Globally influential singer-songwriter Dolly Parton began her broadcasting career in 1956 at 319 North Gay Street, then the site of WIVK's AM studio in Knoxville. A 10-year-old from nearby Sevier County, she was driven to Knoxville by her uncle Bill Owens to perform. As Dolly Parton wrote in her autobiography, she started out singing on the radio on a live midday show from a little auditorium at the station, where about 60 people could fit and crowds would come in off the street. She recalled that after she sang, the crowd exploded with approval, cheering, clapping, and stomping their feet, and that at that moment she fell in love with the public. At the time, WIVK-AM was an independent, low-wattage radio station, but it featured the popular grocer and promoter Cas Walker, whose live show nurtured her career. The studio remained there until it moved to Bearden in 1959.