June 12, 2017, Issue 554
Going Out On Rocky Top
Alison Mencer was doing middays and Andy Ritchie afternoons at WTDR/Charlotte (now WKKT), but they were looking to do more. Hearing there was a morning opening at WGKX/ Memphis, the pair snuck into the production studio to make an audition tape. While they didn’t land in Memphis, they did make it as far up I-40 as Knoxville, where they’ve called the WIVK morning show home for the last 20 years. The award-winning duo recently announced they are stepping away from wake-ups at the Cumulus Country outlet, “on their Alison Mencer & terms” (CAT 6/7). Andy Ritchie Growing Pains: Andy and Alison succeeded market fixtures Wilhite & Wall in July 1997, becoming only the fourth morning show in the station’s 50-plus years. A combined 10 CMA and ACM awards later, the success they’ve enjoyed belies a rocky start. Mencer was a single mom with a 13-year-old son who did not want to leave Charlotte. Ritchie had a three-month-old baby, a wife who’d never lived outside of North Carolina, and two dachshunds all living in a small apartment. “After two weeks, I asked myself, ‘What have I done?’” Ritchie recalls. “I was feeling the pressure, so I snapped on occasion. And Alison’s reaction to everything was to laugh, which would fuel my anger.” “I saw steam coming out of his ears a few times,” Mencer laughs. Relief came when a producer was added, easing the show’s logistics. Between weather, traffic, news, and editing calls on a reel to reel with no remote start, “It was like being an air traffic controller,” Ritchie says. Learning the market also helped ease the transition. “We knew nothing about Knoxville when we moved here,” says Mencer. “All I knew was that I had been here in 1982 when my high school band visited the World’s Fair,” adds Ritchie. “When you go to a city, there are always things people disagree on. But in Knoxville, University of Tennessee football rules.” As the official flagship sta(continued on page 11)
Stay Gold: “Forever Country” producer Shane McAnally and co-arranger Josh Osborne received plaques Saturday (6/10) celebrating RIAA gold certification of the No. 1 single commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the CMA Awards. (Pictured l-r) Osborne, McAnally, CMA Board Chair/Opry Entertainment and Grand Ole Opry’s Sally Williams, video producers Joanna Carter and Chandra LaPlume, and CMA’s Damon Whiteside.
CMA Music Festival : TGIF
A fireworks assisted national anthem performance from Red Bow’s Brooke Eden – “bombs bursting in air” – opened the second CMA Music Festival Nightly Concert at Nissan Stadium (see Thursday coverage here). She was followed by fellow BBRMG artist Trace Adkins. His set included “One Hot Mama,” “Ladies Love Country Boys,” “Watered Down” and “Honkytonk Badonkadonk.” Rascal Flatts opened their set to a completely full lower bowl. Their list included “Summer Brooke Eden Nights,” “Fast Cars & Freedom,”
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