Knoxville Radio: Gunner, Your Cowboy Pal At WIVK, Ready To Retire

WIVK’s Gunner is retiring June 20 after decades behind the mic. The radio DJ has met, or interviewed, some of country music’s biggest names along the way.

“It’s your cowboy pal Gunner,” he said to his listeners from his studio on Tuesday. It’s an unmistakable voice in East Tennessee. WVLT-TV8 reports.

Gunner says his career it all started because of a comment by a high school teacher. “Public speaking, it was the only thing I was good at,” Gunner said. “Her words, not mine.”

Gunner started small, beginning his career at AM 1470 in Maryville, then going to 94.3 in Knoxville and The Hit Kicker 100.3 before landing at WIVK 107.7, where he’s been for the last 25 years.

A career spanning six decades means meeting some big names in country music, like Jason Aldean and Emily Ann Roberts. The WIVK studio is decorated with country musicians Gunner interviewed before they got famous, like Blake Shelton, Kelsea Ballerini, and a 15-year-old Taylor Swift.

“She was a sweetheart,” Gunner said about Swift. “And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know a superstar when you see one. Even at 15 years old.”

Off the air, Gunner has done a lot of charity work, mainly with veterans. Gunner followed troops around Iraq in 2004 and set up a weekly radio show to allow the deployed troops to communicate with their families.

“We landed in Baghdad, and we got immediately shot at,” he said. “And basically shot at through the whole time.”

Gunner said a lot changed in the radio business over the course of his career, but one that stayed the same was how he spoke to his audience, which he says was authentic.