Due to its location, WMOT's signal is strongest and clearest in Nashville and surrounding counties.
History
WMOT was originally started in April 1969[2] and employed various forms of pop and rock music that was aimed at a student listenership. Between 1982 and 2009, WMOT ran a full-time jazz music format aimed at a somewhat larger, more adult audience. By the late 2000s, WMOT was one of only a handful of U.S. public radio stations employing a jazz format full-time, without filling much of the broadcast day with news and other genres. At various times in the station's history, it has broadcast MTSU football and basketball games as well, mainly because of the lack of coverage from commercial stations in the immediate Murfreesboro or Nashville markets.
In 1995, the MTSU student government body started another college radio station, WMTS-FM, to serve the campus audience and allow students to program music for their peers.
In 2008, WMOT lost its annual grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) due to a number of factors. This loss of revenue, along with appropriations cuts by the state of Tennessee, prompted MTSU officials to consider discontinuing the station in early 2009. However, in late 2009, the university decided to instead merge WMOT's operations into a consortium with the other MTSU media (such as WMTS and the student newspaper) titled the Center for Innovation in Media, with consequent reductions in the station's subsidy,[3] to avoid closing it down.
Along with the reorganization, WMOT decided to make radical scheduling changes, notably discontinuing its exclusively jazz format to appeal to a wider audience in the Nashville market.[citation needed] In October 2009, WMOT added news and talk programming to the morning and afternoon "drive time" slots between 5 and 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. from the BBC and Public Radio International. After the 2009 discontinuation of classical music programming by Nashville public radio outlet WPLN-FM, in February 2011 WMOT replaced jazz with classical between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays (formerly the WPLN broadcasting schedule) in an effort to gain listeners seeking that format. WMOT also brought back, after many years' absence, National Public Radio's flagship program, All Things Considered, although it duplicated the program's carriage by WPLN (as did the NPR hourly news updates). ATC was dropped after the format change in 2016 (see below).
The situation among public broadcasters in the Nashville market became more complicated later that year when WPLN's parent organization, Nashville Public Radio, acquired the Vanderbilt University student-run station WRVU in June. It was converted into an all-classical format under the WFCL callsign, while the main WPLN signal became a full-time news-and-talk outlet. In November 2020, WFCL itself changed formats (and callsign to WNXP) to adult album alternative, intended partly to compete against the current WMOT format.[4]
On August 26, 2016, it was announced that WMOT would switch to an Americana-based format on September 2, 2016, in partnership with the syndicated music program Music City Roots. College of Media and Entertainment Dean Ken Paulson explained that the new format was meant to "truly [reflect] both Nashville's musical past and present," adding that they wanted WMOT's content to "become more tightly integrated with our educational opportunities at the college". The previous jazz format moved to WMOT-HD2, simulcasting on 92.3 W222BZ in Bluhmtown, and later also on 104.9 W285FB in Bellevue.[5] Music City Roots ended its programming in 2017 and its involvement with WMOT soon after.
WMOT is a nonprofit, public radio station and the largest Americana radio station in the United States. It can be heard regionally in Middle Tennessee on 89.5 FM and globally on WMOT.org or on the WMOT app Stream WMOT. WMOT promotes Americana music through weekly live showcases at Finally Friday, during AmericanaFest on the AmericanaFest Day Stage presented by WMOT, NPR Music and World Cafe and an annual American Roots music festival, Roots on the Rivers held annually. About WMOT
In August 2024 WMOT opened a satellite studio in East Nashville on the BOE Foundation campus. The studio serves as a live radio studio, production studio and video production studio. Additionally, WMOT's popular Wired in in-person concert series takes place at Riverside Revival on the BOE campus. WMOT Launches East Nashville Studio
Programming currently includes the nationally syndicated shows The List, The String, and Bel-Aire Drive.[6]Webb Wilder, a Nashville-based alternative rock artist, serves as an afternoon disc jockey on WMOT as of late 2020.
HD Radio
WMOT carries two HD Radio subchannels: WMOT-HD2 carried "old-time radio" programs until September 2, 2016, when it switched to WMOT's former classical and jazz format (now carrying strictly jazz, as noted above), and WMOT-HD3 simulcasts WMTS-FM.[7]
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