Some links may be unavailable for 24-48 hrs as our network is being expanded.

Please check back soon if something your looking for does not load,.

Thanks for visiting.

011912realestateroundtable.mp3

to download right click here and choose “save target as..”

Back in the days when I first got to WKDA AM-FM, in the decade of the 70′s, it was an honor to meet the man who brought underground rock to 103.3 in early 1970: Bob Cole! At one time he was working middays at WKDA-FM while I was pulling middays on WKDA-AM. Many days, after work, we would meet up at the little bar on Union Street, just down the street from the Stahlman Building. I wish I had recorded those conversations! Bob would talk about the days when he worked as a messenger-boy at one of the Italian radio stations in New York City, and about his own climb through the ranks of rock radio. He was proud of the fact that he had attended Woodstock and even prouder of the fact that all of us at WKDA had dubbed him the “Rock Veteran.”

As I write this little blog on Martin Luther King Day, 2012, I’m reminded about one of the many humorous stories about Bob Cole: If you knew Bob Cole, you knew…up front…that there wasn’t a racist bone in this guy’s body! To the contrary, Bob always preached his own doctrine of love and peace….he hated confrontation!! Anyway, back to the story: Back in 1968, Bob has just recently joined the Good Guys on 1240 WKDA-AM, which was one of the most successful top-40 stations in Nashville. And on the very weekend after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968, Bob Cole was driving the WKDA van, a hippie-type VW bus with curtains and the WKDA call letters painted along both sides, into downtown Nashville. Not real familiar with Music City at that point, Cole wound up in the Jefferson Street area of Nashville and right in the middle of a riot, protesting the murder of Dr. King. I wasn’t there…personally…but I’ve been told that Bob was first greeted with open hostility. There were many insults shouted his way and the confrontation was getting rather ugly, when suddenly one of the protestors hopped up into the van and began conversing with Bob, up close and personally. After a few minutes, the protestor exited the van, gathered the crowd, and announced that Bob Cole was “cool, mane!”

Bob Cole remained in the area for several hours, joined in the protest, himself, and became friends with many of the very people who had tried to judge the book by the cover. You see….many of those folks learned something about Bob Cole that day that we all knew back at WKDA: He was one of the most gentle souls that God had placed on this earth!

Sadly, Bob passed back in the 1980′s. But he is still remembered today for the great guy he was and for one more fact: he was the first rock-jock in Nashville radio. It was Bob Cole who made the transition from 1240 WKDA-AM to 103.3 WKDA-FM and played rock music every night to the Nashville audience. They loved him!

One last note: Bob hated working the day shift at WKDA AM-FM. He told me he didn’t like having to hide his liquor and other goodies while the office staff roamed the halls during business hours!

R.I.P. Bob Cole!!

This photo shows the Nashville skyline as it looked in the late 1970′s. Notice the WKDA sign atop the Stahlman Building. This was my home away from home during the years when I worked at WKDA AM-FM. We occupied most of the top floor, the 12th floor, of the building. Hey….if that building could talk……..OMG!!!

In today’s show, we mentioned the newspaper ad from 1982. Since you couldn’t see it on the radio, I thought it might be appropriate to display it here on the website. Back in Dec. of 1982, I joined the sales team at Hardcastle Motors in Franklin. As it turned out, it was one of the best decisions of my life! At that time, Hardcastle Motors was still located on Main Street in Franklin, and the only sales people were Loy Hardcastle and Jim Stevenson. I learned alot from those two, as you might expect. But the bigger story was all the fun we had together, back in those days! We sold the full line of Chrysler, Plymouth, and Dodge vehicles & we sold tons of them!!

One side note: I’ve had many people ask me if Loy and I have a script or an outline that we use each week for the radio show. The answer: Are you kidding?? We never talk about the show until the theme music plays and the mics are opened…..we just never know what direction the show might take. However, I think one of the reasons why we’re able to pull off such a feat is this: we’ve known each other since childhood. Both our families lived within a block of each other on Adams Street. And maybe we can “cheat the system” because we have spent countless hours together over the years. That’s one reason why I can truly say: If you are in the market to buy or sell real estate, why would you want to settle for anything less than the best?? See Loy Hardcastle at Bob Parks Realty in historic downtown Franklin!!

As you have probably noticed, there are some new and exciting things going on at AroundTheBlock.Us!! Thanks to my webmaster, Hudson IV, we have a brand new look and will be offering many new features to make the site a world-class stop!

Please bear with us as we break new ground and implement some new ideas, particularly over the next few weeks. In the end, we feel that the hassle will have been worthwhile.

Also….A quick “thanks” goes out to all the many people who have came to the site and checked out the newspaper column archives. For those who enjoy history, there is a treasure trove of good information & we’ve tried to make it interesting, as well.

Please tell your friends about this site! And while you’re here, please take the time to “reach out” and sign the Guest Book!

We’ll be talking to you again soon.

-Hudson Alexander

Franklin, Tennessee

Today we are totally revamping the website,

We do not have an approx time for full functionality (and then a whoole lot more).

Another Production of Orbitalunderground Webhosting & Site Maintaining.

Be sure to get a quick registration to use the forums.

Thanks for stopping by.