Jim Phillips

Notes:

Both Jim “Chopper” Phillips and his wife, Johnnie, heard the call to change.

Johnnie had worked for 20 years at the local radio station in Newport when, in the early 1990s, her parents, Stanley and Pauline Wilds, became ill and needed help from their children, Johnnie and her sister, Carol Greene. Her dad suffered an aneurysm that made it impossible for him to handle his Cocke County farm alone, so Johnnie quit her job to help out full time.

Jim, a nationally known radio personality, heard a similar call when the stress of life on the road as a NASCAR announcer caused him to seek a slower pace.

Together, they’ve found contentment raising beef cattle and corn on the farm where Johnnie was raised.

Jim also grew up working on his family’s farm near Newport. And his grandfather, Jake Phillips, was a foreman at the Stokely Van Camps Cocke County farm where vegetables were grown for the company’s cannery. As Jim got older, he also worked at the company’s farm cutting cabbage.

Had he taken a different route, Jim might have farmed his whole life because he enjoyed the work. But at the age of 20, an advertisement in Sport magazine for a broadcasting school caught his eye. He clipped out the form, filled it out, and dropped it in the mail. A few weeks later, a representative showed up on his doorstep, and he soon found himself in Atlanta, Ga., learning the ins and outs of the radio business.

After graduation, Jim started work at WLIK in Newport on April 18, 1970, and stayed at the station for 11 years before changing to neighboring WNPC in 1981.

While working at WNPC, Jim began “fooling with race cars” with his friend, L.D. Ottinger, a two-time NASCAR Busch Series champion, and fell in love with the sport.

“I worked with him for eight years,” says Jim. “Then I got an opportunity to audition for MRN Radio — The Voice of NASCAR — and they hired me in March 1988.”

Jim spent the next 18 years traveling the NASCAR circuit to interview racers and cover the Busch Series events. When he started the job, he would leave Newport on Friday and get back on Sunday. That hectic schedule finally caught up to him in 2003, when he was leaving on Thursdays and returning on Mondays.

“It was just throw your clothes in a suitcase and head off again,” he says. “I was a country boy who got a break. It was enjoyable being around all the drivers and all the excitement.

“But there were just too many airplanes,” he says as he recalls visiting San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, and other large cities. During those years, Jim had offers to relocate to Daytona Beach, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C. Though the moves would have probably advanced his career and paid more money, he refused.

“This [Cocke County] is the best place in the world to me,” he says matter-of-factly. “When my airplane crossed those mountains coming into Knoxville, I was a happy man.”

During his career, his 18-year marriage to his wife, Mary, succumbed to the stress of the constant travel. After their divorce, Mary suggested that Jim consider going out with Johnnie, one of his co-workers at WNPC. They began dating in 1996 and married in 2002.

“I tried him out first to see if he was going to like farming,” says Johnnie with a laugh. “And then we got married.”

Jim says he welcomed the opportunity to help out on the family farm.

“I promised Johnnie’s dad before he died that I would always respect what he had built,” says Jim. “He got more out of his back than any man I have ever seen. And I’m going to try to keep his legacy alive.”

Johnnie says her father’s tenacity was amazing, noting that even in failing health he was able to work with the cattle and in tobacco.

“I would bring him to the barn when we were grading tobacco,” says Johnnie. “His right hand was crippled, so I would strip the leaves off for him. Then, with his left hand, he would grade about three sticks to every five that I did. He was able to work like that until he was 82.”

Three years ago a second massive stroke left Stanley bedridden, and the full responsibility of the farm fell to Jim and Johnnie. Her parents both died in May of this year, only 15 days apart.

The Phillipses are no longer growing tobacco, but they are growing 15 acres of Roundup Ready FFR corn and a couple of acres of sweet corn. They have 85 head of cattle, including the Intimidator, a registered Angus that Jim purchased from Richard Childress, the famous NASCAR racing team owner.

The couple has also picked out a site on the top of a ridge overlooking the farm as a future home site.

“I’ve always heard that a person goes back to their roots,” says Jim. “I started out on a farm; now I’m back on a farm. And I hope to die on the farm. I’ll never go back on the road again.”

Though Jim still hosts the popular NASCAR USA radio show, which airs from 10 a.m. to noon (Eastern Time) every Sunday on more than 300 stations, he does it via the magic of the Internet from his home studio. He makes a “good living” from the show and other business interests. But he still chooses to farm.

“I’m still the best boss I ever had,” he says. “That’s the reason I love farm life, too. You have things you have to do. You don’t need anyone to tell you. But you don’t have your nose to the grindstone. Sometimes you don’t have enough hours in the day, but I’ll be happy as long as I have good health and my cattle.”

Jim — Mary. [Group Sheet]

Jim married Johnnie Sue Wilds 2002. (daughter of John Stanley Wilds and Pauline Wiley) [Group Sheet]