WKRN-TV
WKRN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Murfreesboro Road (U.S. Routes 41 and 70S) on Nashville's southeast side, and its transmitter is located in Forest Hills, Tennessee.
"WSIX-TV" redirects here. Not to be confused with WSYX.
- Nashville, Tennessee
- United States
- Nashville, Tennessee
- United States
News 2
- 2.1: ABC
- for others, see § Subchannels
- Nexstar Media Group
- (Nexstar Media Inc.[1])
November 29, 1953
- WSIX-TV (1953–1973)
- WNGE (1973–1983)
- Analog: 8 (VHF, 1953–1973), 2 (VHF, 1973–2009)
- CBS (1953–1954)
- ABC (secondary, 1953–1954)
"Knight Ridder-Nashville"
73188
1,000 kW
411 m (1,348 ft)
History[edit]
The early years on channel 8 as WSIX-TV[edit]
The station first signed on the air on November 29, 1953, as WSIX-TV, broadcasting on VHF channel 8; it was the second television station in Nashville. WSIX-TV was originally licensed to WSIX, Inc.,[3] which was owned by Louis and Jack Draughon, along with WSIX (980 AM). Initially licensed to nearby Springfield, WSIX radio was launched on January 7, 1927, and based in the Draughon brothers' 638 Tire and Vulcanizing Company auto supply business in downtown Springfield.[4] The "638" was the auto supply business' mailing address and did not allude to the assigned frequency for the radio station, nor would it for the television station.[5][6]
Originally a CBS affiliate that shared the ABC affiliation with WSM-TV (channel 4, now WSMV), it became a full-time ABC affiliate after only one year when WLAC-TV (channel 5, now WTVF) signed on and took the CBS affiliation due to WLAC radio's long history as a CBS radio affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[7] The station's original studio facilities were located on Old Hickory Boulevard, south of Nashville at the station's transmitter site. In 1961, WSIX-AM-FM-TV moved to a new studio located at 441 Murfreesboro Road, where the television station remains located today.[6]
The current WKRN studio facility is where the Wilburn Brothers' television program was produced during the 1960s and 1970s (however, WSM-TV had the rights to air the show in the Nashville market). WSIX-TV, however, did not have much luck against WSM-TV and WLAC-TV. Part of the problem was a weak signal, as its transmitter was short-spaced to channel 8 in Atlanta – occupied first by WSB-TV (currently occupied by WGTV). WSIX-TV was also hampered by a weaker network affiliation (ABC was not truly competitive with CBS and NBC until well into the 1970s).
Subchannel history[edit]
WKRN-DT2[edit]
WKRN-DT2 is the Ion Mystery–affiliated second digital subchannel of WKRN-TV, broadcasting in standard definition on channel 2.2).
Programming[edit]
Sports programming[edit]
WKRN-TV has an agreement with the Tennessee Titans to broadcast Bridgestone Titans on 2, the team's coach's show that originally aired from 8 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays, preempting ABC programming in that timeslot during the NFL season (which featured low-rated and critically derided sitcoms for the majority of the 2000s). The show now airs Mondays and Saturdays at 6:30 p.m., preempting Wheel of Fortune in that timeslot during football season. It moved to that timeslot after viewer criticism during the early episodes first season of the 2009 series V where it was pushed to late Tuesday evenings one week, then to a day-and-date airing on WKRN-DT2 the next. WKRN's then-sister station in Green Bay, WBAY-TV, also faced the same situation with a locally produced football program covering the Green Bay Packers, but after a week moved that program to air before prime time to accommodate V (later affiliation agreements eventually made preempting programming in this manner impossible outside breaking news and severe weather situations).[31]
WKRN is also the flagship station of the Tennessee Titans Preseason Television Network, which broadcasts Titans preseason football games during August.[32][33][34] These games often prompt WKRN to broadcast the night's ABC prime time programming on a tape delay in the overnight hours of the following morning.
Starting in 2006, WKRN also simulcasts ESPN's Monday Night Football any time the Tennessee Titans are involved in a Monday night match-up during the regular season whenever it does not conflict with an ABC broadcast of a Monday night game whenever two games are played, in which case, WZTV would simulcast the ESPN telecast of the Titans game while WKRN airs the ABC-exclusive game.
News operation[edit]
WKRN broadcasts 45+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7+1⁄2 hours each weekday and four hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition, the station produces a half-hour public affairs program, This Week with Bob Mueller, which airs Sundays at 11 p.m. WKRN is the only Big Three network affiliate in Nashville that does not run an hour-long newscast at 6 p.m., although its early evening newscasts on weekdays begin at 4 p.m., including ABC World News Tonight at 5:30 p.m.
