WGFX is a radio station broadcasting on the FM band at 104.5 MHz licensed to the city of
Gallatin, TennesseeGallatin is a city in and the county seat of Sumner County, Tennessee, United States, along a navigable tributary of the Cumberland River. The population was 23,230 at the 2000 census. Named for U.S...
, but serving the
NashvilleNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state...
market as a whole. It is currently branded as
104.5 The Zone, broadcasting a sports
talkTalk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
format. It is owned by Citadel Broadcasting Company and operates out of studios on Second Avenue South in Nashville. Its transmitter is located just north of downtown Nashville.
The station signed on as
WFMGWFMG is a radio station licensed to Richmond, Indiana, located at 101.3 MHz on the FM dial. WFMG broadcasts at an effective radiated power of 25,000 watts with its studios, offices, and tower located on West Main Street in Richmond.-History:...
-FM on Dec 1, 1960 in Gallatin, Tennessee with a
Big BandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. Big bands evolved with the times and continue to today. A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25 musicians and...
format.
WGFX is a radio station broadcasting on the FM band at 104.5 MHz licensed to the city of
Gallatin, TennesseeGallatin is a city in and the county seat of Sumner County, Tennessee, United States, along a navigable tributary of the Cumberland River. The population was 23,230 at the 2000 census. Named for U.S...
, but serving the
NashvilleNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state...
market as a whole. It is currently branded as
104.5 The Zone, broadcasting a sports
talkTalk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
format. It is owned by Citadel Broadcasting Company and operates out of studios on Second Avenue South in Nashville. Its transmitter is located just north of downtown Nashville.
History
The station signed on as
WFMGWFMG is a radio station licensed to Richmond, Indiana, located at 101.3 MHz on the FM dial. WFMG broadcasts at an effective radiated power of 25,000 watts with its studios, offices, and tower located on West Main Street in Richmond.-History:...
-FM on Dec 1, 1960 in Gallatin, Tennessee with a
Big BandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. Big bands evolved with the times and continue to today. A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25 musicians and...
format. In 1971 Sumner Country Broadcasting Co., which owned
WHINWHIN is a radio station broadcasting a Country format. Licensed to Gallatin, Tennessee, USA. The station is currently owned by Whin, Inc..-History:Gallatin received its first radio station in August 1948 when WHIN went on the air...
in Gallatin, purchased WFMG and changed call letters to WHIN-FM. During the early years of WHIN-FM, the format was Easy Listening. In 1974, the station switched to an All Oldies format. In July, 1978 WHIN-FM switched formats to CHR. Just over one month later, the call letters were changed to
WWKX using the moniker
Kix 104. In the late 70s and early 80s, the station was very popular and featured morning DJ
Coyote McCloudCoyote McCloud is a popular radio disc jockey in Nashville, Tennessee. For over 30 years, he has been a drive-time personality at several Nashville radio stations...
. Its 100,000 watt signal broadcasting from "Music Mountain", one of the highest points on the northern
Highland RimThe Highland Rim is a geographic term for the area in Tennessee surrounding the Central Basin. Nashville is largely surrounded by higher terrain in all directions.Geologicially, the Central Basin is actually opposite, being a dome...
north of
GallatinGallatin is a city in and the county seat of Sumner County, Tennessee, United States, along a navigable tributary of the Cumberland River. The population was 23,230 at the 2000 census. Named for U.S...
[about 30 miles (47 km) northeast of
NashvilleNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state...
] and the site of several broadcasting facilities, boomed far into the
ruralRural areas are large and isolated areas of a country, often with low population density.About 91 percent of the rural population now earn salaried incomes, often in urban areas...
areas of northern Tennessee and southern Kentucky. By the mid 1980s, WGFX was faced with competition from two new area
CHRContemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the top 40 music charts...
s, "96 Kiss" (WZKS, now
WCJKWCJK is an FM radio station broadcasting to the Nashville, Tennessee market on a frequency of 96.3 mHz. WCJK-FM is licensed by the FCC to broadcast with a power of 39,000 watts to serve the community of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.- History :...
