WKDF (103.3 FM, "103.3 Country") is 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 ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. It is owned by Cumulus Media, with studios in Nashville's

Music Row Music Row is a historic district located southwest of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Widely considered the heart of Nashville's entertainment industry, Music Row has also become a metonymous nickname for the music industry as ...

district. WKDF 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 the nationally syndicated '' Big D & Bubba Morning Show''. WKDF is a Class C FM station, with an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 100,000

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 most FM stations. It formerly broadcast in the

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

format, airing a

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

of the analog (traditional) signal on the HD1

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

is on Johnson Chapel Road West in Brentwood, near the Little Harpeth River.

History

WNFO-FM

The station signed on the air on . Its original

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

was WNFO-FM, owned by the Hickory Broadcasting Corporation. It was the second commercial Nashville station to be assigned to 103.3 MHz, preceded by the original

WSM-FM WSM-FM (95.5 MHz) is a radio station in Nashville, Tennessee. It broadcasts a country music format, with an emphasis on recordings released since the 1990s. From 1967 until it was sold to Cumulus Media in 2003, WSM-FM was the sister of the ...

, which occupied this frequency from 1947 until it went off the air in 1951. Despite several FM stations already operating in Nashville at the time, receivers for FM signals were not yet in widespread use. The relatively few listeners were not enough to attract advertisers. WNFO-FM left the air sometime around 1965.

WKDA-FM

WKDA 1240 AM, then one of the two

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 ...

-formatted stations in the market, began

ing on 103.3 MHz on January 1, 1967 as WKDA-FM. For the next three years, Nashville listeners could hear their favorite Top 40 hits on AM 1240 and FM 103.3. In January 1970, WKDA-FM began playing freeform

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

, aimed especially at Nashville's large college student population. At first, the rock music was heard at night only, with the Top 40 hits from the AM station playing in the daytime. Then, beginning in March, WKDA-FM switched to rock all day. This lasted for about a year and a half. For most of the late 1970s and early 80s, in the daytime, WKDA-AM-FM employed a mix of more mass-appeal rock and Top 40 music, while switching to harder-edged progressive rock at night. As the FM format grew, it soon became the dominant station of the two. Eventually the AM station changed to

and in 1976 the FM station switched its callsign to WKDF.

WKDF

The FM station began calling itself "KDF". It became one of the top stations in the Nashville market as determined by the number of listeners reported by

Arbitron Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...

, again thanks to its vast popularity among younger listeners. Although WKDF was challenged by competitor stations in the late 1980s into the mid-1990s, it continued to place first, second, or third with Arbitron during this period. After a short stint with a

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

format from 1992 to 1993, WKDF's format shifted to an active rock format in 1993, then

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

in 1996. In February 1997, the format was changed again to

adult album alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, ...

, which led to a precipitous fall in ratings from third in the market to 13th.

Flip to Country Music

By the late 1990s, the different rock formats saw continued ratings losses to competitor FM outlets. After nearly 30 years of programming some form of rock, WKDF reformatted to

on April 1, 1999, a move that shocked many longtime Middle Tennessee listeners. It jumped into a three-way race for Nashville FM country listeners with established stations 95.5

and 97.9 WSIX-FM. Originally going by the moniker "Music City 103", WKDF reverted to using its callsign in branding beginning in 2001. At first, the

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

featured a mixture of contemporary and classic country. But in recent years, it has become more contemporary, in contrast with co-owned WSM-FM, which concentrates on 1990s and 2000s country titles. In September 2011, WKDF came under Cumulus Media ownership, as a result of the Cumulus acquisition of Citadel. That made WKDF a

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 ...

to fellow Nashville country outlet WSM-FM. On February 3, 2014, WKDF, along with nine other Cumulus-owned country music stations, changed to the " Nash FM" branding that had been employed previously only by New York City outlet WNSH. On May 14, 2020, WKDF rebranded as "103-3 Country". The station also provides network programming for Absolute Radio Country in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

weekdays from 5-10PM (GMT). On Monday, October 18, 2021, WKDF became the new home station for the nationally syndicated '' Big D & Bubba Morning Show''. It was previously heard in Nashville on rival station 97.9 WSIX-FM from 2003-2011. WSIX-FM now airs another nationally syndicated morning program based in Nashville, '' The Bobby Bones Show''.

Former logos

File:WKDF Original Logo (1976-1985).jpg, WKDF original logo, 1976-1985, direct variations of this logo were used until 1993 File:WKDF former logo (2001-2012).png, WKDF logo, 2001-2012 Image:WKDF-logo-2012.jpg, WKDF logo, 2012-2014, before switching to Nash FM Image:WKDF (Nash FM 103.3) logo.png, WKDF logo, 2014-2020, as Nash FM

References

External links

WKDF official website
{{Cumulus Media KDF Country radio stations in the United States Cumulus Media radio stations Radio stations established in 1962