An energetic Hack Ayers holding one of his famous auctions on the tailgate of his International Harvester Travelall.

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – There was a time on 1450 WLAF that the call letters could just have easily been 1450 HACK.  Haskell “Hack” Ayers had been with WLAF from its very beginnings nearly 67-years ago.In the spring of 1953, a 17-year old Hack Ayers plowed the trench to lay the cables from the WLAF tower to the studio and transmitter in the Fleet Building.  Ever since, he’d been on the air in some form or fashion; advertising, promoting an event, sharing a story, giving a plug for WLAF.  You name it.

Ayers hosted his very own daily radio show live on WLAF, over the telephone at noon, from his world famous Hack’s Bargain Barn on South Indiana Avenue.  He told the story that he and Tommie won a trip to Japan from the Gibson Appliance Company.  Even though Tokyo is literally a world away from La Follette, Ayers still called in doing his radio show live.  The only downside is that when his showed aired back at home at noon, he was placing the call at 2 am Tokyo time.

Hack said when he and Tommie returned home from the Tokyo trip a lot of folks didn’t think they’d actually gone.  People said, “We heard you on WLAF everyday you were supposed to be away.”

“I would break my neck to get from the Bargain Barn everyday to be on the air at the station.  After about two weeks, I found out I could just call from the store,” Ayers said.

Longtime WLAF owner Bill Waddell said, “He was always a WLAF supporter.  He’d make it a point to come out to any event we hosted.”

“Anytime Hack had an auction, he’d call and say “I’ll be right on up.  I need to record some spots,” added Waddell.  On his way out, he’d say, “Run these; a bunch of ’em through Saturday morning,” he recalled.  “He’d trust us to take care of him with loading him up with spots and just sending him an invoice,” Waddell said.

Waddell noted, “Hack started with nothing.  He bought that little tractor and went to work.  It was the same tractor he used to dig the trench for WLAF.”  (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 01/09/2020-6AM)

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