Chafin, Jimmy L.
Digital Recording Content Outline
Digital Recording No. 2014/1
Interviewed by Doug Bargo, Charles Reed Mitchell and David Cole
Knox Historical Museum Oral History Project
General Topic: Chafin's career as radio announcer in Barbourville, Kentucky
Date of Interview: June 25, 2014
Date of Transcript: September 10, 2014
Final proof: August 20, 2014
Proofed by: David Cole and Charles Reed Mitchell
Original computer word processing program: Microsoft Word
Interview Begins
DHC: This is David Cole, I'm at the Knox Historical Museum in Barbourville Kentucky, on June 25, 2014. I'm here with my fellow museum members, Charles Reed Mitchell and Doug Bargo, and we are jointly interviewing Jimmy Chafin of Barbourville Kentucky. The main interviewer will be Doug Bargo and Charlie and I will be asking additional questions. So Doug....
DWB: Hello folks, hi Jimmy.
JLC: Hi.
DWB: How are you today?
JLC: Doing fine, thank you.
DWB: Great. What we wanted to do was look at your radio background, do an interview on that.
JLC: O.K.
DWB: We understand that you're not from, originally from Knox County. Maybe you're from Leslie County?
JLC: No, I'm from Johnson County.
DWB: Johnson County.
JLC: I was born and raised in Paintsville, Kentucky.
DWB: O.K.
JLC: And I was born in nineteen − in August 1942.
DWB: And what year did you come here?
JLC: I came here in 1963.
DWB: Did you immediately get started in the radio business when you came here, or − ?
JLC: I had been in it about three or four months before. And I wrote Dwight L. Brown a letter from Paintsville − and that's where Dwight L. is from himself. And I told him I was looking for a job. And he told Homer Lee to tell him to come on down, and so I come down and they give me a job in 1963 and I kept it for thirty years.
DWB: That's great.
DWB: Did you have a radio background before then?
JLC: Only about three months is all.
DWB: Three months, yes.
JLC: I was with a boy in college who worked at the radio station in Ashland. And I went to U.K. Junior College in Ashland, Kentucky, and he was going there too and working at the radio station in Ashland. And I kind of got the knack for it there, and I worked thirty years at Barbourville here, here in Barbourville.
DWB: Did you meet your wife here and can you tell us about your children and grandchildren?
JLC: Well, my wife is Tina Smith Chafin, and she was a member of Roadside Baptist Church, and I worked on Sunday mornings. Of course when you're new at a job, you take--you have to work weekends and on Sundays and Saturdays, and that's the par − you know the way they play the ballgame. But I worked on Sunday morning at the radio station, and Roadside had a program that they could do from the studio of the radio station, and eventually we did the program from the Roadside live. But there was three girls there a singing on the radio, and I used to flirt with all three of them, and then I picked, I picked Tina out. And she was from Virginia, and she just was kind of, she was kind of my type, you know, and so we started dating, and lo and behold we got married. And you talk about my children. I've got two children and six grandchildren. And my oldest child is Melinda Mays. She works at PNC Bank in Corbin right now, and she has three girls and she's got a set of twins, the daughters. Her first daughter is fourteen years old; twins are ten years old. And my dear son, he's working at Barbourville High School and he's choir director of Barbourville High, and he has been down there for I guess close to fifteen years. And he had, he has some hard shoes to fill, because Mrs. Treadway used to be choir director at Barbourville High, and so that's like succeeding Bobby Keith in Manchester or something like that. But he's choir director. Also he goes to East Barbourville Baptist Church, and he's choir director at East Barbourville Baptist Church. He has three boys, and I was just joshing with, joshing with his wife, before they got married., I said now − her name is Pam − I said Pam, I am the last Chafin alive, and Steven will be the last Chafin alive, so it's a requirement that if you're going to marry Steven, you're going to have, to have some boys, and so they got married and guess what came a long? Three boys.
DWB: That's great.
JLC: They are thirteen, ten, and eight and doing fine. I am proud of my grandchildren and proud of my children.
DWB: That's good. You fellows have any questions before we continue?
CRM: Yes, Can you tell us about your parents. What their names were and what they did for a living?
