The 'Nashville Broadcasting History' Story This website was created and is maintained by Lee Dorman, a 61-year veteran broadcaster
who is the Owner and General Manager of WQKR AM/FM in Portland, Tennessee. Lee started in radio in 1959 while in high school.
Growing up in Nashville and attending Hillsboro High School, Lee's parents moved to Clarksville, Tennessee in the
middle of his junior year of high school. Lee was able to talk his way into a part-time job at WDXN, cleaning the
dust off records every day after school. In 1961, after graduating from Clarksville High School, he got a summer job as
an announcer at WDBL in Springfield, Tennessee, then worked at a variety of jobs at radio stations in Nashville while
going to college at Austin Peay, Belmont, Peabody, Vanderbilt, and finally, again, Austin Peay, graduating with a BS Degree
in History in 1966. Those jobs included being the first booth announcer at newly-created WDCN television, Nashville's educational
TV station, in 1962; a WKDA "Good Guy" at the city's #1 rock and roll station in 1964-65; and then becoming
Program Director back at WDXN in Clarksville as he graduated from Austin Peay. In June, 1966, married and with a three-month
old daughter, he moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, to become News Director at WKFR radio, then 6 and 11 o'clock news anchor
at WILX-TV, NBC affiliate Channel 10 in Lansing, Michigan, in 1968. Then, deciding he preferred radio to television, and wanting
to go to graduate school, he moved back to Clarksville the following year and re-enrolled at Austin Peay, earning a Master
of Arts Degree in History. In 1972 he moved into radio sales, working in Milwaukee at WRIT and then Nashville again,
becoming Sales Manager at 92Q and WMAK; Sales Manager, then General Manager of the Tennessee Radio Network; and finally Sales
Manager, then Genral Manager of WLAC (one of the city's first, and historic, radio stations).
After the station was sold in 1985, he began consulting stations around the country, but mostly in the Southeast, on
both selling and programming Sports Talk radio. In 2004, tiring of the travel required and wanting to spend more
time at home, he became co-owner and General Manager of WQKR, a Sumner County "hometown" radio station in Portland, also
serving White House, Westmoreland, Gallatin, Hendersonville in Tennessee and Franklin, Kentucky. Following the publication
of his book, Nashville Broadcasting, in 2009, he created this website, dedicated to telling the story of radio
and television stations, their origin and growth and roles they played in their communities in Nashville and Middle Tennesse.
Photo courtesy of Nick Archer |
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Book signing at Davis-Kidd |
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