WNML (990 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is owned by Cumulus Media and it simulcasts a sports radio format with co-owned 99.1 WNML-FM Friendsville. The studios and offices are on Old Kingston Pike in the Sequoyah Hills section of West Knoxville.
By day, WNML transmits 10,000 watts non-directional. But 990 AM is a Canadian clear channel frequency. So at night, to avoid interference with other stations, WNML uses a directional antenna with a four-tower array. The transmitter site is on Anderson Road in Knoxville, off Tazewell Pike.Radio-Locator.com/WNML-AM
Programming
WNML-AM-FM have mostly local sports shows on weekdays with CBS Sports Radio heard nights and weekends. WNML-AM-FM are the flagship radio stations for both the Tennessee Smokies Southern League Baseball radio network and the University of Tennessee Vol Network. The stations also carry Knoxville Ice Bears games in the Southern Professional Hockey League.
History
WNAV
WNML is the oldest radio station in Knoxville and one of the oldest in Tennessee. The first formal regulations establishing radio broadcasting in the United States were adopted by the Department of Commerce effective December 1, 1921. During the next year, over 500 stations were created. A notice in the October 3, 1922, issue of the Knoxville News reported that: "The Peoples' Telephone and Telegraph Company is experimenting with its new radio broadcasting station. If perfected, this will be the first broadcasting station operating in East Tennessee."
Peoples' was a local Knoxville telephone company, and after the initial tests proved successful, it was issued its first station license on November 3, 1922. It was given the sequentially assigned call letters WNAV. The News further reported that: "J. C. Duncan, president of the Peoples' Telephone and Telegraph Co., announced Monday that the radio station at the telephone building, Commerce-av had passed the government regulations and is known as WNAV. 'By next Sunday we expect to have a program worked out to be broadcasted,' Duncan said."
In its initial years WNAV had a limited schedule, and after a period of inactivity was deleted in June 1924. However, the following April it was relicensed to Peoples' Telephone and Telegraph, again with the WNAV call letters.
WNOX
On August 26, 1925, WNAV's call sign was changed to WNOX. Two months later, in late October 1925, the station was destroyed by a major fire on the roof of Peoples' Telephone and Telegraph. According to J. C. Duncan, the station's $20,000 in equipment was "a total loss". WNOX was back on the air within a week, transmitting over a 100-watt temporary transmitter, with plans to rebuild the destroyed facility. Later that month it was announced that the rebuilt station would be located atop the Sterchi Brothers building near the Gay Street viaduct.
The early WNAV studios were located in the St. James Hotel, which once stood on Market Square. In June 1928, WNOX was purchased by the Sterchi Brothers furniture chain. The Sterchi Brothers sold the station to Scripps-Howard in 1935. WNOX moved to the Andrew Johnson Hotel on Gay Street, with its main offices located on the hotel's 17th floor. The station's growing studio audiences began causing elevator traffic issues for the hotel. Hotel management asked the station to move. WNOX relocated to a small tabernacle building at the north end of Gay Street, where it remained for several years. The station's frequency changed many times, eventually settling at AM 990 in March 1941 with the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement.
In the 1950s and 1960s, WNOX was home to the popular lunchtime program The Midday Merry-go-Round and weekend program The Tennessee Barndance, which were both influential in the early days of country music. Legendary station manager Lowell Blanchard hosted the programs for many years in downtown Knoxville, and lunch crowds packed the station's downtown auditorium to see the weekday programs. Seeking a bigger performance area, WNOX moved its studios to Whittle Springs Road in north Knoxville. The Whittle Springs facility included a large auditorium for live performances. But after the move from downtown, the live musical performances were never the same. Once the crowds diminished, the live performances were called off.