WFLI (1070

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

"The Big One") is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

AM radio station broadcasting a

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

and

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

Licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

Lookout Mountain, Tennessee Lookout Mountain is a town in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,058 at the 2020 census. Bordering its sister city of Lookout Mountain, Georgia to the south, Lookout Mountain is part of the Chattanooga, TN– GA ...

, the station serves the

Chattanooga metropolitan area The Chattanooga, TN-GA metropolitan statistical area, as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, is an area consisting of six counties – three in southeast Tennessee (Hamilton, Marion, and Sequatchie) and three in nor ...

. WFLI is owned by Tri-State Radio, Inc. It shares some programming with

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

WKWN

1420 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1420 kHz: 1420 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency. Argentina * LRI220 in Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires Mexico * XEEW-AM in Matamoros, Tamaulipas * XEF-AM in Ciudad Juárez, Chi ...

Trenton, Tennessee Trenton is the county seat and fourth largest city of Gibson County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 4,240. History Trenton was established in 1824 as a county seat for the newly cre ...

. By day, WFLI broadcasts with 50,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s, the maximum for commercial AM stations in the U.S. As

1070 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1070 kHz: The Federal Communications Commission classifies 1070 AM as a United States and Canadian clear-channel frequency. KNX in Los Angeles and CBA in Moncton, New Brunswick, share ...

is a clear channel frequency reserved for KNX

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, WFLI must reduce power at night to 2,500 watts to avoid interference. It uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

at all times. Programming is also heard on 250–watt

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

W241AF at 96.1

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

. (which formerly carried

WUSY WUSY (100.7 FM "U.S. 101") is a commercial radio station. It is licensed to Cleveland, Tennessee and serves the Chattanooga metropolitan area. The station's radio format is country music. WUSY's studios and offices are on Old Lee Highway in ...

-HD2) in addition to a second translator for coverage in areas located north of downtown Chattanooga, W262DQ at 100.3

Programming

Weekdays begin with ''

This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal ''This Morning: America's First News'' (formerly ''The Wall Street Journal This Morning'') is a two-hour radio news/talk program hosted by Gordon Deal and Jennifer Kushinka, who replaced long-serving co-host Gina Cervetti on January 2, 2015. I ...

'', a radio news magazine show. The weekday schedule includes two syndicated

programs, ''

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show ''The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show'' is an American radio program hosted by former Fox Sports Radio personality Clay Travis and former '' America Now/The Buck Sexton Show'' host Buck Sexton. It is broadcast on over 400 talk radio stations ...

'' and ''

The Sean Hannity Show ''The Sean Hannity Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is transmitt ...

''. At the beginning of most weekday hours,

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

updates are heard. In middays, WFLI carries Chuck Oliver from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

station

WCNN WCNN (680 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station city of license, licensed to Brookhaven, Georgia, North Atlanta and serving the Atlanta metropolitan area, Atlanta-area radio market. It is owned by Dickey Broadcasting and airs a sports radio ra ...

680 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 680 kHz: 680 AM is a North American clear-channel frequency. KNBR and KBRW share Class A status on 680 kHz. WRKO, WPTF, CJOB and CFTR also broadcast on 680 kHz, with 50,00 ...

. At night, the station carries

Infinity Sports Network Infinity Sports Network is an American sports radio network. It debuted as CBS Sports Radio with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. Infinity Sports Network is programmed by Audacy, In ...

shows. WFLI airs

University of Tennessee Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is part of the University of Tennessee System. History UTC was founde ...

Mocs football and

men's basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

games. The broadcasts are produced by Learfield Sports.

History

Top 40

WFLI

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on .''Broadcasting Yearbook 1965'' page B-143. Retrieved Feb. 14, 2025.
/REF> It broadcast with 10,000 watts by day but had to reduce power to 1,000 watts at night. WFLI played

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

hits, competing with the other Top 40 AM radio stations in the Chattanooga market such as 1490

WDXB WDXB (102.5 FM broadcasting, FM) is a country music formatted radio station city of license, licensed to Pelham, Alabama, and serving the Birmingham metropolitan area, Alabama, Birmingham metropolitan area and north-central Alabama. The radi ...

and 1450

WOGA The World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) is a two-facility gymnastics club located in Frisco and Plano. In 1994, WOGA was established by Yevgeny Marchenko, a World Sports acrobatic champion who guided Carly Patterson to her gold medal, an ...

for the young adult market. The station's power was boosted to 50,000 watts in 1967 but it was still limited to 1,000 watts after sunset." In the 1960s and 70s, WFLI was a popular contemporary hits station in the Chattanooga area. It was nicknamed "Jet Fli". The station also held two concerts each year called "WFLI Jet-Fli Spectaculars". These concerts attracted large crowds to Memorial Auditorium. The WFLI Light in the Sky projected a spotlight in the sky, attracting listeners to businesses and events.