JLC: Well, my dad was Eules Chafin, and he was a carpenter, him and my uncle Bill Chafin. They built houses for people. That was the forties, late thirties or early forties. And my dear mother she was working at a boarding house as, I would call it, a maid, or she took care of the boarders and did washing and ironing for them, and she did that in Wayland Kentucky. And my dad was born and raised in Ashland, and that's the reason I went to school at U.K. in Ashland, because dad knew his way around down there, and I didn't, so he knew how to help me. And they got married and moved to Paintsville. We lived on a farm, about a hundred acre farm. Dad raised tobacco and raised corn and he did a little farming while he did the construction work. He built our house back home himself, and the only one helped him was my uncle, his brother.
DWB: O.K., Jimmy, getting to the radio career, I was wondering if you remembered some of the earlier advertisers in the earlier years?
JLC: Yea, we've got one advertiser with us today in the early years: Charles Mitchell, he used to advertise for Knox Drive-In Theatre, and also Mitchell Theatre. Mitchell Theatre is on Liberty Street, and Knox Drive-In is on old 25. When I came to Barbourville, there wasn't no four lane 25; it was built after I come here. I don't know what year it started. But it, the main road through Barbourville was old 25, and I remember Charles would come down to the radio station. He used to make his own commercials, and we would go back there in the production room. And I'd turn the tape on, and Charles would advertise what was showing tonight at the Mitchell Theatre, what was showing at the Knox Drive-In. So they were one of my good sponsors. We had Brown's Discount Store, had Miller and Yancey − well, Union National Bank. Then on the court square I remember Jim Prichard, and to my knowledge, I saw, I saw Jim, Jim married Lynn −
CRM: Sutton.
JLC: He married Lynn Sutton. I seen Jim; they were originally, I think, went to Tennessee. I don't know if they're still in Tennessee or not.
CRM: Corbin
JLC: Oh, is that right? Jim had what, Jim's dad had what they called Home Furniture Company. That was where everybody bought furniture in that building. And Elmer Engle had photography and he made pictures, and he'd go to Barbourville High and Knox Central and take pictures of the queens and kings, and Daniel Boone and this, that and the other. And then one of the biggest advertisers were the banks. I mean, you would ask Union National Bank to help sponsor something, and then American Fidelity came in to business on Knox Street, I believe. Vance Mills if I'm not mistaken owned American Fidelity to begin with.
DWB: Oscar Parsons
JLC: Oscar Parsons, O.K., Oscar lived in − did Vance buy it from −
DWB: Yes, from Oscar. Yes.
JLC: O.K., since we're on that subject, my daughter you know, the trend in lifetime--they say in a lifetime you will change jobs seven times. The average person will. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what they say. But my daughter has had one job. She's worked for almost thirty years. She's had one job; she worked for American Fidelity Bank, worked for National City, which was American Fidelity, and she works for PNC right now, and so she's worked for the same company all of her life. And that's odd.
DWB: Jimmy, I suppose you announced a lot of ballgames and elections and kept some late nights. Do you remember some of the most exciting times during your career of any events?
JLC: Something I enjoyed immensely is election returns. I had a ball doing that because I enjoyed it, and I don't know if I should put this on there now, but I mean, its nothing because we're not hiding or not, but they have asked me to do the election returns this coming fall, and they asked me to do it, and I told them I would.
DWB: That will be great.
JLC: But it's memorable moments. We had the Daniel Boone Festival [which] was always enjoyable. We had pancake breakfast where I'd take the microphone and just wander through the crowd and talk to people-- had a good time doing that. "Man on the Street" program-- Homer Lee did the "Man on the Street" program. And then, I believe, he has quit doing that, and possibly the "Man on the Street" program has been done away with. I'm not for sure, but I believe its been done away with.
DWB: You mentioned the remotes off-site from the radio station. "The Roadside Program"-- that was a live feed from the church, wasn't it?
JLC: Yea, and it was eventually. We'd put a remote line up there at the church so all they had to do was the pastor to come do the remote up there, and then we would go up to the radio station, go out on the on the air like that and eventually, after eventually I got a few years under my belt here in Barbourville, I got rid of working on Sunday morning, so I married Tina and we went to Roadside, and I did the Roadside program live, whoever the pastor was. First Baptist Church, M.A. Reese, M.A. Reese I felt was a class A gentlemen, a class A preacher. But he was pastor of First Baptist Church; he did his morning worship service live at the radio station and did that for--he was the pastor for twenty-five years, probably for the majority of those years. I enjoyed that.
