The Joy of Music School has radio in its DNA. Our late founder, James Dick, is a Knoxville broadcasting legend, who started WIVK and spun that into Dick Broadcasting, owner of multiple stations. So when we had a live radio show broadcasting from the School recently, we felt his presence to be sure.

The Swain Event, a sports talk show on WNML The Sports Animal, set up shop here early one morning in October. The host, Jayson Swain, is a bona fide Vol football hero. His guests, JoMS Executive Director Frank Graffeo, and JoMS administrative volunteer Jaye Rochell (who also played Vol ball), were on air to promote the Tall Paul 30th Anniversary concert (see above), which raised funds for the School.

Frank peppered his interview with a few footballrelated stories. (He was childhood friends with the Mike Ditka family, sold concessions at Texas Stadium in high school, and lived near three Dallas Cowboys as a kid, for example.) But mainly he kept the JoMS thread going, making parallels between music mentoring and sports coaching. Jaye talked about his days as a wide receiver under Coach Butch Jones, and also about his work volunteering at JoMS. School friend and supporter Andy Jeffers of Sports & Entertainment Media made the whole interview possible, drawing on his extensive media contacts, his love for the School, and his friendship with Tall Paul.

These extraordinary individuals joined together to help spread the word via radio about the School, and got us some valuable air time. That’s something to cheer about. And James Dick would sure be proud.