WLAC
Encyclopedia
WLAC is a clear channel radio station
based in Nashville, Tennessee
, operating at 1510 kHz on the AM
dial.
. Studios were located on the fifth floor of the Life and Casualty building in downtown Nashville. In 1928, it became Nashville's CBS Radio
affiliate, a link that has remained to this day.
The early years of the station featured, as most big-city stations of that time, network programming, local news, studio-orchestra musical features (accompanied by an in-studio pipe organ), farm reports, and some educational programming. Its main competitor in that era was WSM
, which became known as the radio station where country music
essentially developed and became a national phenomenon. When country music became a big business in the late 1940s, WLAC added early-morning and Saturday-afternoon shows in an attempt to steal some of WSM's thunder. Otherwise, the station prided itself as a pillar of the community and placed emphasis on general full-service programs.
In 1942, the station boosted its power to 50,000 watts, becoming the second clear-channel station in Tennessee behind WSM. its daytime signal is somewhat weaker than that of WSM, whose daytime signal reaches parts of five states. For instance, close-in suburbs like Murfreesboro
only get a grade B signal. However, its nighttime signal reaches parts of 28 states and three Canadian provinces.
shows hosted by Gene Nobles
, "John R.
" (John Richbourg), Herman Grizzard
, and Bill "Hossman" (or simply "Hoss") Allen in the 1950s and 1960s. Thanks to the station's clear channel designation, the signal reached most of the Eastern and Midwestern United States
, although African-American listeners in the Deep South
were the intended audience of the programs. Further, several foreign countries, particularly island
s in the Caribbean
and southern Canada
, were within range of the station's nighttime signal; the music heard on WLAC played a notable role in the development of ska
music as a result. WLAC was particularly popular with some young white
teenagers; some believe that the nightly shows laid the foundational audience for the rock and roll
phenomenon of the late 1950s.
Nobles began the move, in 1946, toward what were considered at the time "race" records, a euphemism intended to deter supposedly respectable audiences. But he and the others discovered the large numbers of African-Americans in places like the Mississippi Delta
, the Carolina Lowcountry
, Louisiana
, Chicago
, and Detroit, people whom practically no other radio stations were serving. Gradually phasing in artists like Amos Milburn
, Chuck Berry
, and Fats Domino
in the early 1950s to supplement the big-band artists of the era such as Tommy Dorsey
and Glenn Miller
, the WLAC announcers presided over the development of what became "rhythm-and-blues" music. They did this mainly to attract advertisers who serviced the African-American community, such as hair-care products like Royal Crown Hair Pomade or chicken hatcheries, which packaged baby scrub roosters and other undesirable stock in large quantities for sale. The jockeys developed a reputation for colorfully pitching those products on-air; some product slogans lent themselves to sexually suggestive double entendres, which only increased the announcers' popularity among teen listeners. The jockeys conducted the advertising sales on a "per inquiry", or commission, basis, meaning that ratings per se did not play a major role in the programs' successes.
Performers of later years, such as Johnny Winter
, and Allman brothers Duane and Greg, have credited the station as being a valuable source of inspiration for their artistic development. A strange irony about the phenomenon was unknown to most listeners of that time: all four disc jockeys were in fact middle-aged Caucasians, not African-Americans, as their Southern
, gravelly, drawling voices suggested. Richbourg and Allen in particular made frequent use of colloquialisms most familiar to their audience, thereby convincing many that they were "soul brothers," as a common expression of that day would have it.
Other regular sponsors of the four shows included Randy's Record Shop of Gallatin, Tennessee
, Ernie's Record Mart, and Buckley's Record Shop, the latter two of Nashville, all of which conducted mail order business selling the recordings featured on the shows, and had affiliations with record companies in Middle Tennessee
. Buckley's Record Shop folded in the early 1970s; Randy's Record Shop ceased operating in the late 1990s. Allen and Richbourg also had financial interests in recording companies, artist management, and recording studios at varying points in their careers.