DWB: Do you recall about how long the Roadside program was on and is it still on?
JLC: It's still on. I can't tell you when it started, but it started probably − I came in sixty-three − so it probably started in sixty-five or sixty-six, along through there. It's still, it's still in existence, still going on. Ricky, I believe its Rick Partin is pastor, and we wish him the best of luck.
DWB: Did you have any folks come from the outside, like duets and quartets and such, come sing on the radio station and if so any country music singers as well?
JLC: Well, that's basically how, how country music got started. Is gospel music, and the churches would have gospel singings and then eventually that would turn into country music. The Oak Ridge Boys for one. We would − I drove to Knoxville to see the Oak Ridge Boys. They quit singing gospel music and started singing country music. And you can call it − I call it money − call it what ever you want to call it, but they were out for the money. And then The Cooke Duet. The Cooke Duet would come to Barbourville. And I believe the Heidrick Holiness Church had The Cookes one time. And then I had the Cookes in Barbourville at the church up there at Roadside for several times. And the Cooke Duet is one of the major gospel music groups around. They would still come to Barbourville and have gospel singings.
DWB: Any questions, guys?
DHC: I do have one. We were talking earlier before we started taping about some of your co-workers.
If you would like to just remember a few of those folks and their names and what functions they had at the radio station along with you? Some people you worked with.
JLC: I've had, I've had lots of, the radio station has had lots of turnover. I couldn't mention the boys and girls that I've worked with because there's been too many. I remember Bill Carson, he was a, he was a character. Otis Reynolds, he ran the station there for years; he was a different kind of character too. Bessie Williamson was secretary. She came, she probably came in sixty-five. I quit in ninety-three. And she probably quit a couple of months after I did. And Molly Hale, and Molly, Molly works at The Advocate right now. She was the secretary. We had two secretaries. Bessie was one and Molly was the other one. And then, she, her and Bessie quit at the same time. I could be wrong on that. Bessie retired and has done nothing. Molly is working for the Advocate right now and she's enjoying herself over there.
CRM: You remember the Lockhart brothers − Bob?
JLC: Bob − Bob was, to my knowledge, Bob was a little, a year or two, before my time.
CRM: Oh, is that so?
JLC: I believe they were, I remember the Daniel Boone Festival. I mean, I started, I started at the radio station on the Saturday of Daniel Boone, believe it or not. That's a bad, that's a bad place to start. But I've interviewed Louie Nunn back when he was governor. I've had the pleasure of interviewing Wendell Ford, John Y. Brown, and probably Fletcher. I probably interviewed most of the governors while I was working, but the one I'm the most proud of my radio career is some of the people I've had the pleasure to interview down through the years. You know, they were just ball players then or coaches. Me and Bobby Keith are good friends. One of the highlights of my basketball career. I mean we were actually good friends. My son Steven would − he was just a boy and he'd go over there and pick at Bobby, you know. Then Bobby wanted him to skip, told me says let him skip a year of school before he starts because it would be good for him. And I took his advice and that's the best thing I ever done . . . because boys are supposed to be slower than girls. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. He skipped a year. He went, I let Mendy go to school − First Baptist Church, Methodist Church, Kindergarten, KCEOC and then went to Boone Height Elementary. She was wore out before she ever started first grade. And I said, I'm not going to do Steven that way. But talking about people I've interviewed. I've interviewed Pat Rile. He was basketball player at UK. Dan Issel, John Wooden. I've had lunch with, with, who's the fellow? I can't think of his name right now. He owns the Los Angeles Dodgers.
DWB: I don't know any ball team players or anything like that.
JLC: He played in Michigan. He's a black man. Why can't I think of his name?
DHC: Johnson.
JLC: Magic Johnson, Magic, I've eat dinner with Magic. He was, I don't know the occasion, he was in Barbourville. But, we went out to Curt Corey's house on 229, and we all had lunch out there. I don't know what the occasion was but had a good time there. I've interviewed some pretty women down through the years. Phyllis George Brown. I thought she was absolutely out of this world. I've interviewed − she was Miss America and she was from Huntington, West Virginia. I can't remember her name, but I've interviewed her. But, and then Don Calitri − some of you, Charles, I'm sure probably remembers Don Calitri − you might remember Don, too. He and I used to go broadcast Union College basketball. And you talk about a Class A person. Pete Moore coached Union for years. He was a Class A person, good fellow. And Don and I would travel with Union. Wherever Union went, here comes Jimmy Chafin and Don Calitri to broadcast the ball game.
