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WPLN

Madison, Tennessee
Broadcast area	Nashville, Tennessee
Frequency	1430 kHz
Programming
Format	News/Talk
Affiliations	BBC World Service
Ownership
Owner	Nashville Public Radio (Sale to Kensington Digital Media Pending)
Sister stations	WNXP, WPLN-FM
History
First air date	September 14, 1958 (as WENO)
Former call signs	WENO (1958-1988) WWRB (January 22-October 4, 1988) WRLT (October 4, 1988-March 2, 1990) WHNK (March 2, 1990-August 21, 1995) WCKD (August 21, 1995-September 1, 1996) WMAK (September 1, 1996-December 12, 2000) WKDA (December 12, 2000-March 26, 2002) WQDQ (March 26-April 9, 2002)
Call sign meaning	Public Library Nashville
Technical information
Facility ID	21473
Class	B
Power	15,000 watts (day) 1,000 watts (night)
Transmitter coordinates	36°16′19″N 86°42′53″W
Links
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.wpln.org

WPLN (1430 AM) is a National Public Radio-affiliated radio station licensed to Madison, Tennessee. The station serves the Nashville, Tennessee, area along with sister station WPLN-FM.

WPLN-AM was an effort by the directors of Nashville Public Radio to find a place to program such NPR features at the time as The Diane Rehm Show and similar fare that had a definite and loyal audience but a lesser one than public radio standbys such as NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition and American Public Media's now-defunct A Prairie Home Companion (later known as Live From Here). These are heard on WPLN-FM, 90.3 MHz, while some alternative programs were aired on the AM (before 2020, see below). A few features were aired by both at different times.

Callsign

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.

History

WPLN (AM) began broadcasting on April 1, 2002 as WQDQ, shortly after Nashville Public Radio acquired the station. WQDQ became WPLN on April 9, 2002. Following many years of relative success as pioneering country music station WENO (known in the area for being the first to play the genre during all of the broadcast day, not just at night as the legendary WSM (AM) did for many years), 1430 AM had numerous owners and several formats, and shortly before the sale, it had been simulcasting the news programming of local CBS television affiliate 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, due to lack of interest by potential commercial buyers. 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. However, with Nashville Public Radio's purchase of Vanderbilt University student station WRVU and converting it to an all-classical format as WFCL, WPLN-FM's format was changed on June 8, 2011, to an all-news-and-talk format similar to WPLN (AM)'s former schedule; at this point WPLN began changing over to the format outlined above. WFCL is now WNXP and changed in 2020 to an adult album alternative format, with classical music moving to a WPLN-FM HD signal.

As of March 2020, WPLN is also heard on its sister station WPLN-FM's HD3 channel. From May 2011 until March 2020, it was previously heard on the HD2 subchannel.

In 2020, WPLN converted its format to that of the BBC World Service, broadcasting its programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All other programs were dropped.

On September 20, 2022, Nashville Public Radio announced that it is selling WPLN to Kensington Digital Media.

See also

• List of Nashville media

External links

• WPLN official website
• Facility details for Facility ID WPLN ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's AM station database