) and "Y107" (WYHY, now
WRVWWRVW is a radio station broadcasting on the FM band at 107.5 MHz, licensed to the city of Lebanon, Tennessee, but serving the nearby Nashville market. It is currently branded as 107.5 The River, broadcasting a Top 40 format, and has become something of a heritage station for Top-40 music in middle...
). Additionally, McCloud defected to WYHY in 1985 to host its morning show. To try to differentiate itself, WWKX segued into a rock-leaning Top-40 format calling itself "Rock Hits 104, Kicks FM". This move proved unfruitful, and the station evolved back to mainstream CHR a year later in 1986. Faced with the success of Y107, this would not last.
In the summer of 1987, WWKX moved its tower from Music Mountain into Nashville and downgraded power, noticeably affecting signal strength in rural areas north of the city. The call letters changed to
WGFX on August 13, 1987 and the moniker became
104.5 The Fox with a
classic rockClassic rock was originally conceived as a radio station programming format which evolved from the album oriented rock format in the early-1980s...
format. In the late 1980s, Dick Broadcasting took over operations of the station through a Local Marketing Agreement, and paired it with its popular
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
station
WKDFWKDF is a Country music radio station broadcasting on a frequency of 103.3 mHz from Nashville, Tennessee. WKDF is owned by Citadel Broadcasting Corporation.-History:...
(now a
country musicCountry music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains...
station) to form "Nashville's Rock Network". The format would undergo several position and moniker changes throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, mostly involving variations on 1970s rock music (except for 15 months from late 1998 to early 2000 when the station featured
rhythmic oldiesRhythmic Oldies is a radio format that concentrates on the rhythmic, disco or dance genres of music. Playlists may span from the 1970s through the early 1990s...
). The call letters, however, have not changed since 1987.
The station was purchased outright by Dick Broadcasting following the
Telecommunications Act of 1996The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years, amending the Communications Act of 1934.-Prior regime:...
, and then Citadel purchased the station (along with all of DBC's assets outside the
Greenville, South CarolinaGreenville is a city in and the county seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States, in the state's upstate region. One of the principal cities of the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area , it had a population of 56,006 at the 2000 census, and the metropolitan area...
market) in September 2000.
Its current format, "104.5 The Zone" (sports talk), began its life on August 11, 2003 after hiring popular personality
George PlasterGeorge Plaster is the popular host of The Sports Zone, a daily afternoon sports talk radio program broadcasting on WGFX-FM in Nashville, Tennessee. Plaster has hosted the show since shortly after its 2003 inception, and for ten years prior, hosted SportsNight, a similar program on WWTN-FM...
away from
WWTNWWTN is a 100 kW, Class C FM radio station serving the Nashville, Tennessee media market. Its dial position is 99.7 MHz. Home to many local and national talk radio shows, the station is marketed as SuperTalk 99.7 WTN...
(99.7 FM), though because of a contract dispute, he did not appear on the station until two months after its launch.
In the past, WGFX has been the host to popular syndicated morning show personalities
John Boy and BillyJohn Isley and Billy James, known as John Boy & Billy, are American radio hosts based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their comedic morning program The John Boy & Billy Big Show broadcasts from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m...
and
Rick and BubbaRick Burgess and Bill "Bubba" Bussey are cohosts of The Rick and Bubba Show - a syndicated comedic radio program based in Birmingham, Alabama...
. It is currently the Nashville affiliate for
The Jim Rome ShowThe Jim Rome Show is a sports radio talk show hosted by Jim Rome. It airs live for three hours each weekday from 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. The show is produced in Los Angeles, California, syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, and can be heard on more than 200 affiliate radio stations in the U.S...
and
Fox Sports RadioFox Sports Radio, abbreviated FSR, is an international radio network consisting of sports talk programming all day, every day. The network is a service of Premiere Radio Networks...
.
WGFX was the flagship station for the
Tennessee Oilers/TitansThe Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the then-Houston, Texas, team began play in 1960 as a...
of the
NFLThe National Football League is the largest professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing its name to the National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of...
from 1997 until the completion of the 2001 season, when the rights were shifted to WGFX's sister station,
WKDFWKDF is a Country music radio station broadcasting on a frequency of 103.3 mHz from Nashville, Tennessee. WKDF is owned by Citadel Broadcasting Corporation.-History:...
