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WNFN (106.7 FM, "ESPN 106.7 The Fan") is a radio station broadcasting in the Nashville, Tennessee market. It is Nashville's primary ESPN Radio affiliate.
Previously licensed to the affluent Nashville suburb of Belle Meade, and recently obtaining a permit for an increased signal, with a new license based in nearby Millersville, WNFN was formerly operated under the callsign of WNPL ("The Planet"), and had previously been marketed as a "women's station" and later as a rap music station, Blazin' 106.7. The station's original construction permit listed Mt. Juliet, Tennessee as the city of license, but this was changed amid concerns of interference with radio communications at Nashville International Airport.WNFN now transmits their signal over HD Radio.
The current all-sports format was adopted on December 23, 2004, in part as a way of splitting the sports shows then broadcast on WWTN away from the political talk shows that it otherwise broadcasts on the premise that the overlap in listenership between the two formats is minimal, and the callsign change soon followed. The station has marketed itself as "Nashville's only all-sports FM" and "Nashville's Sports Leader".
The once-popular SportsNight afternoon drive-time talk show was briefly simulcast on both WWTN and WNPL/WNFN before being relegated to WNPL/WNFN alone in early 2005. Due in part to the lower power of WNFN and in part to the previous departure of popular host George Plaster to competitor WGFX, SportsNight (hosted by Blake Fulton, Joe Biddle and, for around two years, Pete Weber) fell into a precipitous ratings decline. Both it and the mid-day local talk show Sports Brunch (hosted by John Dwyer and Bryan Mullen) were discontinued in March 2006. SportsNight would eventually be replaced by The Sports Guys (which began in July 2006) featuring longtime Nashville sportscaster Bob Bell, former Middle Tennessee State University head football coach Boots Donnelly and Nashville newcomer Jonathan Shaffer. Donnelly left the show in February 2007, and was replaced by former Tennessee Titans President Jeff Diamond. Bell left in July 2007 and replaced by Thom Abraham out of Cumulus sister station WUMP/Huntsville.[1] Otherwise, the station broadcasts primarily programming from ESPN Radio and selected major sporting events. ESPN Radio was formerly featured on AM 560 WNSR (Nashville Sports Radio)in Nashville. According to a story in Billboard's Radio Monitor and other publications, Cumulus Media, WNFN's owner and ABC Radio, ESPN's parent company were both sued in Federal Court in Nashville over tortuous interference with a contract (between ESPN and WNSR) due to the move of ESPN programming from WNSR to WNFN. According to the article, this was in violation of antitrust laws. Settlement was apparently made out of court after Cumulus and ABC tried unsuccessfully to move the suit to New York.
In 2006, WNFN became the flagship station of the Middle Tennessee State University athletic department.
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- ^ "Sports host Abraham leaving, but show staying", The Huntsville Times, 2007-06-24. Retrieved on 2008-01-02. "WUMP to also introduce new morning program WUMP-AM 730 sports personality Thom Abraham is moving to Nashville, but his show will remain on the air in Huntsville. Abraham hosts the daily "Thom Abraham Show" from 3 to 6 p.m. That show will continue at the same time but originate from Nashville's ESPN-FM 106.7 The Fan."
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