WMOT, NASHVILLE TURNS 50 & THROWS A PARTY

WMOT [link], the pride of Middle Tennessee State University, is gearing up for the inaugural 895 Fest, a two-day Americana music festival on May 31 and June 1.   

The outdoor festival’s site is Hop Springs Beer Park in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Consider the 895 Fest to be a debut party for WMOT’s full-time Americana format that the station adopted in 2016. Over the past 50 years (WMOT went on the air in April 1969) the station has had virtually every format available with mixed results. But, the move to Americana feels permanent because it is so well matched with the tastes of the people in the area the station serves.

Rodney Crowell

The headliner for 895 Fest is singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell, a Nashville treasure. 

Other artists scheduled for 895 Fest are Lee Roy Parnell, Mandy Barnett, Sarah Potenza, Mike Farris, Liz Brasher and Steve and Jason Ringenberg.

895 Fest is presented by WMOT with support from Subaru. Portions of the two-day festival will be broadcast live on WMOT-FM and WMOT.org. Plus portions will be video streamed on VuHaus.com

Though WMOT puts a city-grade signal into Nashville, the station needs a larger fan base in Music City to succeed. 

That is why 895 Fest is important to the station. WMOT wants to be a metro player while still keeping its “outsider” vibe. The same can be said about WMOT’s licensee Middle Tennessee State University.

WMOT is doing many of the right things. The station positions itself as a source for “music discovery.” It has an impressive presence on the noncom video streaming site VuHaus [link]. WMOT has built a valuable associations with WXPN’s World Cafe and NPR Music.

Despite these moves, WMOT has never been able to create the type of groundswell of support like Sun Radio – KDRP in Austin. This matters because Sun Radio has leveraged its large popular support into private revenue streams. WMOT needs to do this with 895 Fest and beyond.

If there is a fatal flaw at WMOT, it is the station’s funding.  According to disclosure documents on the stations web site [link], in FY 2017, $445,000 of WMOT annual budget of $887,000 over half of the revenue comes from Middle Tennessee State University.

Members provide around $35,000, a paltry 4% of the budget. Underwriting brings in only $88,000, about 10% of the FY 2017 annual budget.  This is not a formula for sustainability.

It is the same pattern with the size of WMOT's audience. 

In the February 2019 Nielsen Audio PPM ratings WMOT had only 27,800 estimated weekly listeners. The size of WMOT’s audience has not grown since the switch to the Americana format. 

Sooner of later, something needs to change.

Also in the Nashville February 2019 “book,” NPR News/Talk WPLN had another record high performance. Add WPLN to the growing list of NPR News/Talk stations that are the leading radio news source in there markets. A couple of decades ago WSM AM/FM was the market leader in both news and Country music.

In Pittsburgh, NPR News/Talk WESA is closing in on legendary commercial station KDKA.