Each jockey's program lasted from one to two hours per evening Mondays through Saturdays, occupying roughly (with adjustments over the years) the period between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. Central Time; on Sunday nights, Richbourg or Allen hosted programs featuring the similar black gospel genre. Richbourg and Allen took credit for helping boost (or start) the careers of artists like James Brown
, Ray Charles
, B. B. King
, Otis Redding
, Jackie Wilson
, Aretha Franklin
; Nobles helped the likes of Little Richard
.
In addition to this, most markets in WLAC's night-time coverage area now had African-American-oriented stations of their own, most of which attracted the demographic groups that formerly listened to Allen, Richbourg, and Nobles' shows as their only source for R&B and soul music
. Furthermore, musical tastes among younger listeners in particular changed in divergent directions as the 1970s approached, as Euro-American youth began to prefer the hard rock
that initially modeled itself on the blues (especially on the upstart FM stations that began playing it), while African-American kids gravitated toward the grittier edges of funk
or early disco
and, eventually, rap
. This made the Motown, Muscle Shoals
, and Memphis
sounds favored by the DJ trio seem passe, and the hosts' audience, unsurprisingly, began to age, something almost always unattractive to radio station managers. Changing tastes also brought about an imminent demise to record labels such as Stax
, which were major suppliers of music heard on the R&B/Soul shows.
To replace the retiring jocks, the station recruited young Spider Harrison, a native New Yorker who at the time was an afternoon urban air personalty and program director at WTLC-FM in Indianapolis
. Harrison steered the nighttime format into a blend of soul and rock, in an attempt to target an entire new generation of young night-time listeners throughout the country. However, WLAC appeared to gain little Arbitron
improvements from local listeners, this despite nonstop promotional events staged throughout the Nashville area. Only Hoss Allen kept his program, which he converted sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s to a black gospel format, by moving it to the overnight slot before morning drive-time; despite complying with management wishes (unlike Richbourg and Nobles), WLAC never promoted Allen's shows actively again.
Much in the same manner as in years past when network programming gave way at sunset to R&B music for a different audience, for many years after WLAC changed to news and talk, the station abruptly switched, at 8 p.m. Central Time (when the clear-channel signal settled into place) to an all-religion format. The nighttime line-up included mostly paid broadcasts of many evangelical
, fundamentalist, and Pentecostal
preacher
s, with the news/talk format resuming at daybreak (after the Hoss Allen show). This practice was discontinued shortly after the station's purchase by Clear Channel Communications.
talk shows. WLAC's main competitor is WWTN
, an FM talk radio station. The station is an affiliate of Fox News Radio
.
University of Tennessee
football and basketball also airs on the station.
and The Weekend with Mike McConnell
as well as shows of local interest and week in review programming from some of the weekday line up hosts.
) and TV station (Channel 5, now WTVF
). They, along with the AM station, were once owned by the Life and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee
(hence the callsign, also sometimes said to stand for We Love All Christians). The FM station is now owned by Clear Channel, and remains a sister station to WLAC. The TV station left the family in 1975, when it was sold to the Hobby family of Houston
(it is now owned by Landmark Communications
).
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
based in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, operating at 1510 kHz on the AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
dial.
Early history
Its first broadcast took place on November 24, 1926. The call letters were chosen to contain an acronym for the first owner of the station, the Life and Casualty Insurance Company of TennesseeLife and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee
The Life and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee was a life insurance company based in Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 1903 by A. M. Burton, great-grandfather of singer Amy Grant....
. Studios were located on the fifth floor of the Life and Casualty building in downtown Nashville. In 1928, it became Nashville's CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
affiliate, a link that has remained to this day.
The early years of the station featured, as most big-city stations of that time, network programming, local news, studio-orchestra musical features (accompanied by an in-studio pipe organ), farm reports, and some educational programming. Its main competitor in that era was WSM
WSM (AM)
WSM is the callsign of a 50,000 watt AM radio station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Operating at 650 kHz, its clear channel signal can reach much of North America and various countries, especially late at night...
