WRNX (100.9 FM) is an American

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 ...

licensed to serve the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, villag ...

Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst () is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,263, making it the highest populated municipality in Hampshire County (although the county seat ...

. The station is owned by

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

and the

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

is held by iHM Licenses, LLC. The station was assigned the WRNX call letters by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

on September 21, 1990.

Programming

WRNX airs 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 ...

format. The format change to country music from WRNX's longtime

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, 2 ...

format was part of sister station WPKX's move to the Hartford, Connecticut market, where it became

WUCS WUCS (97.9 FM) is a commercial sports formatted radio station licensed to Windsor Locks, Connecticut. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and serves as the Hartford media market's ESPN Radio network affiliate. WUCS acts as the technical flagshi ...

. In addition to its usual music programming, WRNX has served as the flagship station for

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

athletics broadcasts. The station has carried all of the school's men's basketball, hockey and football games plus coaches shows and women's basketball games since 2002. They also carry NASCAR races.

Ownership

In spring 2003, Pamal Broadcasting Ltd. (James Morrell, chairman/CEO) reached an agreement to acquire WPNI and WRNX from Western Massachusetts Radio Co. (Thomas G. Davis, president), for a reported sale price of $8 million. The broker for this transaction was Doug Ferber of Star Media Group, Inc. At the time of the purchase, WRNX broadcast a rock-leaning adult album alternative music format. In the summer of 2006,

, under its former name of Clear Channel Communications (John Hogan, CEO, radio), reached an agreement to acquire WRNX from Pamal Broadcasting Ltd (James Morrell, chairman/CEO) in exchange for five radio stations on other states. The other stations in the deal are

WBPM WBPM (92.9 FM) is a classic hits radio station licensed to Saugerties, New York, serving the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and broadcasts at 6,000 watts ERP from a tower in the Town of Kingston, N ...

and

WGHQ WGHQ (920 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Kingston, New York and serving the Hudson Valley. WGHQ is owned by Pamal Broadcasting The station airs a mix of adult standards, oldies, and soft adult contemporary formats known a ...

in upstate New York, WZRT and

WSYB WSYB (1380 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Rutland, Vermont. Established in 1930, the station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and broadcasts a sports radio format as "Fox Sports 1380". Most of the programming comes from Fox Sports R ...

in Rutland, Vermont, and WPYR in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana 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 count ...

. Published reports state that no cash changed hands in this transaction.

Alumni

Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow (, ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts '' The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special e ...

, host of ''

The Rachel Maddow Show ''The Rachel Maddow Show'' (also abbreviated ''TRMS'') is an American liberal news and opinion television program that airs on MSNBC, running in the 9:00 pm ET timeslot Monday evenings. It is hosted by Rachel Maddow, who gained a public p ...

'' on

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politic ...

and former

Air America Radio Air America (formerly Air America Radio and Air America Media) was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk radio. It was on the air from March 2004 to January 2010. The network was founded as a left wing alternative to counte ...

personality, got her start through a contest to find a new sidekick for '' The Dave in the Morning Show''. Maddow says, "I was crashing with friends in Massachusetts, working odd jobs, when they told me to try out. And they hired me on the spot. Radio came to me, I didn't come to it."

References

External links

WRNX official website
* {{IHeartMedia Country radio stations in the United States IHeartMedia radio stations Mass media in Hampshire County, Massachusetts Radio stations established in 1990 RNX