McGhee Tyson Airport (IATA: TYS, ICAO: KTYS, FAA LID: TYS) is a public and military airport 12 miles south of Knoxville, in Alcoa, Blount County, Tennessee, United States. It is named for United States Navy pilot Charles McGhee Tyson, lost on patrol in World War I.
Owned by the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority, it sees several major airlines and connection carriers. The airport employs about 2,700 people. It is a 30-minute commute to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
This airport is in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which called it a primary commercial service airport since it has over 10,000 passenger boardings (enplanements) per year.Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 841,237 enplanements in 2011, an increase from 804,917 in 2010.
The airport is the home of McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base, an air base for the 134th Air Refueling Wing (134 ARW) of the Tennessee Air National Guard.
On August 1, 1930, McGhee Tyson airport opened in honor of Charles McGhee Tyson. Originally the airport was on 60 acres in West Knoxville. In 1935 the city purchased 351 acres in Blount County for the current airport. On July 29, 1937, an American Airlines Stinson TriMotor, capable of carrying about 10 passengers, touched down at McGhee Tyson Airport, marking the first commercial flight at that facility. In 1941 the city built an air traffic control tower and two years later added two 5,000-foot (1,500 m) runways.
KTCK-FM (96.7 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve the community of Flower Mound, Texas. KTCK-FM, established in 1967 as KDSQ, is managed locally at 2221 East Lamar Blvd., Suite 300 in Arlington, and is currently owned by Cumulus Media. As of October 21, 2013, the station broadcasts a sports/talk radio format to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area as a simulcast of sister station KTCK "The Ticket" (1310 AM).
The station first started out as KDSQ in 1967 in the Sherman-Denison area on frequency 101.7 FM. Two years later, it changed its callsign to KSHN. Up until 1975, the format was unknown, then the call letters changed to KIKM-FM with a country music format during the day and Top 40 at night (simulcast from sister station KIKM), then to full-time Top 40 a couple years later. In 1983, the call sign changed to KZXL-FM, but two years later the previous call sign was re-established with a 24-hour country music format known as "Kick'm Country".