DHC: Jimmy, what were some of your more difficult assignments, dealing with any kind of tragedy in the community or bad news situations?
JLC: The saddest things I've seen ... I didn't broadcast this, but Walter Hopper − me and Walter Hopper were good friends − he told me to come down there to Hopper Funeral Home. This was probably, I'm not for sure about the year sixty-seven, sixty-eight. It was the year of the Hyden mine disaster when I forgot how many got killed, but he had twenty-seven bodies down there at Hopper Funeral Home. There were bodies from everywhere from Hazard, Hyden, Manchester, here in Barbourville, Corbin. That's the worst thing I've ever run into in my lifetime. As far as hard to come up with...
DWB: Jimmy, The floods were a big thing weren't they?
JLC: Yeah, seventy-six ['77] we stayed all, we stayed open all night long down there at the radio station. They were putting sandbags on top the wall down there to keep the flood from coming in over the wall. To my knowledge, it just liked inches of coming over the wall, and I mean that was close.
DHC: I think that was seventy-seven, April seventy-seven.
JLC: It was seventy-seven, Okay, we had Sam Cowan, you remember Sam Cowan? Anybody remember him? He came down and stayed with us. But you know that was lots of prayers went up for God's protection on that. But that's one of the hardest ones we've ever done. But the city, the Lord spared Barbourville. I'm glad, I'm certainly glad he did. I understand before I came to Barbourville that the water and floods were in the streets, and before, before the wall was built it was in the streets of Barbourville.
CRM: Just about Every year.
JLC: Yeah, probably, probably the best friend that Knox County has, political wise, was Tim Lee Carter and Hal Rogers, Hal Rogers. Tim Lee just served, he served quite a few terms but he retired, and Hal Rogers took his place, but Hal Rogers has done a, in my eyes, a tremendous amount of assistance to Knox County. And probably what's going on on Daniel Boone Drive and Twenty-Five right now − I'm sure that Hal Rogers probably got some of that money there. And then I know that the hospital, hospital was needing twenty-three million dollars. I think Hal was very helpful in getting that money there for the hospital. Knox County, Knox County needs a hospital − really we would be lost without one. But when the time comes for people to help, it seems like somebody is always there to carry the burden on. And somebody's there to help, and that's good for the county.
DWB: Jimmy, switching gears a little bit, during your radio career what was the biggest technological changes? Can you recall any of those?
JLC: Well the biggest change happened after I quit, and I think it's a change for the worst. Because radio stations is now, there's no such thing as country music. They said "when George Jones died country music died," and that's about the truth. Really, because everything has gone computer. There's no body running the radio stations; you push a button. Nobody even there. It's on all night long and not even a soul there. That's not radio, that's taking the people for granted, that's not radio. People deserve more than that. Radio station in Hazard, W.S. − I can't think of it − but anyway they've got D.J.'s around the clock over there. W.H.A.S in Louisville, they've got D.J.s around the clock. Local radio stations have gone computer, and you push a button and nobody's there. Anyway I don't feel like they've got the listeners they used to have. To me they've not. I think that's the worst thing that's ever happened really.
DHC: Your typical day, you all were confined by a time like from six to six. How did you all operate that?
JLC: I usually, I signed on at five o'clock I got up at five and signed on at six, you know. You become friends with lots of people through the radio station. Does anybody know Manervea McVey? She's dead and gone, bless her heart, but she would, getting up at six o'clock and, and when you, getting to the station at six o'clock and you have to get up at five and that's a chore within itself. So one morning I happened I so happened, either I didn't set my alarm clock or I didn't hear it or something but I was late getting on the air. So Manervea calls over at the house and she says "Jimmy are you gonna work today?" But we, I worked most of the time from six to nine-thirty. I did the funeral home programs. I'm proud of myself about doing the funeral homes. Because the names, have been, people who have been deceased they call them everything under the sun right now. I used to do Knox and Hoppers and Hampton funeral homes I felt like I did a decent job on that.
