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WSIX-FM
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WSIX-FM
WSIX-FM (97.9 FM, "The Big 98") is a commercial radio station in Nashville, Tennessee, broadcasting a country music format. It is owned by iHeartMedia with studios in Nashville's Music Row district. WSIX-FM is the flagship for The Bobby Bones Show, heard on scores of country radio stations in the U.S. and Canada in morning drive time.
WSIX-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts, the maximum for most FM stations. The transmitter tower is off Old Hickory Boulevard (Tennessee State Route 254) in Forest Hills, Tennessee. WSIX-FM broadcasts using HD Radio technology. Its HD2 subchannel rebroadcasts co-owned 1510 WLAC's talk format. Its HD3 subchannel plays classic country music, which feeds FM translator W252CM at 98.3 MHz.
The first WSIX-FM signed on the air in 1948. It was the sister station to WSIX 980 AM (now WYFN), on the air since 1927. They were owned by Louis and Jack Draughon and had studios in the Nashville Trust bank building.
The FM station broadcast on 97.5 megacycles. They were network affiliates of ABC Radio, simulcasting its dramas, comedies, news and sports. The stations called themselves "The Voice of Tennessee's Capital City." But few people owned FM receivers in those days and management saw little opportunity to make WSIX-FM profitable. So in the early 1950s, the first WSIX-FM was taken dark. The owners decided to concentrate on setting up a television station, WSIX-TV, originally on channel 8 (now WKRN-TV channel 2).
After a few years, management decided to give FM radio another try. In 1959, the current WSIX-FM came on the air, this time on 97.9 MHz. It still mostly simulcast 980 AM. As network programming moved from radio to television, WSIX-AM-FM began playing country and western hits and other styles of music. In the late 1960s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) started requiring AM-FM combos in large cities to separate most of their programming. WSIX-FM began offering a different kind of country sound.
WSIX-FM is credited with pioneering the "countrypolitan" Nashville sound, which developed in the 1960s. Violins and other stringed instruments, and occasionally horns, were added to the traditional fiddle and guitar-driven sound of country music. During those years (beginning in 1967 until the late 1970s) WSIX-FM used the slogan "We're metropolitan country."
As such, WSIX-FM became one of the first successful country-format stations exclusively on the FM dial in the U.S. Until then, country music formats were typically found on AM stations until well into the early 1980s.
In 1983, WSIX-AM-FM were owned by General Electric. GE decided to sell the AM and FM stations. The television station, WNGE-TV (now WKRN-TV), was also sold to separate owners.
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WSIX-FM
WSIX-FM (97.9 FM, "The Big 98") is a commercial radio station in Nashville, Tennessee, broadcasting a country music format. It is owned by iHeartMedia with studios in Nashville's Music Row district. WSIX-FM is the flagship for The Bobby Bones Show, heard on scores of country radio stations in the U.S. and Canada in morning drive time.
WSIX-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts, the maximum for most FM stations. The transmitter tower is off Old Hickory Boulevard (Tennessee State Route 254) in Forest Hills, Tennessee. WSIX-FM broadcasts using HD Radio technology. Its HD2 subchannel rebroadcasts co-owned 1510 WLAC's talk format. Its HD3 subchannel plays classic country music, which feeds FM translator W252CM at 98.3 MHz.
The first WSIX-FM signed on the air in 1948. It was the sister station to WSIX 980 AM (now WYFN), on the air since 1927. They were owned by Louis and Jack Draughon and had studios in the Nashville Trust bank building.
The FM station broadcast on 97.5 megacycles. They were network affiliates of ABC Radio, simulcasting its dramas, comedies, news and sports. The stations called themselves "The Voice of Tennessee's Capital City." But few people owned FM receivers in those days and management saw little opportunity to make WSIX-FM profitable. So in the early 1950s, the first WSIX-FM was taken dark. The owners decided to concentrate on setting up a television station, WSIX-TV, originally on channel 8 (now WKRN-TV channel 2).
After a few years, management decided to give FM radio another try. In 1959, the current WSIX-FM came on the air, this time on 97.9 MHz. It still mostly simulcast 980 AM. As network programming moved from radio to television, WSIX-AM-FM began playing country and western hits and other styles of music. In the late 1960s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) started requiring AM-FM combos in large cities to separate most of their programming. WSIX-FM began offering a different kind of country sound.
WSIX-FM is credited with pioneering the "countrypolitan" Nashville sound, which developed in the 1960s. Violins and other stringed instruments, and occasionally horns, were added to the traditional fiddle and guitar-driven sound of country music. During those years (beginning in 1967 until the late 1970s) WSIX-FM used the slogan "We're metropolitan country."
As such, WSIX-FM became one of the first successful country-format stations exclusively on the FM dial in the U.S. Until then, country music formats were typically found on AM stations until well into the early 1980s.
In 1983, WSIX-AM-FM were owned by General Electric. GE decided to sell the AM and FM stations. The television station, WNGE-TV (now WKRN-TV), was also sold to separate owners.