WNNT-FM
WNNT-FM is a country music-formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Warsaw, Virginia, serving the Northern Neck on 107.5 MHz. WNNT-FM is owned and operated by Real Media, Inc. The station's studios are located in Tappahannock with sister station WRAR-FM 105.5.
History
Grayson Headley, trading as the Northern Neck and Tidewater Broadcasting Company, received a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission to build a new 250-watt daytime-only AM station, broadcasting on 690 kHz AM, at Warsaw on July 6, 1948. Construction had begun by early 1949 on a site near the Cobham Park Baptist Church; the station would be an independent outlet concentrating on local interest programs. WNNT launched July 3, bringing the first radio station to the Northern Neck. Charles E. Stuart, a partner in the project, became part-owner of WNNT in 1950 and then died in 1951, at which time Headley became sole owner again.In 1961, Grayson Headley, who also owned a loan company and a construction firm in the region and sat on the board of directors of the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, died at the age of 46; his widow, Patricia, became the owner, one of only a handful of single women to own broadcast stations. Under her ownership, WNNT doubled its service to the Northern Neck on March 1, 1967, when WNNT-FM, originally at 100.9 MHz, signed on, simulcasting the AM frequency during the day and continuing its programming after dark. In 1973, the stations began to broadcast a country music format. After Patricia married Pat Dewey, the Northern Neck and Tidewater Broadcasting group expanded in 1975 with the launch of a station on the lower Northern Neck, WKWI at Kilmarnock; the Kilmarnock station was built as a partnership with Dean Loudy, former WNNT general manager and morning personality.
The WNNT stations were sold for $400,000 to Linwood "Lynn" Wadsworth in 1993. In 1999, Wadsworth and the then-owner of WWTL in Walkersville, Maryland, reached an interference reduction agreement in 2001, whereby WNNT would surrender its AM license to allow a facility upgrade for WWTL.
In 2006, Lynn Wadsworth sold WNNT-FM to Real Media, Inc.; at the same time, his brother Danny sold WRAR-FM at Tappahannock to Real Media, which was owned by four employees of the Tappahannock FM outlet. Wadsworth quit his duties as morning personality on WNNT-FM as part of the sale. Two years later, WNNT-FM moved from 100.9 to 107.5 MHz as part of a modification proceeding that allowed Richmond-area outlet WDYL to move to 100.9 and increase its power. The frequency change also brought a power increase for WNNT-FM, which increased its effective radiated power to 6,000 watts.