.jpg)
Wlaf1450Former Voice of the Cougars and former Cougar Head Football Coach Steve Pebley passes
By Jim Freeman
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- Steve Pebley, a longtime and beloved on-air personality on WLAF, passed away Tuesday night. Pebley was heard for years on WLAF Radio and Television, most often on a Campbell High sports broadcast.
Steve’s career at WLAF happened by chance. I called the fieldhouse one summer to speak with Coach Johnny Bruce to ask if he would do color on the Cougar Football broadcasts with me. However, the conversation did not go any further than Pebley, Bruce’s assistant coach, who had answered the phone.
Steve said before he put Bruce on the phone that if I ever needed any help at the radio station or on a sports broadcast to please keep him in mind. I said done. He and I worked out when he’d start, and Bruce wasn’t summoned to the phone. I ended up with what I needed and Pebley did, too.
From there, Pebley had a run on WLAF from the 1990s through the early 2000s. On occasion, he’d call himself Dr. Steve Pebley, a doctor of radiology. His signature call was “Holy moly”, and at the conclusion of an exciting ball game he’d say “Holy moly whatta ball game.”
I’d actually known Steve since the 1960s. During his high school and college days, he was a life guard at the Cove Lake State Park Pool, and he taught me how to swim one summer.
He taught English at CCHS, and it showed through his on air work. Because his grammar was so proper.
One of Steve’s clever lines, and he came up with a lot, I recall was during a Cougars Baseball broadcast. He said, “The pitcher is digging in on the mound like a puppy dog in a flower bed.”
For the 1994, 1995 and 1996 seasons, Peeb was the head coach of the Campbell High Football Team.
The original Cougar Football Press Box had a stage of sorts you would step up on to the counter and your chair. That stage didn’t come out that far, and scooting your chair back too far could prove disastrously. Disaster struck one night when Peeb moved too far back, and his chair flipped while we were live on the air. It happened so fast, all I could do was grab his headset as he fell. So, here I have a headset in my hand while my broadcast partner is sitting on his tail in the floor. It was a good laugh after we knew Steve was OK.
At one time, Coca-Colas were served out of the basketball concession stand in those little, red, waxy-like cups. Steve and I each had a cup of Coke at our broadcast table. The game became exciting, and I was taking a swing of Coke here and there. Then Steve, always so nice, said if you don’t mind, would you please stick to drinking out of your cup, you’ve about drunk all of my Coke.
Thanks for the memories, Pal. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-10/16/2025-6AM)
I remember st
Mr Pebley was my freshman English teacher. He told me that my hillbilly language skills were beyond repair and he would probably have to retire after teaching me that year. Well we both survived that year I passed the class and he kept teaching a while longer. Thanks for not giving up on me Mr Pebley. Scott Thomas TATER class of ’89
He was also a graduate of the Harold R Branam School of Radiology. It took a long time for me to call him Steve when we worked at the station together because he had always been Mr. Pebley to me. Lots of good memories.