noncomMUSIC Alliance: Live from Knoxville, WDVX’s ‘Blue Plate Special’ Is Appalachia’s Soundtrack

We are pleased to partner with the noncomMUSIC Alliance to showcase how public radio music bridges divides across the country and plays a unique role in supporting access to music in rural communities.

Five days a week at noon, in a downtown visitor center in Knoxville, Tennessee, a small but enthusiastic crowd gathers. They find seats among curious tourists and local regulars, settling in for an hour of live music that ranges from bluegrass to blues, Celtic melodies to classic country, rockabilly to gospel.

This isn’t a concert hall, though it feels like one. It’s WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a near-daily live music broadcast with deep roots in East Tennessee’s vibrant music culture.

“We try to give as many people a chance as we can,” says Red Hickey, longtime host of Blue Plate Special. “We’re not going for a sound per se, unless it’s not our sound. WDVX plays everything from blues to bluegrass to classic country. It’s music that doesn’t already have a radio station playing it.”

Hickey herself discovered WDVX through its eclectic mix, drawn back to her hometown after 15 years in Atlanta by the unique scene she couldn’t find anywhere else. On the very day she returned, Hickey attended Camper Fest, the station’s beloved annual fundraiser. It didn’t take long before she began volunteering, eventually stepping behind the mic with little more than enthusiasm and encouragement from Tony Lawson, WDVX’s general manager and founder.

“I had no broadcast experience whatsoever,” Hickey recalls, laughing. “Tony likes to pick ’em green and just throw ’em out there. He’s real good about saying, ‘Here’s how you do it,’ and then he walks away and leaves you to figure it out.”

Lawson launched WDVX in a cramped 14-foot camper parked on a remote hillside, powered initially by a mere 10 watts of broadcast power. From those modest beginnings, he envisioned a station deeply connected to Appalachian culture but soon learned it had broader potential.

Read the full blog from the noncomMUSIC Alliance.