WRKN (106.1 FM, "106.1 Nash Icon") is a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

-formatted

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

serving the

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 8 ...

outlet broadcasts at 106.1 MHz with an ERP of 28 kW, and is licensed to Picayune, Mississippi. Its studios are located at the Place St. Charles building in

Downtown New Orleans In New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, downtown has historically referred to neighborhoods along the Mississippi River, downriver (roughly northeast) from Canal Street – including the French Quarter, Tremé, Faubourg Marigny, Bywater, t ...

and the transmitter site is outside

Covington, Louisiana Covington is a city in, and the parish seat of, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 11,564 at the 2020 United States census. It is located at a fork of the Bogue Falaya and the Tchefuncte River. Covington is par ...

History

The station signed on in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the ...

as WZRH with a Top 40/Rock format as "Z 106.1, New Orleans' Untamed Radio." However, this station is most remembered for what it became in 1992: 106.1 the Zephyr with an edgy,

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 ...

format. "The Zephyr" was the first true commercial alternative station in the New Orleans area, and had quite a following. Kenny Vest was the station's Program Director and Christian Unruh was the first Music Director; Scot Fox, Christian "West" Unruh, Grant Morris, Ross "The Ross Man" Shields, Michelle Hinch (Blake), Zach The Roll Model, Wolfgang, Denver Crabb, and Darren Gauthier were just some of the more recognizable DJs at the station. The station hosted "Zephyrfest" for a number of years drawing in thousands of rock revelers to New Orleans' City Park. The station attained very respectable ratings and had a large impact on the local music scene in the nineties. In

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

, "106.7 The End" was launched. This was the beginning of the end for The Zephyr, as The End cut into their ratings significantly. In 1997, the station was sold to

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of countie ...

-based Guaranty Broadcasting. On May 12 of that year, the station was flipped to country as WKSY ("Kiss Country 106.1"). Christian Unruh, banned from the station along with the former staff when the format change was imminent, managed to enter the station an hour before Midnight and host the last hour, calling each of the former DJs and letting them each say their goodbyes. The last song played on The Zephyr was " Radio, Radio" by

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in 2020, and has twice been nom ...

. In January

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

, the station flipped to

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

as "Sunny 106.1". But after

Citadel Broadcasting Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the country. Only iHeartMedia ...

acquired the station in 2005, they would flip it to "Martini 106.1" on November 15 of that same year, along with the WMTI call letters. Originally, WMTI started with a hybrid

Smooth Jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 1 ...

/ Adult Standards format, but would evolve back to its previous format by adopting a Soft AC direction in early 2007, putting them in direct competition with rival WLMG. On December 3, 2007, WMTI flipped to oldies, using the satellite feed from ABC Radio's "True Oldies" format. Citadel merged with

on September 16, 2011. WMTI logo

On January 2, 2012, WMTI changed their format to

sports talk 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 comedy ...

, branded as "The Ticket". Most of the station's programming came from

CBS Sports Radio CBS Sports Radio is a sports radio network that debuted with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. CBS Sports Radio is owned by Paramount Global and distributed by Westwood One. Programmin ...

. The station had one local afternoon show, "The Sports Hangover", hosted by Gus Kattengell. The Ticket hung around for two years, but by the summer of 2015, ratings had dropped precipitously to a 0.7 Nielsen share (still trending up from a 0.0 in the Spring ratings.) On August 26, 2015, WMTI abruptly dropped the sports format in the middle of " The Jim Rome Show" and began stunting with a loop of "

It's The End Of The World As We Know It "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is a song by American rock band R.E.M., which first appeared on their 1987 album, '' Document''. It was released as the album's second single in November 1987, reaching No. 69 ...

" by R.E.M. and " The Zephyr Song" by the

Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates elements of alternative rock, f ...

, telling listeners to listen the following day at 3 PM. At that time, WMTI flipped back to alternative as "106.1 The Underground". The first song under the format was "

Good In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, p ...

" by Baton Rouge band

Better Than Ezra Better Than Ezra is an American alternative rock band based in New Orleans, Louisiana, and signed with The End Records. The band formed in 1988 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and consists of Kevin Griffin (vocals and guitar), Tom Drummond (bass ...

. On September 3, 2015, WMTI changed their call letters to WZRH. On June 19, 2017, at noon, WZRH swapped formats and call signs with WRKN, as WZRH returned to country, branded as '' Nash FM 106.1'' under the WRKN calls. In November 2018, the station quietly switched to the '' Nash Icon'' branding and playlist (and replacing Nash FM's ''Ty, Kelly & Chuck'' and ''Nash Nights Live'' with syndicated airstaff from WestwoodOne's Nash Icon network).

References

External links

* {{coord, 30.522, N, 90.020, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title RKN (FM) Cumulus Media radio stations Radio stations established in 1991 1991 establishments in Mississippi Country radio stations in the United States