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'Straight from the Heart' turns 40: Ken Schwall's humorous take on life in East Tennessee

In 2023, WBIR's brand "Straight from the Heart" is turning 40 years old and to celebrate, we're looking back at some of our favorite stories.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It's hard to believe it, but Ken Schwall was once a serious journalist. Seriously.

"I was a real news reporter," he said. "I did actual news. Stuff that meant something; crime, politics. Sometimes they were the same."

Ken cut his broadcasting teeth by working as a DJ at a station in Maryville, hosting a "swap and shop" type program.

"People would call and they had stuff to buy and sell," Ken said. "I would joke around and kid them, and basically that's what I did on 'Schwall's World.' That's where I learned how to do it, on 'Swap and Shop.'"

In 1979, encouraged by a friendship with WBIR Legend Bill Williams, Schwall came to work at WBIR. For around 15 years, he reported on news stories from across East Tennessee until there was a slow news day.

"One week, back in 1995, it was a slow week so I ended up doing stories — five days of features and put a humorous twist and people said, 'Hey we like that funny stuff,'" he said.

WBIR management got the joke and "Schwall's World," a nightly feature to end the 6 p.m. news was born and stayed on for 20 years.

"The key is putting people at ease — finding a situation and finding there's humor in just about every situation," Ken said. "Find something with potential, put them at ease. People tense up, so the trick is to make them feel relaxed and then kid around with them and  they forget about the camera and be their natural selves."

The stories Ken told are as varied and unique as the people of East Tennessee themselves. Some of them are listed below, along with comments from Schwall. 

The two-legged dog:

"It was a greyhound that had been hit by a car and lost two legs on the same side," Schwall said. "He was fine as long as he kept moving, but if he stopped, he went over. The kicker was they put it on YouTube and somebody from Oprah called. They flew the owner and dog to Chicago because they were doing interviews on people overcoming handicaps."

Buster the Donkey:

"Every year, they would get him out of a field in Halls and every year they'd have to lasso him and take him to the nativity pageant," he said. "Sometimes he would take off with Mary hanging on for dear life."

The Clucking Lady:

"Every year I would do 'woman-of-the-year,' 'food-of-the-year,' 'whatever-of-the-year,' so I had a lot of great people. One lady was Woman of the Year and she clucked. She would sing and, you had to hear it, but she would cluck the songs. It was great."

Ken Schwall retired in 2015 with a huge party and night of storytelling at the Tennessee Theatre. Today, he keeps busy with his family including nine grandchildren.

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