Country and Christian radio

By 1979, many radio listeners were moving to FM radio for their music, and the new

WSKZ WSKZ (106.5 FM) is a commercial radio station in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The station operates under a classic rock format and is branded as KZ106. The station is one of four stations operating in the Chattanooga broadcast area by Cumulus M ...

(KZ-106) captured a large part of WFLI's audience. After a two-year switch to a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

format, WFLI flipped to a

Christian radio Christian radio refers to Christian media radio formats that focus on Christian religious broadcasting or various forms of Christian music. Many such formats and programs include contemporary Christian music, gospel music, sermons, radio dramas, ...

format in 1982, branding itself as "The Mid South's Most Powerful AM Gospel Station". It played Southern gospel music with some

Christian talk and teaching Christian radio refers to Christian media radio formats that focus on Christian religious broadcasting or various forms of Christian music. Many such formats and programs include contemporary Christian music, gospel music, sermons, radio dramas, ...

shows. WFLI suffered money problems and it went

dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...

on March 31, 2017. It stayed off the air for two months.

Talk radio

It returned to the air under new management with a

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

format in May 2017. On July 10, 2017, a one-day-only 1960s–1970s

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

format honored the station's heritage. It switched back to a talk format by July 11, airing the syndicated talk programs from

Laura Ingraham Laura Anne Ingraham (; born June 19, 1963) is an American conservative television presenter. Gale Biography In Context. She has been the host of '' The Ingraham Angle'' on Fox News Channel since October 2017, and is the editor-in-chief of Li ...

Dave Ramsey David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American radio personality who offers financial advice. He is the founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions and a co-host of '' The Ramsey Show'', a nationally syndicated radio program. He ...

Todd Starnes Todd Starnes (born October 28, 1967) is a conservative American columnist, commentator, author and radio host. He has appeared on ''Fox & Friends'' and ''Hannity''. In June 2017, Starnes began hosting a broadcast syndication, syndicated talk rad ...

Eric Metaxas Eric Metaxas (; born June 27, 1963) is an American author, speaker, and conservative radio host. He has written three biographies, ''Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery'' about William Wilberforce (2007), ' ...

and morning duo

Rick & Bubba ''The Rick and Bubba Show'' was an American comedy radio show based in Birmingham, Alabama. Nationally syndicated and produced at WZZK-FM, the show was live every weekday for five hours and was hosted by Rick Burgess and Bill "Bubba" Bussey. ...

Oldies

On April 23, 2018, the station returned to a 1960s and 1970s oldies music format featuring live and local DJs. WFLI also began carrying some special features highlighting the station's past through locally-produced programming such as the "Daily Downbeat" show featuring former station alumni from the station's original 'JET FLI' era of the 1960s and '70s along with other notable or retired broadcasters from other area stations from the same era. In July 2021, WFLI began to move from 1960s and 70s hits into an updated 70s and 80s classic hits format. It also added several top chart hits from the early to mid-1990s.

Return to talk

On June 5, 2023, WFLI returned to a conservative talk radio format. It once again carried the syndicated ''Rick & Bubba'' show in morning

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

. In middays and afternoons, it aired syndicated conservative talk hosts. At night and weekends, sports talk programs were added from the

CBS Sports Radio Infinity Sports Network is an American sports radio network. It debuted as CBS Sports Radio with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. Infinity Sports Network is programmed by Audacy, Inc ...

Network (now Infinity Sports). WFLI is the

flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyal ...

for UTC Chattanooga Mocs athletics, carrying

football and basketball with Learfield Sports.

Translator

References

External links

* * * *
David Carroll's Chattanooga Radio and TVFCC History Cards for WFLI
{{News/Talk Radio Stations in Tennessee FLI Hamilton County, Tennessee Radio stations established in 1961 1961 establishments in Tennessee Talk radio stations in the United States Conservative talk radio