WSM (AM)
WSM is a commercial AM radio station, located in Nashville, Tennessee. It broadcasts a country music format and is known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry, the world's longest running radio program. The station is owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. After nearly 40 years broadcasting from a studio within the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, WSM moved to a showcase studio inside the former home of Roy Acuff, just outside the Grand Ole Opry House, in July 2024.
Nicknamed "The Air Castle of the South", the station broadcasts with 50,000 watts around the clock from a facility in Brentwood, Tennessee. It has one of the largest daytime coverage areas in the country, providing at least grade B coverage as far southeast as Chattanooga, as far northwest as Evansville, Indiana, as far west as Jackson, Tennessee, and as far south as Huntsville, Alabama. At night, WSM's clear channel signal reaches much of North America and nearby countries.
WSM reaches a worldwide audience via its Internet simulcast. It is the National Primary Entry Point for the Emergency Alert System in Middle Tennessee and the southwestern portion of Indiana.
Programming
Bill Cody has been the host of the station's morning show, Coffee, Country and Cody since 1998, and has been in radio since 1975. Since its establishment on January 1, 2020, the country music oriented TV network Circle simulcast Coffee, Country, and Cody, following a period of several years where the Heartland network. Cody's Pure American Country syndicated show is flagshipped at WSM. Larry Gatlin, lead singer of the Gatlin Brothers, hosts an hourlong gospel program on the weekends as of 2016. Tracy Lawrence's syndicated program Honky Tonkin has been flagshipped at WSM since 2015. Dailey & Vincent host a monthly radio show on the station. Chris Scruggs, grandson of Earl Scruggs, hosts a weekly show Friends and Neighbors with his house band, the Stone Fox Five, after most Friday Night Opry episodes. Mandy Barnett hosts a Nashville Songbook series for one hour each Monday evening. Charlie Worsham hosts the Air Castle Community Hour, mainly featuring artists in the Nashville music scene. Jason Coleman hosts a Sunday night piano music show in honor of his grandfather, longtime Nashville keyboardist Floyd Cramer.The station broadcasts the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights. Following the Opry on most Saturday nights is the Midnite Jamboree, an aftershow that was originally founded by Ernest Tubb in 1947 and continues to be sponsored by Tubb's eponymous record shop. Following the Jamboree is the regionally syndicated Sutton Ole Time Music Hour.
Syndicated programming on WSM as of 2024 includes reruns of Bob Kingsley-era American Country Countdown, Into the Blue, The Crook & Chase Countdown and Y'all Access with Kelly Sutton.
In 2017, WSM launched "Route 650", a full-time Americana music streaming station available via its website, mobile app and services like TuneIn.
In 2018, WSM launched "Opry Nashville Radio", a full-time streaming station billed as being "based on the Grand Ole Opry and Nashville lifestyle" and focusing mainly on contemporary country music. During December, this channel flips to all Christmas music.
As recently as 2020, the station was live and locally operated during the overnight hours, but the overnight host position was eliminated in February 2020.
Current on-air staff
- Coffee, Country and Cody: Bill Cody, Kelly Sutton and Charlie Mattos
- WSM at Work: Mike Terry
- On Air with Eryn: Eryn Cooper
- WSM at Night: David Reed
- Late Nights with Lexi: Lexi Carter
- Opry Star Spotlight: Zack Bennett
History
WSM is associated with the popularization of country music through its weekly Saturday night program, the Grand Ole Opry, the longest-running radio program in history. The Opry began as the WSM Barn Dance on November 28, 1925, with Uncle Jimmy Thompson as the first performer. George D. Hay, a newspaper reporter from Memphis, was WSM's first program director. On December 10, 1927, Hay is quoted as saying "For the past hour we have been listening to music largely from Grand Opera, but from now on we will present 'The Grand Ole Opry'", contrasting the preceding program on the NBC Red Network with WSM's local broadcast.
The station traditionally played country music in the nighttime hours, when listeners from around the United States would tune in. During daytime hours, the station broadcast long-form radio, including both local and NBC network programs, in addition to music. WSM is credited with helping shape Nashville into a recording industry capital. Because of WSM's wide reach, musical acts from all across the eastern United States came to Nashville in the early decades of the station's existence, in hopes of getting to perform on WSM. Over time, as more acts and recording companies came to Nashville, the city became known as the center of the country music industry. Disc jockey David Cobb is credited with first referring to Nashville as "Music City USA", a designation that has since been adopted as the city's official nickname by the local tourism board.
On November 11, 1928, the Federal Radio Commission implemented General Order 40, which assigned WSM to a frequency of 650 kHz, as Tennessee's sole "clear channel" allocation. In 1932, the station boosted its power to 50,000 watts. On September 30, 1950, WSM added a television sister station on channel 4, operating as a primary NBC affiliate; WSM-TV was Nashville's first TV station.