Before the advent of satellite technology in the 1980s, the Vanderbilt Television News Archive taped all ABC News broadcasts from the airwaves of WSIX/WNGE/WKRN. Some of the recordings prior to that time include local cut-ins to ABC coverage of national elections, which represent the only preservations of the station's news broadcasts of that time; a 1979 recording of a late night ABC News broadcast also included the station's signoff sequence.
On October 11, 2011, WKRN began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, becoming the last Nashville television station to make the upgrade. This included a brand new news set that was built in a separate studio that was based on a design shared by all Young stations that have upgraded to HD, replacing the "working newsroom" set that had been used for the newscasts since 1986.
On March 29, 2014, WKRN added an additional hour of newscasts on both Saturday and Sunday mornings beginning at 5 a.m.
On September 8, 2023, WKRN became the market's second station to debut a 3 p.m. newscast.
Technical information[edit]
Subchannels[edit]
The station's signal is multiplexed:
Cable carriage[edit]
WKRN is available to every Middle Tennessee cable provider, including Xfinity channels 2 (SD) and 1002 (HD). Those channel allocations also apply to U-verse. WKRN is also available on Charter Spectrum channels 2 (SD) and 702 (HD).
In Clarksville, it is available to subscribers of CDE Lightband Cable channels 2 (SD) and 902 (HD). WKRN is also available on Mediacom and Charter in the Hopkinsville, Kentucky, area.
Out-of-market coverage[edit]
Southern Kentucky[edit]
Due to Nashville's close proximity to the Bowling Green area, WKRN's over-the-air (OTA) signal can be picked up in some areas of the Bowling Green media market, the home territory to fellow ABC affiliate WBKO (channel 13). WKRN's signal can reach as far north as an area along the Green River in areas just north of Bowling Green.[38]
As with the other "Big Three" Nashville stations, WKRN also has had presence in southern Kentucky, even after Arbitron collapsed Bowling Green into its own media market in 1977 because of WBKO's success and growth, thus putting WSIX-TV/WNGE/WKRN in competition with WBKO for viewing allegiances in southern Kentucky. From 1967 until 1981, channel 13 (as WLTV at the time of its initial affiliation deal with ABC) relied on reception of WSIX-TV/WNGE/WKRN's signal through off-air reception and/or a private microwave link in order to air ABC programming as that station did not receive network programming through the satellite feed at the time.[39][40] Before WLTV affiliated with ABC, WSIX-TV's 1966 application for the construction permit for a low-power translator on the south side of Bowling Green was approved in December of that year;[41] those plans were since cancelled once WLTV's ABC affiliation was announced.[42] WKRN-TV was dropped from cable systems in Bowling Green in 1998 to make room for WBWG, a WBKO-operated cable-only WB affiliate as part of The WB 100+ Station Group,[43] which has since relaunched over-the-air as CW Plus affiliate WBKO-DT3 in 2006.[44]
In addition to the Bowling Green area, WKRN was also previously available on CATV in Glasgow, the Barren County seat, via the Glasgow Electric Plant Board. This ended during the 2000s as more of their customers watched WBKO than WKRN as subscribers preferred news from within Kentucky over news from an out-of-state outlet; this was also due to part of controversial issues that occurred concerning the carriage of both stations. WKRN was permanently dropped from the Glasgow EPB's channel lineup in 2003 because WBKO wanted to be the sole ABC affiliate to be carried.[45] However, WHAS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Louisville, is still available on that system as a backup ABC affiliate if one or the other preempts network programming for severe weather coverage, but carriage of both stations on the system is subject to the FCC's syndication exclusivity rules.[46]
Lincoln County, Tennessee[edit]
WKRN was carried on Fayetteville Public Utilities' cable system in the Fayetteville, Tennessee, area in Lincoln County, the only Middle Tennessee county that is considered to be in the Huntsville, Alabama media market.[47] This ended on December 31, 2021, when WAAY-TV claimed market exclusivity.
Northern Alabama[edit]
From 1957 through the 1970s and 1980s, WKRN, along with WSMV, WTVF, and eventually independent station WZTV (now a Fox affiliate), was also available on CATV systems in other areas of the Huntsville media market in northern Alabama, including TelePrompter (later Group W Cable, now Comcast) and Knology (now WOW!). They were eventually dropped as more national cable channels were launched throughout the mid- and late 1980s.[48]