Corky Coker, owner of Chattanooga’s Coker Tire Company, is featured on a new reality show, premiering Wed. Feb. 5, at 9:30 p.m. called “Backroad Gold.” The weekly series will air on the Travel Channel, which is seen on cable and satellite networks nationwide.
The show follows Coker and his son-in-law, Greg Cunningham, as they seek out barn finds across the southeast. Cunningham manages a restoration shop also featured throughout the show, The Honest Charley Speed Shop.
Harold Coker started the business in 1958 with Corky expanding the antique tire division in 1974. His job was to determine how to produce tires that were no longer being manufactured and then to market and distribute them. He brokered deals with major tire producers that gave Coker Tire the worldwide licensing agreements and exclusive distributorships to big-name vintage brands.
Now, after nearly four decades, the antique tire division consumes more than 200,000 square feet of warehouse space. The company now occupies several buildings in the historic Southside district of downtown Chattanooga, as well as a 100,000 square ft. Coker Tire store and warehouse located in City of Industry, Calif.