DHC: You all gave pretty detailed obituaries didn't you?
JLC: Yeah, but people could understand them. It takes a local person to pronounce local names. I've heard lots of names destroyed immensely, you know.
DWB: Any other questions?
CRM: Did you ever play anything other than Tennessee Ernie Ford with those funeral announcements and one album?
JLC: No.
DHC: "How Great Thou Art."
JLC: I tell ya.
CRM: "Sweet Hour of Prayer" was one of them.
JLC: I tell you what, Charlie and Tub [Hopper] came up to the radio station when they were in business together. I don't know, I forgot what I did use before this come along but they picked out a song and they picked out "Sweet Hour Of Prayer." I mean it was, Charlie liked it and Tub did too and said let's just use that, and so they used that and its still being used today. And then, Hampton Funeral Home, I believe they started out, I believe Troy [Hampton] started out with "How Great Thou Art" and its still being used today. Then Knox Funeral Home, Knox started out, I remember Tub and Joe came up to the radio station and they picked a number by Tennessee Ernie Ford too, was "Precious Memories." And so all three of them, all three funeral homes have a song by Tennessee Ernie Ford. And of course that song was on tape and so it didn't wear the tape out but it would wear a record out if that many times you play it. Everybody knows when they hear Tennessee Ernie Ford, it's time for the funeral home programs.
CRM: That was my next question. Did you ever wear out that record? Because all those songs were on one record. I had a copy. Everyone had a copy.
JLC: It never did wear out. We went back there and taped it. After you use a record so long, it starts having little holes, scratches, or holes in it and so that's how the funeral homes got started.
CRM: Mention a couple other gospel singers, local ones. Phipps Family Singers, and Lundy, David Lundy. Did you ever work with either of those groups ?
JLC: Yea I've worked with both of them.
CRM: David had his family.
JLC: David had his studio out there and he'd, various people of Knox County would make records, you know, and they had back when I started, what they called eight-track tape. Which eight track tapes are a thing of the past now. But he'd make eight-track tapes and he'd go out there and people would go out there and sing and various people were looking for talent to match a quartet or something. David would help them there. A.L. Phipps would come up to the radio station, have a program, I forgot what. His program probably was on Sunday morning, I guess. He would bring the whole family up there. He was well known, well liked across south-eastern Kentucky. Country music stars, Loretta Lynn is from Paintsville. She's been in Barbourville in seventy-four. She came to do a concert, I believe it was done at, I don't know if was Union College or Knox Central, probably Union College. But it was in seventy-four. Reason why I remember seventy-four because my son was born the night she was here.
DHC: You had to cancel going to the concert?
JLC: No, I went to the concert. My wife almost wanted a divorce 'cause I couldn't come. So, but Steven wasn't born, I think, he was born at six-fifteen the following morning. And so luckily I was there for that.
DWB: Jimmy, I guess there were a lot of preachers came on Sunday afternoons and preached the word.
JLC: Yeah, A.S. Marsee, was at Roadside, he preached at Roadside. I don't know if anyone remembers him or not, Charles might. A fellow that had a program way back until recently is E.W. Yeager. All of the sudden that disappeared from the air. I don't know whether he died or whether he was in nineties when he was preaching at the radio station.
DWB: I think he's still living.
JLC: But I don't know why he quit his program because he did it for years, and I'm sure the audience was there. At one o'clock on Sunday it was time for E.W. Yeager. I never did hear of why he quit or what happened there. And then − I won't say he's my favorite but close to it − I had a good relationship with M.A. Reese down through the years, Biblically smart fellow. He really was. And then Methodist Church had Tim Throckmorton, works for Commercial Bank. And then Tim's daddy used to be pastor of First United Methodist Church. Throckmorton. What was his daddy's first name, John or?
DWB: Ray
JLC: What
DWB: Was it Ray, Ray Throckmorton maybe?
JLC: Possibility,
DHC: That sounds right.
JLC: Could have been. Tim's a good boy. Tim never did preach, don't reckon, but his dad was a super person.
DWB: Well, sounds like you've had a rewarding career. Do you miss radio announcing?
JLC: The way it is I couldn't fit in the way it is now. I'd rather do it live.
DWB: Right.
JLC: Because I don't want to go in and punch a button and then I − you could go to McDonalds, have dinner while the music is still playing. That's not radio.
