 she left Radio One to consult.
Steve Splitt was born in Rochester, New York in 1947. At 19, he started his radio career as a DJ in Waynesville, North Carolina, then in 1969 moved back to WHAM in Rochester. In 1971 he moved to WRFC in Athens as a DJ and eventually became the chief engineer. While at WRFC, Steve worked as an engineer for the Georgia Football and Basketball Networks. In 2008 WRFC, along with its other sister stations in Athens, WNGC, WGMG, WPUP, WXKT and WGAU was bought by Cox Enterprises, where Steve continued as Chief Engineer until he retired in April, 2015.
Christie Tanner fell in love with radio at Tulane University's WTUL. At 19 she left school and began her radio career in Tallahassee, Florida. She gained experience in West Palm Beach, Memphis, Providence and Boston, and worked a variety of formats. That prepared Christie for her dream job at 94Q in Atlanta. Tanner's last position was co-hosting the morning show on WSB-FM. She's been a full time voice talent for 18 years and now works from her studio amongst "The Big 5" on a wild game estate in the bushveld of South Africa.
Allen Tibbetts was born January 10, 1956 in Rome. His first radio job was in 1973 doing weekends on WTIF in Tifton while a high school junior. In 1974 he moved from the night shift to mid-days and was named PD and in 1976 became morning show co-host. Later Tibbetts became part owner of WTIF/WJYF. In 1990 he moved to Athens as PD and morning show host on WRFC. Allen moved to mornings on WGMG/Magic 102.1 in 1996 and remained in that position for 16 years. He was named "Favorite Radio Announcer" five times by Athens Banner-Herald readers. Tibbetts retired in 2014.
Larry Tinsley was born in Decaturville, Tennessee and raised in Knoxville. He received his bachelor of science from Lambuth University in Jackson, Tennessee. His radio career began 47 years ago at 2011 GRHOF Legacy Inductee James Brown's WJBE in Knoxville. In 1971 he came to WAOK in Atlanta as an announcer. In 1981 he became WAOK program director. Today Larry is host of top rated "Sunday Morning Praise" each Sunday morning from 6:00 AM until noon on WVEE-V103 in Atlanta. He is married to Pecolia and has received numerous lifetime achievement awards. Tinsley received a Gospel Announcer of the Year Stellar Award.
As a little girl, Beth Walters would carry around a tape recorder and "interview" her friends and family. Thus began a lifelong love affair with radio. She began her career doing mornings on WYNR and nights on WHFX in Brunswick. She was news director for Qantum Radios Brunswick cluster. Beth became traffic director and local producer for UGA Football. In 2014 she became a multi-market morning host on WYNR in Brunswick and WGTR in South Carolina. At the same time she hosted shows WHFX and WRXZ. Currently Walters is production director and hosts mid days on WHFX and afternoons on WYNR.
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