WNPT (channel 8) is a PBS member television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The station is owned by Nashville Public Television, Inc., a community-funded, non-profit organization. WNPT's studios are located on Rains Avenue in southeast Nashville, and its transmitter is located in the southern suburb of Forest Hills.

Educational television in Nashville began when this station began broadcasting on September 10, 1962, as WDCN-TV on channel 2. Its activation by the school boards of Davidson County and Nashville—which merged that October—was the culmination of years of effort to start an educational station to serve the schools of Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. It originally operated from studios being vacated by commercial station WSM-TV. In the 1960s, WDCN-TV was a major producer of educational programming for schools.

On December 11, 1973, WDCN-TV moved to channel 8, and commercial station WSIX-TV moved from channel 8 and became WNGE-TV on channel 2. The agreement provided improved technical facilities for both stations and gave WDCN a cash infusion that allowed it to build its present studios. However, as time went on, the station became an underperformer in PBS, with a conservative approach to programming; very few programs produced for national distribution; and lagging community support. In order to solve these issues and separate the station from the Metro school board, the station was spun out in 1999 to Nashville Public Television and changed its name to WNPT on February 22, 2000. Donations and local programming rose in the early 2000s after the split was carried out.

In October 1951, Vanderbilt University and the Nashville city school system requested that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set aside a channel for future educational television, though they had no definitive plans to construct a station at the time. Channel 2 was designated as a reserved non-commercial channel when the commission ended its four-year freeze on television station grants in 1952.

Efforts then began to raise the funds that would be necessary to construct such a station. In 1953, the Nashville Educational Television Foundation was formed as a community entity, and in June 1954, a fundraising drive was initiated with the support of more than 100 local women's organizations. Community response was poor, even though the Ford Foundation promised more time for backers to solicit money. In 1955, when the Tennessee legislature provided a $50,000 experimental grant for educational television, the money went to the better-prepared group in Memphis, though the possibility was left open for Nashville to be next in line. Even though an application remained on file with the FCC, by 1956 the foundation struggled to show progress on its efforts to build channel 2. A lack of capital kept Nashville from having its own educational station. By February 1960, just $20,000 of the original $80,000 in pledges remained in the bank, most of them having been withdrawn when the original fund drive failed.

In February 1960, the Middle Tennessee Radio and Television Council mounted a new effort to promote the establishment of channel 2. Officials visited the Memphis station, WKNO, in early May, and agencies including the school boards of Davidson County and Nashville began appropriating funds for an educational station. An expert in the field told the Nashville Educational Television Foundation, "You have enough money and equipment at your disposal to operate an educational TV station right now." The foundation hired a director and set up offices.

On January 19, 1961, the Nashville city board of education approved plans to start an educational television station and invited the Davidson County school board to join it. The board's recommendation highlighted the need for public funding to get the station off the ground and noted that ownership by school boards would bring the station closer to its educational mission. This led to some debate as to whether a public or community licensee was a more advantageous arrangement, but a larger matter soon arose when a group of attorneys in Hamilton, Alabama, petitioned the FCC to take unused educational television channel 2 assignments from Nashville and State College, Mississippi, and assign channel 2 for commercial use to their community, which would leave Nashville educational interests to build a channel on the lesser ultra high frequency (UHF) band. At the urging of Albert Gore Sr., the city superintendent of schools petitioned the Nashville city council for funding to avoid losing channel 2. City and county officials informed the FCC of their desire to build and run a station. The FCC rejected the Hamilton request in March. Another roadblock was cleared in July when the Davidson County Court authorized the county to participate in the station project with the city.

An opportunity presented itself for studio facilities. WSM-TV was planning to relocate from its existing site in Nashville's Belmont area, at 15th and Compton avenues, and the tower at the existing site was not being used by that station. Meanwhile, school officials from around the region expressed interest in utilizing the new station; channel 2 would expand the existing educational television offering, in which classes were being provided on a limited basis by the three commercial stations. After first rejecting a $150,000 offer for the WSM-TV property as too low, the station's owner, National Life and Accident Insurance Company, compromised and accepted a $175,000 bid; the two stations would be co-located for two years before the new WSM-TV facility opened. A small addition would be built to the studios.