DWB: Sounds like you have no regrets.
JLC: No
[Pause for six minutes of discussion not pertaining to J. Chafin.]
DWB: Anything else? Okay, we appreciate you taking the time to come for this interview.
JLC: My pleasure.
DWB: We understand you're a member at the Beacon Baptist Church and sometimes you will give an announcement that there's no school in Knox County. Can you do that for us before you leave?
JLC: Well, I tell you, everybody, everybody there in church knows I'm a little bit older than the school children, and Mike Mills, he's the school teacher, he's retired and he goes up there. That's a famous − they would listen to Jimmy Chafin of the morning and when I'd say there's no school, they'd go back to bed. And so I became famous by saying there's no school today in the Knox County School System.
DHC: Of course we didn't have those other ways that they could find out like we do today. You were it, you were the primary source.
JLC: Let me tell you this, me and Jim Harve [Hampton], me and Jim Harve were buddies he's been good to my family. And so, Jim Harve made the decision on whether there was going to be school or not because of slickness or whatever. And so, it had been snowing, it was a January day, it had been snowing forever, you know. The streets were clear as crystal and they hadn't gone to school in two weeks, so Jim Harve called me. I don't know what day of the week but he called me and he says, "Jimmy, I'm not going to have school today. It's still too slick," and all I did was I said "Okay, and I'll put it on." I don't know what came over me. Jim Harve, me and him are big buddies, "Jim Harve says they're not going to have school today, but there's something I don't understand. I said the street, Daniel Boone Drive is clean as it can be. They ain't no snow nowhere here in Barbourville, and we're not having any school. I don't understand that." Just in a minute or two, phone rings, Jim Harve, and so he says, "What time you get off?" I said "nine-thirty." He says, "I'll be down there to pick you up, I want to take you for a little ride." I said, "Okay, nine-thirty, come down there." We go up 25E up at Flat Lick or Stinking Creek where 25E goes that way and you go left to go up Stinking Creek . We went to a place called Jeff's Creek, and Jeff's Creek was as solid sheet of ice as I've ever seen. And it was going up hill, of course. Jim Harve had a four-wheel drive and you could drive it like that. Then I said, "Jim Harve, I promise you one thing: I will not criticize you again," and so I didn't.
DHC: Jimmy when I worked for the Barbourville Mountain Advocate, he'd been getting a lot of letters about it and complaints and he took me out to Davis Bend to prove to me that it was icy outside of Barbourville.
JLC: But we went to Stinking Creek and it was ice, and the first place he'd go, is going out towards the Springs, what's that hill?
DHC: Paint Hill?
JLC: Paint Hill? First place he would go was Paint Hill. If Paint Hill was covered most of the time he would cancel school because of that. I mean that was his key thing to go by. But one day, I don't believe, I don't believe one year we went a day in January, I can't tell you what year it was but I believe we missed the whole month of January.
DHC: Seventy-Eight? Something like that.
JLC: Could have been. Long time ago.
JLC: We've had some bad winters down through the years. 1985, I tell you what I did in 1985, temperature was twenty-five below zero, not many cars were gonna start at twenty-five below zero. So I was supposed to be at work at six o'clock, and I went out to start my car and it wouldn't start so I called the police. I said, "One of you fellows come over here and get me and I'll sign on the radio station. I can't get my car started." It could have been Tom Collinsworth; I don't know if it was Tom or somebody else. He said, "be over there in a few minutes." He came over and picked me up [and] took me over to the radio station, and I signed on the radio. It was twenty-five below zero, it was cold as kraut. We had a bad winter last winter but nothing compared to twenty-five below zero.
DWB: Well, Jimmy it sounds like you have had a most rewarding career and.
JLC: The Lord's been good to me.
DWB: We do appreciate you coming in for this.
JLC: Thank you.
DWB: And this will be something that will last for a very long to come, is our interview. It will be preserved in history and that's our goal here at the museum.
JLC: My pleasure.
DWB: So anything else you all think that we need to say before we discontinue?
DHC: We can make a copy of this on CD for you and we also will be putting on line, our new web-site too. Appreciate it.
JLC: Appreciate that. Thank you very much.
CRM: Thank you.
DWB: Thank you Jimmy.
END OF INTERVIEW
END