WPLN-FM
Encyclopedia
WPLN-FM is a National Public Radio-affiliated station in Nashville, Tennessee
. Since June 2011, the station has employed exclusively a news and talk format; up until then, the station carried at least some classical music
. The station maintains studios on Mainstream Drive north of downtown Nashville, studios that some consider among the finest radio production facilities in the U.S.
WPLN-FM's signal, which is transmitted from a tower on Johnson Chapel Road in Williamson County
(just outside Brentwood
), travels in about a 65-mile radius, reaching most of middle Tennessee and some counties in southern Kentucky
. WPLN-FM shares the tower with three other Nashville FM stations: WRLT
, WKDF
, and WNRQ
; it has broadcast from that site since 1984. WPLN also maintains two low-power stations elsewhere in Tennessee: WHRS 91.7 FM in Cookeville
and WTML 91.5 FM in Tullahoma
.
In early 2006, WPLN-FM began broadcasting its programming in digital
. More information is found below.
On September 8, 2009, WPLN-FM discontinued its 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. classical music programming in favor of a block of news-and-talk programs from NPR and other providers. This reflects a trend in medium-sized markets towards orienting public radio schedules in favor of more popular (and perhaps more accessible) political and features programming and away from classical music, whose audiences are aging, according to market researchers.
However, the demand for the spoken word programs grew to the point that station officials decided to acquire the Vanderbilt University
-owned student station WRVU
and convert it into a full-time classical music station, WFCL, on 91.1 FM, on June 7, 2011. WPLN thereafter became a full-time news-and-talk station, with feature programming on weekends. This action is similar to earlier ones involving public radio stations and college stations in San Francisco and Houston.
merged to form a metropolitan government. The library—and with it WPLN—became an arm of the new structure.
In 1965, the library moved the station into the then-newly-constructed main library downtown (it has since been replaced). By that time, the station had begun operating a full seven days a week. The station was one of the 73 charter members of National Public Radio in 1970—one of the first public radio stations in the South to join the network. The station's website claims it joined NPR in 1968, but this is incorrect; NPR was not founded until two years later.
In 1972, WPLN began broadcasting in stereo and at a full 100,000 watts of power. A "Talking Library" subchannel for blind (and visually impaired) residents of the area began in 1975. Schedule and programming expansion continued at a steady pace throughout the 1980s and 1990s, while WPLN's physical plant did not expand beyond a block of rooms in the library building.
In order to rectify the space shortage and provide more extensive service to the community than was possible under the budgetary and bureaucratic constraints of the public library system, the library board decided in 1995 to begin proceedings to release the station to an independent community board. The public library relinquished control of WPLN-FM on October 1, 1996 to a group known as "Nashville Public Radio." The station eventually moved out of the library into a modern studio in the Metrocenter area on May 24, 1998.
The success of this move may have prompted the Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County school system, which operated public television outlet WDCN (channel 8), to follow suit three years later. That station is now WNPT.
WPLN-FM was one of only a few non-commercial FM licenses held by a public library system in the U.S. In most cases, libraries usually operate radio frequencies only for radio-reading services (like that mentioned above) for the blind and visually impaired, signals that are available only on special receivers.
multicast stations: 90.3 FM HD-2 and 90.3 FM HD-3.
Initially, 90.3 HD-2 featured primarily classical music and music programs, such as The World Cafe and Echoes
. In June 2011, following the launch of Classical 91 One, 90.3 HD-2 switched to carrying time-shifted programming from WPLN's main channel.
90.3 HD-3 initially carried much of the same programming as WPLN-AM. In June 2011, the HD-3 subchannel was temporarily silenced. On September 1, 2011 at noon, 90.3 HD-3 returned to the air, returning the college alternative format of Vanderbilt University's WRVU to the Nashville airwaves.
These multicast stations can be heard using a special HD Radio
receiver. 90.3 HD-2 can be streamed on the internet through WPLN's website, and 90.3 HD-3 can be streamed on the internet through WRVU's website.
.
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. Since June 2011, the station has employed exclusively a news and talk format; up until then, the station carried at least some classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
. The station maintains studios on Mainstream Drive north of downtown Nashville, studios that some consider among the finest radio production facilities in the U.S.
Overview
As of this writing, Nashville Public Radio offers five distinct but complementary programme streams: WPLN (AM); WPLN-FM; HD-2 and HD-3, which are multicasts from the main FM channel; and WFCL (see below). All may be received over the air or streamed from WPLN's website.WPLN-FM's signal, which is transmitted from a tower on Johnson Chapel Road in Williamson County
Williamson County, Tennessee
Williamson County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010 US Census, the population was 183,182. The County's seat is Franklin, and it is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is named after Hugh Williamson, a...
(just outside Brentwood
Brentwood, Tennessee
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 23,445 people, 7,693 households, and 6,808 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 7,889 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 94.63% European American, 1.89% African American,...
), travels in about a 65-mile radius, reaching most of middle Tennessee and some counties in southern Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. WPLN-FM shares the tower with three other Nashville FM stations: WRLT
WRLT
WRLT is an independently owned and operated adult album alternative-formatted FM radio station in the Nashville, Tennessee market and located at 100.1 mHz...
, WKDF
WKDF
WKDF is a Country music radio station broadcasting on a frequency of 103.3 MHz from Nashville, Tennessee. WKDF is owned by Cumulus Media.-History:...
, and WNRQ
WNRQ
WNRQ is an FM radio station in Nashville, Tennessee, broadcasting on a frequency of 105.9 MHz. It serves counties in northern middle Tennessee and southern central Kentucky.-History/Ownership:...
