First Listen: Nashville’s Triple-A War

WRLT (Lightning 100) Nashville has been Triple-A since the mid-‘80s, before that format designation existed. Besides being one of the format’s most enduring outlets, Lightning 100 functioned for years as the P1 station of Nashville’s creative community. On music row, songwriters have listened to Country WSIX for professional reasons, but often to WRLT for themselves, and it’s been possible to hear the genre’s influence in Country over the years.

“Nashville’s Music Experience,” WNXP (91-One) was first announced by Nashville Public Radio as a replacement for Classical WFCL, although it also effectively returned the format to the frequency of former owner Vanderbilt University’s WRVU (91 Rock). The calls were announced in October. The station arrived on Nov. 30, heralded by articles in the Tennessean and Nashville Scene.  

On the same day that WNXP signed-on, Lightning 100 launched its “Save Our Airwaves” campaign, citing the effect of COVID-19 on the station’s advertising base, particularly local venues, and seeking support from listeners and local businesses. The station is selling memberships and auctioning artist memorabilia in a way that has become less unusual for a niche format outlet in recent years. 

WRLT’s legal ID reminds listeners that it’s “the Triple-A station of the year five years running,” a liner that might be a little too inside in a non-industry market. But the industry is a significant constituency here. WNXP is running sponsorships for New West Records on behalf of its Grammy nominated acts and has several sweepers an hour emphasizing “new Nashville music.” (WNXP also has a sweeper promising music “so new that TikTok hasn’t created a dance for it yet.”)

The rock radio battles of legend are rarer these days, so it’s fun to imagine a WMMR vs. WYSP Philadelphia or WBCN vs. WAAF Boston scenario playing out in Nashville. Are both stations pressing labels for presentation rights to virtual concerts? Will the station that doesn’t get the presents resort to Zoom bombing? (WRLT is currently promoting an actual concert; a socially distanced Rainbow Kitten Surprise show scheduled for May 2021.)

But it also says something about what has happened as Triple-A becomes a mix of stations that do and don’t operate without the pressures of commercial outlets. In the early days of the Alternative chart in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, there were a few chart reporters among the non-comm/college ranks. Those stations fell away almost immediately during the “New Rock Revolution” when a commercial outlet decided it wanted the franchise. Now a station like WNXP, part of a cluster and with a primary remit to make more than it can with Classical, has its own advantages.

The broadcaster cliché in the radio wars era was that competition made everybody better and that the listeners were the winners. Nashville listeners are lucky to have two stations that any market without its own Triple-A/indie rock outlet would envy, but the truth over the years has been that format wars can make it harder for an incumbent to do great radio. So I’m hoping that listeners and the music industry do support both stations.

Besides WRLT and WNXP, there is considerable support in the creative community for WXNA, the low-power FM launched by some former WRVU staffers, as well as Americana station WMOT. On the other side of the spectrum, longtime Alternative reporter WBUZ has always leaned to the Active Rock side, while iHeart Radio recently flipped a local FM translator running Alternative to another format. 

The differences in the hours of the station I heard would be immaterial in most markets. WNXP could be called more indie rock than Triple-A, but WRLT, like most stations in the format, is leaning more in that direction these days. Artists donating to Lightning’s virtual auction include Emmylou Harris and Patty Griffin; the acoustic sound isn’t gone from WRLT, but it’s not the center lane for the station now, especially with WMOT on the other side. I encountered more Triple-A chart “hits” on WRLT, but I also heard at least three songs in the 7 a.m. hour that weren’t receiving monitored airplay elsewhere.  

Here’s WNXP at 6:30 a.m. on December 9 with Marquis Munson:

• World Party, “Private Revolution”
• M83, “Midnight City”
• Billie Eilish, “Therefore I Am”
• Santigold, “Lights Out”
• The Beths “Dying To Believe”
• Ben Folds Five, “Army”
• Avalanches f/Leon Bridges, “Interstellar Love”
• Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, “Double Denim Hop”
• Lianne LaHavras, “Bittersweet”
• Arlo Parks, “Hurt”
• Cage The Elephant, “Mess Around”
• Becca Mancari, “First Time”
• Phoenix, “Identical”
• Middle Kids, “R U For Me?”
• Roosevelt, “Feels Right”
• Big K.R.I.T., “Soul Food”

And here’s Radio Lightning at 7:00 a.m. with Jayson Chalfant:

• Arkells, “Knocking At The Door”
• Black Pumas, “I’m Ready”
• Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection, “Jack of Fools”
• ZZ Ward, “Giant”
• Lindsay Buckingham, “Holiday Road”
• Bakar, “First Time”
• Thad Cockrell, “Swingin’”
• Drumming Bird, “Feels Like ‘98”
• Chris Stapleton, “Cold”
• Pearl Jam, “Retrograde”
• Glass Animals, “Your Love (Déjà vu)”