File:Hank Williams Drifting Cowboys Cropped.jpg|thumb|right|Hank Williams and the Drifting Cowboys performing at WSM in 1951
The studios remained in its original location until the mid-1960s, when the company built a new headquarters building downtown and new studios for WSM-TV on Knob Road in west Nashville. Upon completion of the new headquarters, National Life and Accident Insurance Company chose to relocate WSM radio to their new TV studios, and WSM radio, joined in 1968 by its new FM sister, broadcast from that location from 1966 to 1983. For most of its history, WSM, along with WSM-TV and the Grand Ole Opry, was owned by the Nashville-based National Life and Accident Insurance Company. In 1974, National Life and Accident Insurance Company reorganized itself as a holding company, NLT Corporation, with the WSM stations as one of the major subsidiaries.
After television became popular, WSM adopted a middle of the road music format during the daytime hours, and continued to play country music at night. It was not until 1980 that WSM adopted the 24-hour country music format of today.
Country and bluegrass legend John Hartford parodied the distinctive style of WSM DJs on the 1971 album Aereo-Plain, humorously changing the station's call letters to the phrase "Dorothy S. Ma'am".
In 1981, the American General Corporation bought NLT. At one time, American General was the parent company of the Life and Casualty Insurance Company based in Nashville, former owner of WSM-TV rival WLAC-TV, and WLAC-AM-FM, but divested the broadcast properties in 1975, long before the NLT merger. American General was not interested in NLT's non-insurance operations, and sold WSM, Inc. to Gaylord Broadcasting Company. WSM-TV, due to FCC ownership limits at the time, was sold instead to Gillett Broadcasting and changed its callsign to WSMV-TV. However, there was still considerable overlap between the stations' on-air personnel for some years after the ownership change. Gaylord would also move the WSM radio stations to new facilities at the Opryland Hotel, departing their shared building on Knob Road, which still houses WSMV today.
WSM broadcast in the C-QUAM format of AM stereo, which could be heard over several states at night, from 1982 until 2000.
In 1996, the station was named Radio Station of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards.
In 2001, management had sought to capitalize on the success of sister station WWTN's sports trappings by converting WSM to an all-sports format. Word was leaked to other media resulting in protests, including longtime Opry personalities and country music singers, outside the station's studios. Management eventually made the decision to keep the station's classic country format.
In 2003, WSM-FM and WWTN, sister stations to WSM, were sold to Cumulus Media. Cumulus intended to purchase WSM as well, but Gaylord decided to maintain ownership at the eleventh hour. Through a five-year joint sales agreement, however, Gaylord paid Cumulus a fee to operate WSM's sales department and provide news updates for the station. Gaylord Entertainment continued to control WSM and operate all other departments, including programming, engineering, and promotions. The agreement ended in 2008, at which point all control of the station reverted to Gaylord. In 2012, Gaylord Entertainment Company was renamed Ryman Hospitality Properties. Ryman sold minority stakes in the Opry businesses to NBCUniversal and Atairos in April 2022, but spun WSM's license off into a subsidiary that remained separate from that transaction and wholly owned by Ryman.
From 2002 until 2006, the station was a choice on Sirius Satellite Radio, which carried a full-time simulcast of WSM's signal, except during NASCAR races. Briefly in 2006, the channel converted to "WSM Entertainment", a separate satellite radio feed that carried the same classic country music format as the AM signal. About a year after the channel was eliminated, then-rival XM Satellite Radio announced the carriage of the Grand Ole Opry on Nashville! channel 11 beginning in October 2007, as well as the Eddie Stubbs Show on America channel 10 beginning in November 2007. After the merger between Sirius and XM, the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts were moved to the service's The Roadhouse channel, which is heard on both Sirius and XM.
Following the devastating 2010 Tennessee flood that inundated Gaylord Opryland and the Grand Ole Opry House, the station broadcast from a makeshift studio at its transmitter site for six months, while the Grand Ole Opry rotated between several performance sites, until the buildings at the Opryland complex were repaired. WSM's administrative offices next door to the Grand Ole Opry House were completely destroyed by the flood, resulting in the loss of several priceless documents from the station's history, and later demolished.
In 2024, WSM vacated its longstanding studio inside the Magnolia Lobby of Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, and began a transition to a new showcase studio inside the home originally built for Roy Acuff on the grounds of the Grand Ole Opry House.
File:WSM tower 2002-03-05.jpg|thumb|WSM's transmitter facility and Blaw-Knox tower, located just south of Nashville along Interstate 65 in Brentwood, Tennessee