, which became known as the radio station where country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
essentially developed and became a national phenomenon. When country music became a big business in the late 1940s, WLAC added early-morning and Saturday-afternoon shows in an attempt to steal some of WSM's thunder. Otherwise, the station prided itself as a pillar of the community and placed emphasis on general full-service programs.
In 1942, the station boosted its power to 50,000 watts, becoming the second clear-channel station in Tennessee behind WSM. its daytime signal is somewhat weaker than that of WSM, whose daytime signal reaches parts of five states. For instance, close-in suburbs like Murfreesboro
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the United States Census Bureau's 2010 U.S. Census, up from 68,816 residents certified during the 2000 census. The center of population of Tennessee is located in...
only get a grade B signal. However, its nighttime signal reaches parts of 28 states and three Canadian provinces.
The nighttime R & B years
By the 1950s, however, WLAC would achieve a distinctive notoriety of its own. The station became legendary from a quartet of nighttime rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
shows hosted by Gene Nobles
Gene Nobles
Gene Nobles was an American radio disc jockey who attained fame on Nashville radio station WLAC from the 1940s through the 1970s by playing rhythm and blues music....
, "John R.
John R.
John R. was an American radio disc jockey who attained fame in the 1950s and 1960s for playing rhythm and blues music on Nashville radio station WLAC...
" (John Richbourg), Herman Grizzard
Herman Grizzard
Herman Grizzard was an American radio disc jockey who attained fame from the 1940s through the 1970s for playing rhythm and blues and music on Nashville radio station WLAC. Grizzard was one host of a nightly series of four programs on the station. He shared the block of programs with "John R."...
, and Bill "Hossman" (or simply "Hoss") Allen in the 1950s and 1960s. Thanks to the station's clear channel designation, the signal reached most of the Eastern and Midwestern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, although African-American listeners in the Deep South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
were the intended audience of the programs. Further, several foreign countries, particularly island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
s in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and southern Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, were within range of the station's nighttime signal; the music heard on WLAC played a notable role in the development of ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
music as a result. WLAC was particularly popular with some young white
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
teenagers; some believe that the nightly shows laid the foundational audience for the rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
phenomenon of the late 1950s.
Nobles began the move, in 1946, toward what were considered at the time "race" records, a euphemism intended to deter supposedly respectable audiences. But he and the others discovered the large numbers of African-Americans in places like the Mississippi Delta
Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...
, the Carolina Lowcountry
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and Detroit, people whom practically no other radio stations were serving. Gradually phasing in artists like Amos Milburn
Amos Milburn
Amos Milburn was an African American rhythm and blues singer and pianist, popular during the 1940s and 1950s...
, Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
, and Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
in the early 1950s to supplement the big-band artists of the era such as Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
and Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
, the WLAC announcers presided over the development of what became "rhythm-and-blues" music. They did this mainly to attract advertisers who serviced the African-American community, such as hair-care products like Royal Crown Hair Pomade or chicken hatcheries, which packaged baby scrub roosters and other undesirable stock in large quantities for sale. The jockeys developed a reputation for colorfully pitching those products on-air; some product slogans lent themselves to sexually suggestive double entendres, which only increased the announcers' popularity among teen listeners. The jockeys conducted the advertising sales on a "per inquiry", or commission, basis, meaning that ratings per se did not play a major role in the programs' successes.
Performers of later years, such as Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...
, and Allman brothers Duane and Greg, have credited the station as being a valuable source of inspiration for their artistic development. A strange irony about the phenomenon was unknown to most listeners of that time: all four disc jockeys were in fact middle-aged Caucasians, not African-Americans, as their Southern
Southern American English
Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma.The Southern dialects make...
, gravelly, drawling voices suggested. Richbourg and Allen in particular made frequent use of colloquialisms most familiar to their audience, thereby convincing many that they were "soul brothers," as a common expression of that day would have it.
Other regular sponsors of the four shows included Randy's Record Shop of Gallatin, Tennessee
Gallatin, Tennessee
Gallatin 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...