(WGFX returned as an "affiliate" station of the team's network for the 2004 season only). WGFX also aired the franchise's games in 1996, the final year the team was located in
HoustonHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2008 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of...
.
WGFX is currently the flagship for the
Nashville PredatorsThe Nashville Predators are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
of the
NHLThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league as a joint venture for its self perpetuating membership of 30 franchised member clubs located in the United States and Canada...
and
FootballCollege football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies. It was the venue through which American football first gained popularity in the United States...
and men's
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a
10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
broadcasts for
Vanderbilt UniversityVanderbilt University is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the South...
. It also carries
NBAThe National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league, composed of thirty teams in North America . It is an active member of USA Basketball , which is recognized by the International Basketball Federation as the National Governing Body for basketball in the United States...
games of the
Memphis GrizzliesFor the World Football League team of the 1970s, see Memphis SouthmenThe Memphis Grizzlies are a professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. They are part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
and
Belmont UniversityBelmont University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is the largest Christian university in Tennessee and the second largest private university in the state, behind nearby Vanderbilt University.-Belmont Mansion:Belmont Mansion...
men's basketball games which do not conflict with the aforementioned teams. On June 14, 2006, the agreement to extend the Predators' contract with WGFX for an additional two years was announced on
The Sports Zone. WGFX also is an affiliate of both the
Cincinnati RedsThe Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. They are members of the Central Division of the National League....
and
Atlanta BravesThe Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From to the present, the Braves have played in Turner Field....
baseball radio networks, although the station airs a reduced slate of (usually weekend) games each season for either team.
Breaks in current format
The station deviates from the sports format for four hours on Saturday mornings when programming relating to home improvement and lawns and gardens are broadcast. The station also broadcasts an hour block of public affairs programming on Sunday morning in accordance with
FCCThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President...
regulations.
Prior formats
- Rockin' Hits 104.5 WGFX - Classic Hits
Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes rock and pop music from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The term is sometimes erroneously used as a synonym for the adult hits format, but is more accurately characterized as a contemporary style of the oldies format...
, 2002-2003
- The New 104 The Core (briefly known as The New 104—That 70's Station) - Classic rock
Classic rock was originally conceived as a radio station programming format which evolved from the album oriented rock format in the early-1980s...
, 2000-2002
- Groovin' Hits 104.5 (briefly known as Hot 104.5 and Jammin' Oldies 104.5) - R&B Oldies, 1998-2000
- Arrow 104.5 - Classic Hits, 1993-1998
- 104.5 The Fox - Classic Rock, 1988-1993 (call letters changed to WGFX, which stood for Gallatin's FoX)
- KX104 - Top 40, 1986-1987
- Rock Hits 104, Kicks FM - Rock/Top 40, 1985-1986
- Kix 104 - Top 40, 1978-1985 (as WHIN-FM and WWKX)
- WHIN-FM - Oldies, 1974-1978/Easy Listening, 1971-1974
- WFMG-FM - Big Bands, 1960-1971.
Famous station alumni
- Hallerin Hilton Hill - 2003-2005
- Coyote McCloud
Coyote McCloud is a popular radio disc jockey in Nashville, Tennessee. For over 30 years, he has been a drive-time personality at several Nashville radio stations...
- 1980s
- Carl P. Mayfield - 2003
- Mike "The Duke" Donegan - 2003-2004
- George Plaster
George Plaster is the popular host of The Sports Zone, a daily afternoon sports talk radio program broadcasting on WGFX-FM in Nashville, Tennessee. Plaster has hosted the show since shortly after its 2003 inception, and for ten years prior, hosted SportsNight, a similar program on WWTN-FM...
- 2003-present
- Rich "Brother" Robbin - 2002-2003
- Frank Wycheck
Frank John Wycheck is a former American football tight end in the National Football League. Wycheck attended Archbishop Ryan High School in Northeast Philadelphia...
- 2004-present
External links