Mike James (1951-2017), better known by his stage name as The Tennessee Midnight Rambler was an influential but now obscure late night DJ on WQUT FM, a hard rock station in the Tri-Cities area of Northeastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia who hosted a late-night radio show from 1976 to 1983 that was primarily focused on Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Psychedelic Rock, and Blues Rock. Known for his wild persona and use of corpse paint and black leather clothing eerily reminiscent of Black Metal (a decade and a half before black metal as we know it even existed, mind you) and his Wolfman-like raspy and growly voice, The Tennessee Midnight Rambler became a cult classic among rock music radio fans and tapes of his recordings became surprisingly popular even outside the original Tri-Cities market.
His show often would incorporate audio from classic horror movies into the show's ad bumpers and he would often play hard rock and heavy metal acts that ranged from the "edgy yet still mainstream" fare like KISS or AC/DC to acts such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Blue Oyster Cult that while now viewed as tame today, were often genuinely seen as risque and controversial in the highly socially conservative Bible Belt communities in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia during The '70s and The '80s. He'd have a party-hard attitude and would even give shout outs to fans from far outside the Tri-Cities region who would call in or write in (of his own volition no less) but he was fired from WQUT in the early 1980's following a change in management at WQUT and a dispute with the new owners.
This was put to bed when The Tennessee Midnight Rambler had a comeback in the late 1990's, with a new show that ran from 1997 to around 2002 and reruns of his original 70's fare being broadcast on Saturdays during the 2000's and early 2010's. This new show would continue the dark and edgy persona of the Rambler and would often play the darkest and hardest music that they could get away with. Nu Metal, Thrash Metal, Industrial Metal, Alternative Metal, and even the harder sides of entry-level Alternative Rock, Goth Rock, and the like got airplay on this revival of show.
In the mid-2000's, Mike James fully retired though some commercials for WQUT and other local businesses featuring James in character as The Tennessee Midnight Rambler did still air in the Tri-Cities radio marker throughout the first half of the 2000's.
In 2017, Mike James passed away but nostalgia for The Tennessee Midnight Rambler still lives on.
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The Tennessee Midnight Rambler provides the following tropes
- Alternative Metal: Heavily featured in the second iteration of the show
- Black Metal: While black metal didn't get much airplay on either version of the show, The Tennessee Midnight Rambler's look of black leather and corpse-paint was often more in line with the Scandinavian black metal bands of the 90's than with more contemporary acts like KISS or David Bowie.
- Darker and Edgier: The second version of the show that aired from 1997 to 2002, the music was darker and harder and advertisements for horror movies, M-rated video games, and haunted attractions were more common, as were the more grim PSA ads.
- The '80s: His first show ended around late 1982 by most accounts, though some say it ran until around January of 1983.
- Goth Rock: Got some airplay in his second show. Unusual in that he'd often play legit gothic rock acts like Siouxsie & The Banshees, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy alongside the more typical "mall goth" Industrial Metal acts of the time like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.
- Hard Rock: A staple of his show in both of its iterations but extremely prevalent in the original run.
- Heavy Metal: Another cornerstone of the Rambler's show.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: While The Tennessee Midnight Rambler may have had this dark and almost demonic persona at times, Mike James himself was a born-again Christian and a family man who did a lot of charity work in and around the Tri-Cities area and was all around beloved by his peers.
- The '90s: The second run of the show began airing in the spring of 1997 and practically reveled in the Darker and Edgier vibe that was so common in the late 90's and early 2000's.
- Nu Metal: Got a lot of airplay on the second run of his show. Justified, as it was during the genre's heyday in the late 90's and early 2000's.
- Perky Goth: Despite his dark and gloomy appearance and supposedly edgy monstrous style, The Midnight Rambler always came off as excited, fun-loving, and always up for a party.
- The '70s: His first show debuted in 1976
- Turn of the Millennium: The second run of the show ended in late 2002