, Ernie's Record Mart, and Buckley's Record Shop, the latter two of Nashville, all of which conducted mail order business selling the recordings featured on the shows, and had affiliations with record companies in Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....
. Buckley's Record Shop folded in the early 1970s; Randy's Record Shop ceased operating in the late 1990s. Allen and Richbourg also had financial interests in recording companies, artist management, and recording studios at varying points in their careers.
Each jockey's program lasted from one to two hours per evening Mondays through Saturdays, occupying roughly (with adjustments over the years) the period between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. Central Time; on Sunday nights, Richbourg or Allen hosted programs featuring the similar black gospel genre. Richbourg and Allen took credit for helping boost (or start) the careers of artists like James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
, Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
, Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
; Nobles helped the likes of Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
.
The 1970s and the Top 40
Other than the famous late-night shows, WLAC followed a fairly conventional news/features course in the daytime until the early 1970s, when new management attempted to program a standard-issue consulted Top 40 format, competing against ratings leader WMAK (now defunct) for the Nashville-area teenage audience. This move in particular is believed to have prompted Richbourg and Nobles to retire, as they had no interest in conforming to a predetermined, pop-oriented playlist.In addition to this, most markets in WLAC's night-time coverage area now had African-American-oriented stations of their own, most of which attracted the demographic groups that formerly listened to Allen, Richbourg, and Nobles' shows as their only source for R&B and soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
. Furthermore, musical tastes among younger listeners in particular changed in divergent directions as the 1970s approached, as Euro-American youth began to prefer the hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
that initially modeled itself on the blues (especially on the upstart FM stations that began playing it), while African-American kids gravitated toward the grittier edges of funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
or early disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
and, eventually, rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
. This made the Motown, Muscle Shoals
Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Muscle Shoals is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. As of 2007, the United States Census Bureau estimated the population of the city to be 12,846. The city is included in The Shoals MSA. It is famous for its contributions to American popular music.-Geography:Muscle Shoals is located...
, and Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
sounds favored by the DJ trio seem passe, and the hosts' audience, unsurprisingly, began to age, something almost always unattractive to radio station managers. Changing tastes also brought about an imminent demise to record labels such as Stax
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...
, which were major suppliers of music heard on the R&B/Soul shows.
To replace the retiring jocks, the station recruited young Spider Harrison, a native New Yorker who at the time was an afternoon urban air personalty and program director at WTLC-FM in Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
. Harrison steered the nighttime format into a blend of soul and rock, in an attempt to target an entire new generation of young night-time listeners throughout the country. However, WLAC appeared to gain little Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
improvements from local listeners, this despite nonstop promotional events staged throughout the Nashville area. Only Hoss Allen kept his program, which he converted sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s to a black gospel format, by moving it to the overnight slot before morning drive-time; despite complying with management wishes (unlike Richbourg and Nobles), WLAC never promoted Allen's shows actively again.
News and talk since 1980
The station finally pulled the plug on its unsuccessful run as a Top 40 outlet and changed formats to news and talk in 1980, making it one of the first stations in the Southern U.S. to adopt that format exclusively. It continues to fill that niche of programming, and in 1986, WLAC pioneered the now-burgeoning format of sports talk in Middle Tennessee, when it began a two-hour-long afternoon drive-time sports talk show hosted by record company executive and sports fan Rick Baumgartner, along with former WSMV sportscaster Charlie McAlexander. Also, former WSM-AM, WSMV and WKRN personality Teddy Bart launched his critically acclaimed "Roundtable" interview program on WLAC's morning schedule in 1985. The show, which featured newsmakers in Tennessee politics, later moved to several other Nashville stations before discontinuing production in 2005.Much in the same manner as in years past when network programming gave way at sunset to R&B music for a different audience, for many years after WLAC changed to news and talk, the station abruptly switched, at 8 p.m. Central Time (when the clear-channel signal settled into place) to an all-religion format. The nighttime line-up included mostly paid broadcasts of many evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
, fundamentalist, and Pentecostal
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
preacher
Preacher
Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...
s, with the news/talk format resuming at daybreak (after the Hoss Allen show). This practice was discontinued shortly after the station's purchase by Clear Channel Communications.
