Broadcast area Nashville, Tennessee ERP 100,000 watts Class C0 City of license Nashville Owner iHeartMedia Inc Branding The Big 98 WSIX | First air date 1948 HAAT 349 meters Frequency 97.9 MHz Format Country music Area Nashville Slogan Nashville's New Country | |
Translator(s) 98.3 W252CM (Nashville, relays HD2) | ||
WSIX-FM is an FM radio station broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee on a frequency of 97.9 MHz. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., and airs a country music format. WSIX-FM has been broadcasting since the late 1950s. The station's studios are located in Nashville's Music Row district and the transmitter site is in Brentwood, Tennessee.
Contents
Countrypolitan
Originally the sister station of a similarly-styled AM station (now WYFN which simulcasts the Bible Broadcasting Network's religious programming), WSIX-FM pioneered the broadcasting in Nashville (and likely elsewhere in the U.S.) of the "countrypolitan" "Nashville sound" of country music, which developed in the 1960s, adding violins and other stringed instruments (and occasionally horns) to the traditionally fiddle- and guitar-driven sound of country music. During those years (beginning in 1967 until the late 1970s) WSIX-FM used the tagline, "We're metropolitan country." As such, WSIX-FM became one of the first successful country-formatted stations on the FM dial in the U.S.; country stations were overwhelmingly found on AM until well into the early 1980s.
The Big 98 era
In 1983, then-owners General Electric sold the AM and FM stations, along with WNGE-TV (now WKRN), to other interests. Around that time, the stations' (both were simulcasting by this point) format turned to a more straightforward country sound (i.e., honkey tonk and "Outlaw" recordings that previously did not fit the more mellow, quieter playlist).
XM simulcast
From May 1, 2006 to August 8, 2008, WSIX-FM was simulcast on XM Satellite Radio (channel 161). The satellite feed typically had roughly 3–4 minutes of commercials per hour. A song that was not on the station's playlist at the moment would play during commercial breaks as well.
On June 8, 2011, WSIX-FM has returned to the XM platform, replacing "Nashville" on XM 57. Station owner Clear Channel sold off its ownership stake in Sirius XM Radio during the second quarter of fiscal year 2013. As a result of the sale, nine of Clear Channel's eleven XM stations, including the simulcast of WSIX-FM, ceased broadcast over XM Satellite Radio on October 18, 2013.
HD Radio
When WSIX first signed on its HD2 Channel, It began playing only New Country Music (Only most recently new released songs). The Station was branded as "WSIXtra NEW HD2". On October 20, 2013, The HD2 Channel was rebranded as "The Nashville Channel", Still playing New Country Music. On August 1st, 2014, "The Nashville Channel" was replaced by "No Shoes Radio", which was hosted by Kenny Chesney, and played a Mixture of songs picked by him every hour. (Example, an hour could be a subject on relaxing, next hour could be all Classic & Southern rock songs and so on.) Kenny also promoted his new and upcoming albums & told a story about his past concerts on that channel as well. On March 29, 2016, Kenny Chesney announced that No Shoes Radio would be leaving its website of noshoesradio.com and the I-Heart Radio website and going exclusively to broadcasting on Sirius XM Satellite radio. Also effective with this move, WSIX also discontinued No Shoes Radio from its HD2 subchannel & replaced it with The Bobby Bones Top 30 Countdown on April 1, 2016. On March 28, 2017 WSIX-FM switched its HD2 subchannel to classic country, branded as "Big Legend 98.3" (format moved from sister station WNRQ-HD2), simulcasting on FM translator W252CM Nashville.