 | |
| Broadcast area | MetroRichmond |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 910kHz |
| Branding | 910 AM 105.1 FM The Fan |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Sports radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | December 13, 1926 (1926-12-13) |
Former call signs |
|
Former frequencies | |
Call sign meaning | Richmond News Leader (former owner) |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 11960 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
|
Transmitter coordinates | 37°36′50.0″N77°30′53.0″W / 37.613889°N 77.514722°W /37.613889; -77.514722 |
| Translator(s) | 105.1 W286DJ (Richmond) |
| Repeater(s) | 94.5 WRVQ-HD2 (Richmond) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (via Audacy) |
| Website | www |
WRNL (910AM, "910 AM 105.1 FM The Fan") is acommercialradio stationlicensed toRichmond, Virginia. WRNL features asports radioformat and is owned and operated byAudacy, Inc.[4] The studios, offices andtransmitter are all co-located just north of the Richmond city line on Basie Road inDumbarton, Virginia.[5]
By day, WRNL has a power of 5,000wattsnon-directional. To avoid interfering with other stations on910 AM, at night it reduces power to 1,000 watts and uses adirectional antenna. WRNL is licensed by theFCC to broadcast in theHD Radio (hybrid) format.[6] The station also broadcasts on 250 wattFM translatorW286DJ at 105.1MHz.[7] It is also heard on the HD2 signal ofsister station 94.5WRVQ.
Weekday mornings begin with "TheSports Junkies,"syndicated from co-ownedWJFK-FM inWashington, D.C.[8] Adam Epstein does a local midday show, WJFK's "Grant and Danny" air in afternoon drive, and the BetQL Audio Network andInfinity Sports Network is heard during the rest of the schedule. WRNL is theflagship station forVirginia Commonwealth UniversityRamsmen's basketball,Virginia TechHokiesfootball and men's basketball, andRichmond Flying Squirrelsminor league baseball. WRNL is an affiliate for theWashington Commanders Radio Network, although conflicts often shift Commanders games to sister stationsWRVA orWRXL.
WRNL is among the oldest stations in Richmond. Station WLBG, broadcasting on 332.5 meters (902 kHz) with 100watts fromPetersburg, was granted a license on December 13, 1926. The owner was Robert Allen Gamble.[1][2] In 1931, WLBG, Inc. was created to hold the license, and Gamble sold it to local tobacco businessmen the following year.[9]
On August 27, 1935, WLBG, Inc. was sold to a group of three –Richmond News Leader publisherJohn Stewart Bryan, his son D. Tennant Bryan, and the paper's editorDouglas Southall Freeman.[2]
As WPHR, adaytimer required tosign off at sunset, the station joined the Virginia Broadcasting Network, a five-station group headed byWCHVCharlottesville, on February 1, 1936. Although a planned 16-hour day of common programming failed in three months due to high costs, the network remained to carryVirginia Cavaliers football. The station's FCC record contains several dozen special authorizations to operate after sunset for football games.[2][10][11]
On November 14, 1937, the station began broadcasting from Richmond as WRNL, with thecall sign referring toThe Richmond News Leader. It broadcast on a frequency of 880 kHz at 500watts, still daytime-only.
WRNL was granted round-the-clock operation in September 1940.[2][11][12] Its studios were at 323 East Grace Street in Richmond, and the transmitter was inHenrico County, Virginia.[2][13][14]
On September 1, 1940,The Richmond News Leader merged withTheRichmond Times-Dispatch, owner of station WRTD, a 100-watt station on 1500 kHz in Richmond. (The newspapers remained separate entities, but they were owned by the same company, Richmond Newspapers, Incorporated.) As part of the merger, WRTD voluntarily surrendered its license to theFederal Communications Commission effective midnight August 31, 1940. At the same time, WRNL became theNBC Blue Networkaffiliate in Richmond. WRNL simultaneously went to 100 watts of power (full-time).[15]
With theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) enacted in 1941, WRNL moved toAM 910, broadcasting at 5,000 watts.[16] In addition to the Blue Network, WRNL was a secondary affiliate for theMutual Broadcasting System.
In the late 1940s, the 111 Building (at 111 North Fourth Street) was built for WRNL.[17] In 1949, it added an FM station, WRNL-FM at 102.1MHz. For the first couple of decades, WRNL-FMsimulcast its AM counterpart. By 1970, it had switched to aprogressive rock format, later changing its call letters to WRXL.
