WMOT

WMOT

Murfreesboro, Tennessee United States
Broadcast area	Nashville, Tennessee
Frequency	89.5 MHz (HD Radio)
Branding	Roots Radio
Programming
Format	Americana
Subchannels	HD2: Jazz
Ownership
Owner	Middle Tennessee State University
Sister stations	WMTS-FM
History
First air date	April 9, 1969 (1969-04-09)
Call sign meaning	Middle of Tennessee
Technical information1
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	41997
Class	C1
ERP	100,000 watts
HAAT	206 meters (676 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	36°5′7.20″N 86°26′22″W / 36.0853333°N 86.43944°W / 36.0853333; -86.43944 (WMOT)
Translator	See § Translators
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen live HD2: Listen live
Website	www.wmot.org

WMOT (89.5 FM) is a public radio station serving the metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee market. Licensed to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, it is owned by the Middle Tennessee State University alongside WMTS-FM (88.3 FM), with studios for both stations located at both the Scott Borchetta College of Media and Entertainment on campus on East Main Street and at an East Nashville studio at Riverside Revival on the BOE Foundation campus on Porter Road. WMOT's transmitter is located on Underwood Road in Mount Juliet, Tennessee south of Gladeville. It broadcasts an Americana-based format branded as Roots Radio.

Due to its location, WMOT's signal is strongest and clearest in Nashville and surrounding counties.

WMOT began broadcasting in April 1969² as a noncommercial educational station operated by Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). It broadcast various forms of pop and rock music that was aimed at a student listenership. Between 1982 and 2009, WMOT ran a full-time jazz music format aimed at a somewhat larger, more adult audience. By the late 2000s, WMOT was one of only a handful of U.S. public radio stations employing a jazz format full-time, without filling much of the broadcast day with news and other genres. At various times in the station's history, it has broadcast MTSU football and basketball games as well, mainly because of the lack of coverage from commercial stations in the immediate Murfreesboro and Nashville markets.

In 1995, the MTSU student government body started another college radio station, WMTS-FM, to serve the campus audience and allow students to program music for their peers.

In 2008, WMOT lost its annual grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) due to a number of factors, including having too small of a staff, audience, and fundraising campaign.³ The subsequent loss of revenue, along with appropriations cuts by the state of Tennessee, prompted MTSU officials to consider discontinuing the station in early 2009. However, in late 2009, the university decided to merge WMOT's operations into a consortium with other MTSU media titled the Center for Innovation in Media. This merged WMOT with WMTS, the MTSU student newspaper, and other media-focused student organizations.⁴ In tandem with consequent reductions in the station's subsidy, these changes helped MTSU avoid having to shut down the radio station.

Along with the reorganization, WMOT decided to make radical scheduling changes, notably discontinuing its exclusively jazz format to appeal to a wider audience in the Nashville market.⁵ In October 2009, WMOT added news and talk programming to the morning and afternoon "drive time" slots between 5 and 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. from the BBC and Public Radio International. In 2009, the classical music programming by Nashville public radio outlet WPLN-FM was discontinued. Around two years later, in February 2011, WMOT replaced jazz with classical between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays. This mirrored WPLN's former broadcasting schedule and was an effort to gain listeners seeking that format. WMOT also brought back National Public Radio's flagship program, All Things Considered (ATC), after many years of absence. ATC was dropped after the format change in 2016 (see below).

The situation among public broadcasters in the Nashville market became more complicated later that year when WPLN's parent organization, Nashville Public Radio, acquired the Vanderbilt University student-run station WRVU in June. It was converted into an all-classical format under the WFCL callsign, while the main WPLN signal became a full-time news-and-talk outlet. In November 2020, WFCL itself changed formats (and callsign to WNXP) to adult album alternative, intended partly to compete against the current WMOT format.⁶

WMOT adopted an Americana-based music format branded as "WMOT Roots Radio" on September 2, 2016, in partnership with the syndicated music program Music City Roots. Ken Paulson, Dean of the Scott Borchetta College of Media and Entertainment, explained that the new format was meant to "truly [reflect] both Nashville's musical past and present," adding that they wanted WMOT's content to "become more tightly integrated with our educational opportunities at the college".⁷ The previous jazz-focused format moved to WMOT-HD2, simulcasting on 92.3 W222BZ in Bluhmtown, and later also on 104.9 W285FB in Bellevue.⁸ Music City Roots ended its programming in 2017 and its involvement with WMOT soon after.

WMOT is a nonprofit, public radio station and the largest Americana radio station in the United States. It can be heard regionally in Middle Tennessee on 89.5 FM and globally on WMOT.org or on WMOT's app. WMOT promotes Americana music through weekly live showcases called Finally Friday, during AmericanaFest on the AmericanaFest Day Stage presented by WMOT, NPR Music, and World Cafe, and at an annual American Roots music festival, Roots on the Rivers. About WMOT

In August 2024, WMOT opened a satellite studio in East Nashville on the BOE Foundation campus. The studio serves as a live radio studio, production studio, and video production studio. Additionally, WMOT's popular Wired In in-person concert series occasionally takes place at Riverside Revival on the BOE campus.⁹ WMOT Launches East Nashville Studio

Programming currently includes the nationally syndicated shows The List, The String, and Bel-Aire Drive.¹⁰ Webb Wilder, a Nashville-based alternative rock artist, serves as an afternoon disc jockey on WMOT as of late 2020.

WMOT carries two HD Radio sub-channels: WMOT-HD2, which carried "old-time radio" programs until September 2, 2016, when it switched to WMOT's former classical and jazz format (now carrying strictly jazz, as noted above), and WMOT-HD3, which simulcasts WMTS-FM.¹¹