Billy J. Fox is pictured to the left with his wife Suzanne Claiborne Fox to his right. In the back are Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Longmire. This was likely the WLAF staff Christmas party in 1967 at Laxton’s Restaurant (The Coffee Shop).

KNOXVILLE, TN (WLAF) – Like many who have been or are still on the air at WLAF, Billy Fox started while still in high school. Though radio did not end up being his life long career, he spent several years at WLAF as an on-air personality and play-by-play announcer for the La Follette High Owls.

Mike Hatmaker, who quarterbacked the Owls football team, has a note on Fox’s coaching tenure. It was the 1965-66 season when Hatmaker was the team manager.

As a child, Fox was my next door neighbor on South 5th Street. I can remember talking with him sometimes when he’d be on his way to broadcast a La Follette game. For a seven-year-old, it was always a thrill hearing him on the air over my tiny transistor radio.

Legend has it that when WLAF station manager Hillard Mattie left for WBNT in Oneida, Fox was up to replace him. However, Elmer Longmire was named manager apparently for a lot less money than Fox thought the job should pay.

WLAF Alum Gene Shears recalled getting the Owls broadcasts on the air from the studio for Fox. “I remember one time, I played a commercial out of sequence, and he was quick to let me know,” said Shears (laughing).

The La Follette High graduate, Billy J. Fox, lived in Knoxville and would often return home to fish on Norris Lake

The career Fox decided on was being a State Farm Agent. His agency sat for years along Kingston Pike in Knoxville at Downtown West Blvd.

Billy John Fox was 82- years-old. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 12/10/2021-6AM)

One Reply to “WLAF Alum Billy J. Fox dies”

  1. Bill was head basketball coach at LaFollette for the year 1965-1966. I was his manager. He was a heck of a man. Had a pretty wife too.

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