WPLN

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WPLN-AM is a National Public Radio AM station operating in Nashville, Tennessee, broadcasting on a frequency of 1430 kHz with a daytime power of 15,000 watts and a nighttime power of 1,000 watts.

WPLN-AM is an effort by the directors of Nashville Public Radio to find a place to program such NPR features as Talk of the Nation and similar fare that have a definite audience but a lesser one than public radio standbys such as NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition, American Public Media's A Prairie Home Companion and classical music programming. These are programmed on WPLN-FM, 90.3 mHz, while the alternative programs are aired on the AM. A few features are aired by both at different times.

The callsign 'WPLN' comes from the original status of public radio in Nashville as a subsidiary of the public library, 'PLN' standing for Public Library of Nashville. Although the library and the radio station had developed separate operations and boards of directors well before the addition of the AM station, the FM radio had retained the 'PLN' moniker and it was deemed to be less potentially confusing for the AM station likewise to use it in preference to any other.

[edit] History

WPLN-AM began broadcasting on April 1, 2002 shortly after Nashville Public Radio acquired the frequency of the former WKDA-AM (unrelated to an AM station that operated on another frequency from the 1940s through the 1990s). Following many years of relative success as pioneering country music station WENO, 1430 AM had numerous owners and several formats, and shortly before the sale, it had been simulcasting the news programming of local television station WTVF and its affiliated cable outlet. The station was generally considered to be financially marginal, which is why the frequency was available for sale to the local public radio board. In general, the AM frequency is part of a trend for radio markets of 1 million people or more to have multiple public outlets carrying distinct formats.