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One of WUOT's founders, Kenneth Wright, died on May 14 in Canton, Georgia. On October 27, 1949, his was among the first voices ever heard on the then-experimental university FM station broadcasting from the basement of Ayres Hall. Wright served as the station's general manager during its earliest years, helping form WUOT's role in the community.

"You heard the culmination of a longstanding dream," Wright said during the inaugural broadcast. "To our listeners, a promise to offer the best radio our intelligence and hard work are capable of producing."

  An East Tennessee town is doing without its own police force - fire department - parks and libraries today. At one minute past midnight last night, the town of Niota lost its liability insurance.  Today, Niota let several city employees go, closed its city police, fire, parks and street departments as well as the library with no word on when they might reopen again. 

For years, people living in the valleys of East Tennessee have had to endure air quality problems, especially in the summer. Now, Oak Ridge leaders will use a $200,000 grant to help combat pollution in the area. The money will pay for LED lighting in the municipal building and the city’s civic center. Governor Bill Haslam presented the check to Oak Ridge mayor Tom Beehan and other local leaders at a ceremony Monday.

A Knoxville-based cancer charity raises millions of dollars, but sends only a pittance to the people it claims to help.

A Tampa Bay Times/Center for Investigative Reporting investigation calls Cancer Fund of America one of the nation’s worst charities. Records show the group sends only two cents per donated dollar to cancer patients. The Times reports Cancer Fund of America founder James T. Reynolds, Sr., and his family run five charities that pay executive salaries to nearly a dozen relatives.

To understand this story, you have to understand something that happened in 2010.

It's fall. Students arrive on campus in SUVs driven by family who help unload furniture and other things they'll need for their new lives. But one young man, who came from a foster home and had not been to orientation, shows up holding nothing but his admissions letter.