As network programming moved from radio to television around 1960, WRNL became afull servicemiddle of the road station, featuring pop music, news, talk and sports.[18] It switched toCBS Radio News as its network news service. In the 1980s, it shifted tooldies music.
In 1993, WRNL and WRXL were bought byClear Channel Communications (now known asiHeartMedia as of 2014) for $9.75 million.[19]
On November 1, 2017, iHeartMedia announced that WRNL, along with its sister stations in Richmond andChattanooga, would be swapped toEntercom in exchange for selected stations in Boston and Seattle, as part of that company's merger withCBS Radio.[20] The sale was completed on December 19, 2017.[21] In March 2021, Entercom changed its name to Audacy, Inc.
On February 4, 2019, WRNL rebranded as "910 The Fan", matching the branding and logo as co-ownedWJFK-FM 106.7 The Fan inWashington, D.C.[22] In May 2019, the station added FM translator W286DJ and is branded as "Sportsradio 910 the Fan and now on 105.1 FM".
WRNL provided one of the first broadcasting opportunities on a U.S. radio station for the country/folk group TheCarter Family. Beginning June 1, 1943,[23] Maybelle Carter and her daughters Helen, June and Anita using the name "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle," had a program on WRNL that was sponsored by Nolde Brothers Bakery.[24] June Carter of the daughters would later marry country singerJohnny Cash and becomeJune Carter Cash. The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle would move on to WRVA radio in Richmond when WRNL moved their studios from the old World News Leader newspaper (WRNL) building to a new studio they built in Richmond and the star on the WRVA's Old Dominion Barn Dance until June 1948
In addition to being a journalist and historian,Douglas Southall Freeman was part-owner of WRNL.[15] The editor ofThe Richmond News Leader, he extended his journalistic activities to broadcasting with twice-daily newscasts at 8 a.m. and noon.[25][26] Among those interviewed by Freeman was poet Robert Frost, in what Frost said was his first time to knowingly appear on radio.[27] Biographer Charles Johnson wrote about Freeman's first broadcast of each day: "He steps up to the microphone at 8:00, and thousands of Virginians mark the beginning of their day. ... They might just be beginning their day, but he has been observing the world for more than five hours and will tell them what they need to know."[26]
A Gospel quartet that began when its members were students at an elementary school in Richmond, theHarmonizing Four began singing on WRNL in 1943, soon after recording eight songs forDecca inNew York City.[28] Described as "the area's top quartet," the group "would have Sunday breakfast with Richmond for nearly two decades, sponsored by People's Furniture."[29]
Mudd joined the staff of the News-Leader in 1953, then shifted to broadcast journalism with WRNL, where he became news director. That led to a career in network news withCBS and, later,NBC.[30]
Schreiner came to WRNL in 1950. Among other duties, he had a program, "The Mailbag."[31] Schreiner also served as program director[32] and covered farm news, winning a Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters' award for his work in 1959.[33]
"A large portion of Richmond’s baby-boom generation grew up with Mr. Soden’s distinctive descriptions of baseball, basketball and football games percolating in the background on radio station WRNL."[34] Soden was general manager and executive vice president at WRNL, but he was best known for bringing sports events into the homes of people in central Virginia. He did play-by-play for theRichmond Braves andRichmond Virginians minor league baseball teams for three decades and broadcastUniversity of Richmond basketball (24 years) and football (11 years) andVirginia Tech football (12 years). Soden's accolades included a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Richmond Broadcasting Hall of Fame, two awards as Virginia's Sportscaster of the Year from theNational Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and induction into six halls of fame.[34]
Organist Eddie Weaver, who played at the famousByrd Theater in Richmond, was also heard in many homes via WRNL. His weekday morning program, "Eddie Weaver's Open House," featured music and chatter. The program began in September 1949 and was still going strong a decade later.[35]
| Year | Recipient | Award | Organization |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman | Best news commentary over larger radio stations | Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters[36] |
| 1951 | Howard Hamrick | Best comprehensive news broadcast over Class 1 stations | Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters[36] |
| 1955 | WRNL | Douglas Southall Freeman Award for public service in radio journalism | Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters[37] |
| 1966 | WRNL | Douglas Southall Freeman Award for public service in radio journalism | Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters[38] |
| 1966 | Ken Collins | Metropolitan radio interview | Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters[38] |
| 1969 | WRNL | Best documentary—metropolitan radio | Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters[39] |
| 1970 | WRNL | Douglas Southall Freeman Award | Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters[40] |