Currently
WLAC is now the Nashville home for several popular conservativeConservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
talk shows. WLAC's main competitor is WWTN
WWTN
WWTN is a 100 kW, Class C0 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...
, an FM talk radio station. The station is an affiliate of Fox News Radio
Fox News Radio
Fox News Radio is an American radio network programmed by Fox News Channel.- History :In 2003, Fox News began syndicating one minute radio updates to radio stations via syndication service Westwood One. On June 1, 2005, Fox News Radio employed 60 people and provided five minute newscasts at the top...
.
Weekday Schedule
- Steve GillSteve GillSteve Gill is an American conservative talk radio host based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is currently serving as a political commentator on Nashville television station WKRN, and his radio show, The Steve Gill Show, is broadcast on stations across the state.-Education and personal life:Gill...
, 5-8 AM - The Glenn Beck Program, 8-11 AM
- The Rush Limbaugh ShowThe Rush Limbaugh ShowThe Rush Limbaugh Show is an American talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh on Premiere Radio Networks...
, 11 AM-2 PM - The Sean Hannity ShowThe Sean Hannity ShowThe Sean Hannity Show is a talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity on Citadel Media and Premiere Radio Networks. The program is broadcast live every weekday, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m...
, 2-5 PM - The Mark Levin ShowThe Mark Levin ShowThe Mark Levin Show is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Mark Levin. It is currently the fourth most listened talk radio show. The radio show is a nationally broadcast program with over 8.5 million listeners.- Syndication :...
, 5-8 PM - Dr. Asa Andrews, 8-11 PM
- Coast to Coast AMCoast to Coast AMCoast to Coast AM is a North American late-night syndicated radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was created by Art Bell and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks. The program currently...
, 11 PM-4 AM
University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
football and basketball also airs on the station.
Weekend Programming
Weekend programming includes syndicated shows The Mutual Fund Show with Adam BoldAdam Bold
Adam Bold is an American author and businessman. He is the founder and minority shareholder of The Mutual Fund Store, and host of The Mutual Fund Show, a national weekly talk radio show focused on actively managed mutual fund investments...
and The Weekend with Mike McConnell
Mike McConnell
Mike McConnell is an American talk radio host based in Chicago on WGN. He left 700 WLW in Cincinnati after 25 years in 2010.-Radio program:McConnell started out in radio as Alan McConnell, as a rock music DJ at an album-oriented college radio station WVUD in Dayton, Ohio in the 1970s...
as well as shows of local interest and week in review programming from some of the weekday line up hosts.
Call letter history
The WLAC callsign once also applied to a Nashville FM station (105.9, now WNRQWNRQ
WNRQ is an FM radio station in Nashville, Tennessee, broadcasting on a frequency of 105.9 MHz. It serves counties in northern middle Tennessee and southern central Kentucky.-History/Ownership:...
) and TV station (Channel 5, now WTVF
WTVF
WTVF is the CBS-affiliated television station for Middle Tennessee that is licensed to Nashville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 5 from a transmitter north of downtown along I-24. Owned by Landmark Media Enterprises, the station has studios on James Robertson Parkway...
). They, along with the AM station, were once owned by the Life and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee
Life and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee
The Life and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee was a life insurance company based in Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 1903 by A. M. Burton, great-grandfather of singer Amy Grant....
(hence the callsign, also sometimes said to stand for We Love All Christians). The FM station is now owned by Clear Channel, and remains a sister station to WLAC. The TV station left the family in 1975, when it was sold to the Hobby family of Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
(it is now owned by Landmark Communications
Landmark Communications
Landmark Media Enterprises LLC is a privately held media company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia specializing in cable television, broadcast television, print publishing, and internet publishing...
).