Broadcast area Nashville, Tennessee Class B Frequency 1430 kHz Format News, Talk radio Area Nashville Call sign meaning Public Library Nashville | First air date April 1, 2002 Facility ID 21473 City of license Madison Owner Nashville Public Radio Sister stations WPLN-FM, WFCL | |
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Power 15,000 watts (day)
1,000 watts (night) Callsign meaning Public Library Nashville | ||
WPLN (1430 AM) 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.
Contents
WPLN-AM is an effort by the directors of Nashville Public Radio to find a place to program such NPR features as The Diane Rehm Show and similar fare that have a definite audience but a lesser one than public radio standbys such as NPR's All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation and Morning Edition and American Public Media's A Prairie Home Companion. These are programmed on WPLN-FM, 90.3 mHz, while the alternative programs are aired on the AM. A few features are aired by both at different times.
Callsign
The callsign 'WPLN' comes from the original status of public radio in Nashville as a subsidiary of the public library, 'PLN' standing for Public Library of Nashville. Although the library and the radio station had developed separate operations and boards of directors well before the addition of the AM station, the FM radio had retained the 'PLN' moniker and it was deemed to be less potentially confusing for the AM station likewise to use it in preference to any other.
History
WPLN-AM began broadcasting on April 1, 2002, shortly after Nashville Public Radio acquired the frequency of the former WKDA-AM (unrelated to an AM station that operated on another frequency from the 1940s through the 1990s). Following many years of relative success as pioneering country music station WENO, 1430 AM had numerous owners and several formats, and shortly before the sale, it had been simulcasting the news programming of local CBS television affiliate WTVF and its affiliated cable outlet. The station was generally considered to be financially marginal, which is why the frequency was available for sale to the local public radio board. In general, the AM frequency is part of a trend for radio markets of 1 million people or more to have multiple public outlets carrying distinct formats.
However, with Nashville Public Radio's purchase Vanderbilt University student station WRVU and converting it to an all-classical format as WFCL, WPLN-FM's format was changed on June 8, 2011, to an all-news-and-talk format similar to WPLN-AM's former format; at this point WPLN-AM began changing over to the format outlined above.
As of May 2011, WPLN-AM is also heard on its Sister Station of WPLN-FM's HD2 Channel.