; it has broadcast from that site since 1984. WPLN also maintains two low-power stations elsewhere in Tennessee: WHRS 91.7 FM in Cookeville
Cookeville, Tennessee
Cookeville is a city in Putnam County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 23,923 at the 2000 census. of Cookeville's population was 30,435, and the combined total of those living in Cookeville's in 2010 was 65,014. It is the county seat of Putnam County and home to Tennessee...
and WTML 91.5 FM in Tullahoma
Tullahoma, Tennessee
-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 18,655 people, 7,717 households, and 5,161 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 88.1% White, 7.0% African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.2% Asian, 1.1% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races...
.
In early 2006, WPLN-FM began broadcasting its programming in digital
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
. More information is found below.
On September 8, 2009, WPLN-FM discontinued its 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. classical music programming in favor of a block of news-and-talk programs from NPR and other providers. This reflects a trend in medium-sized markets towards orienting public radio schedules in favor of more popular (and perhaps more accessible) political and features programming and away from classical music, whose audiences are aging, according to market researchers.
However, the demand for the spoken word programs grew to the point that station officials decided to acquire the Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
-owned student station WRVU
WRVU
WRVU is a college radio station broadcasting a Variety radio format; though it originally broadcast on 91.1 FM, the station now broadcasts over an HD Radio subchannel and streams to internet radio listeners. Licensed to Nashville, Tennessee, USA, the station serves Vanderbilt University...
and convert it into a full-time classical music station, WFCL, on 91.1 FM, on June 7, 2011. WPLN thereafter became a full-time news-and-talk station, with feature programming on weekends. This action is similar to earlier ones involving public radio stations and college stations in San Francisco and Houston.
History
WPLN began as a modest extension of the city's public library system, beginning operations on December 17, 1962 from the Richland Park library branch on Charlotte Avenue in West Nashville. It broadcast a limited schedule, almost entirely of classical music, only on Mondays through Fridays, and was only heard in and around the city of Nashville proper. A year later, Nashville and Davidson CountyDavidson County, Tennessee
Davidson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 626,681. Its county seat is Nashville.In 1963, the City of Nashville and the Davidson County government merged, so the county government is now known as the "Metropolitan Government of Nashville and...
merged to form a metropolitan government. The library—and with it WPLN—became an arm of the new structure.
In 1965, the library moved the station into the then-newly-constructed main library downtown (it has since been replaced). By that time, the station had begun operating a full seven days a week. The station was one of the 73 charter members of National Public Radio in 1970—one of the first public radio stations in the South to join the network. The station's website claims it joined NPR in 1968, but this is incorrect; NPR was not founded until two years later.
In 1972, WPLN began broadcasting in stereo and at a full 100,000 watts of power. A "Talking Library" subchannel for blind (and visually impaired) residents of the area began in 1975. Schedule and programming expansion continued at a steady pace throughout the 1980s and 1990s, while WPLN's physical plant did not expand beyond a block of rooms in the library building.
In order to rectify the space shortage and provide more extensive service to the community than was possible under the budgetary and bureaucratic constraints of the public library system, the library board decided in 1995 to begin proceedings to release the station to an independent community board. The public library relinquished control of WPLN-FM on October 1, 1996 to a group known as "Nashville Public Radio." The station eventually moved out of the library into a modern studio in the Metrocenter area on May 24, 1998.
The success of this move may have prompted the Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County school system, which operated public television outlet WDCN (channel 8), to follow suit three years later. That station is now WNPT.
WPLN-FM was one of only a few non-commercial FM licenses held by a public library system in the U.S. In most cases, libraries usually operate radio frequencies only for radio-reading services (like that mentioned above) for the blind and visually impaired, signals that are available only on special receivers.
Governance
WPLN is governed by a self-perpetuating board of directors, with a separate board of local residents who advise the board of directors on the needs of the listening area.Digital broadcasting/WPLN-HD2/WPLN-HD3
In addition to the main FM and AM channels, WPLN now has two digitalHD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
multicast stations: 90.3 FM HD-2 and 90.3 FM HD-3.
Initially, 90.3 HD-2 featured primarily classical music and music programs, such as The World Cafe and Echoes
Echoes (radio program)
Echoes is a daily two-hour music radio program hosted by John Diliberto featuring a soundscape of ambient, space, electronica, and New Age music. The program features in-depth artist interviews and intimate "living room" performances. Interview subjects have included Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel,...
. In June 2011, following the launch of Classical 91 One, 90.3 HD-2 switched to carrying time-shifted programming from WPLN's main channel.
90.3 HD-3 initially carried much of the same programming as WPLN-AM. In June 2011, the HD-3 subchannel was temporarily silenced. On September 1, 2011 at noon, 90.3 HD-3 returned to the air, returning the college alternative format of Vanderbilt University's WRVU to the Nashville airwaves.
These multicast stations can be heard using a special HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
receiver. 90.3 HD-2 can be streamed on the internet through WPLN's website, and 90.3 HD-3 can be streamed on the internet through WRVU's website.
Sister stations
In 2002, Nashville Public Radio purchased an existing Medium Wave station to broadcast NPR and local news, talk, and public affairs programs for which the FM did not originally have time on its schedule. The new WPLN-HD2 and HD3 have given middle Tennessee residents even more choices of music and spoken-word shows. For more information, see WPLN (AM)WPLN (AM)
WPLN is a National Public Radio-affiliated radio station licensed to Madison, Tennessee. The station serves the Nashville, Tennessee, area along with sister station WPLN-FM....
.