City Nashville, Tennessee Branding 105.9 The Rock | Broadcast area Nashville, Tennessee | |
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Slogan Nashville's Classic Rock Station Frequency 105.9 MHz (also on HD Radio)
105.9 HD2 for Alt 97.5
(formerly WLAC simulcast, Vinyl Vineyard, ALT 98.3 & Big Legend 98.3)
105.9 HD3 for Air1 Translator(s) 92.5 W223BV (Brentwood, relays HD3)
97.5 W248BQ (Nashville, relays HD2) | ||
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. The station's studios are located in Nashville's Music Row district and the transmitter site is in Brentwood, Tennessee.
Contents
History/ownership
WNRQ has previously been adult contemporary "Star 106" WLAC-FM, album oriented rock WKQB "Rock 106", and WJYN "The Joy of Nashville", the latter reflecting a former easy listening format. It has always been the partner station of the historical WLAC, through numerous ownership changes (presently held by Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia, Inc.).
In 1998, Dick Broadcasting, owner of WGFX, and SFX Broadcasting, the then-owner of WLAC-FM, agreed to trade the intellectual property of the stations. The trade, to have taken place February 2, 1998, would have moved WLAC-FM to 104.5 FM, and moved WGFX's classic rock format to 105.9 under SFX ownership. However, when the agreement fell apart, SFX decided to go ahead with launching a classic rock format anyway, and flipped WLAC-FM to WNRQ on January 30.
Current format
The current format features a mixture of fairly hard classic rock deemed to be primarily male-oriented; most of the station's playlist first hit middle Tennessee airwaves on the now-country-formatted WKDF during the 1970s and 1980s, as well as, WKQB "Rock 106" (1978-81). It is also Nashville's broadcaster of the syndicated John Boy and Billy morning show, heard on numerous Southern stations with the same format as WNRQ. As of March 2014, the station also carries Sixx Sense with Nikki Sixx.
Former disc jockeys
"Moose" – currently programs WCJK, "96.3 Jack FM," Murfreesboro/Nashville.
"Proud Mary" – worked before at sister station WRVW, status now unknown.
"Big Rig" – worked nights, was at WFBQ, now at WXTB.
"Squeegie" – now at WBUZ-FM
"Riley"
"Joe Elvis" – afternoons: let go in August 2013 for automation.
"Tyler"
"Mud" – was the programming director for the station, also worked nights then afternoons, now at WBGG-FM.
"Jimmy The K"
"Laura Steele" – Also worked at WFBQ in Indianapolis, Indiana, Still heard on The Classic Rock Channel.
HD Radio
WNRQ also broadcasts three HD Radio stations: WNRQ-HD1, WNRQ-HD2, and WNRQ-HD3.
HD2 was previously (at first) a Clear Channel Communications-provided channel called "Vinyl Vineyard", but due to technical difficulties, the simulcast of sister station 1510 WLAC then moved to the HD2 signal, replacing "Vinyl Vineyard". Then on Monday, August 25, 2014, the new Alternative Rock format of Alt 98.3 (simulcasting sister translator W252CM) made its debut, replacing the WLAC simulcast. On September 2, 2016 the format changed to classic country, branded as "The Big Legend 98.3". On March 31, WNRQ-HD2 switched to alternative rock, branded as "Alt 97.5" (simulcast on FM translator W248BQ 97.5 FM Nashville; the "Big Legend 98.3" classic country format moved to WSIX-HD2.