WMOT-FM embraces new Americana music format

WMOT-FM, Middle Tennessee State University’s public radio station, is dramatically expanding its reach and range of music to launch a new format dedicated to Americana music and a new home on the dial for its current jazz format.

With the format change on Sept. 2, the 100,000-watt station, known going forward as WMOT-FM/Roots Radio 89.5, is now the region’s only channel devoted to the unique amalgam of bluegrass, folk, gospel, soul, country and blues music defined in the music industry as Americana. The station, operated by the College of Media and Entertainment and housed in the Bragg Building’s Center for Innovation in Media, boasts the clearest and strongest radio signal in greater Nashville.

Music City Roots Program Director Jessie Scott (left) and announcer Keith Bilbrey celebrate the transition of WMOT-FM, MTSU’s 100,000-watt radio station, to Americana music. (MTSU photo by J. Intintoli)

This innovative partnership combines the reach and scholarship of a major university with the expertise and experience of radio and music industry professionals. A public kickoff celebration was held at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 2, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, featuring live music and the beginning of DJ programming with Grand Ole Opry veteran Keith Bilbrey.

The celebration began, of course, with music — a seamless segue from a classical rendition of Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown” to a live Americana interpretation. A combination of two banjos, two fiddles, a bass, a guitar, a dulcimer and a dobro ushered in the new format at the launch event by picking up “Hoedown” in mid-swing and playing it Americana style during the simulcast on WMOT and www.musiccityroots.com. Click here to see and hear Hoedown, Americana-style!

“Imagine, in our neck of the woods, a radio station with real people playing music they actually care about, even love,” said revered artist Rodney Crowell, recipient of the Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting. “WMOT is bringing Middle Tennessee real music when we need it most. Miracles happen.”

WMOT-FM will continue to serve as a training ground for MTSU students who are integrating audio editing and narration skills into their multimedia portfolios, which include television, social media, print and website management.

“This will give our students the opportunity to work and learn in a vibrant professional environment and provide greater interaction with the music industry,” Media and Entertainment Dean Ken Paulson said.

The station has partnered with the creative team behind Music City Roots — including its executive producers Todd Mayo and John Walker — to develop a unique, Nashville-centric take on the Americana musical genre. WMOT will also become the flagship station for Music City Roots, a weekly variety show that airs nationally on American Public Television, with its fourth season premiering Oct. 28.

Bluegrass Underground, an Emmy-award winning PBS program and radio show recorded live 333 feet below ground in Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tennessee, also will find a home on WMOT.

“Among Nashville artists charting with Americana albums in recent months have been Sturgill Simpson, the Mavericks, Elizabeth Cook, Darrell Scott, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell and many more,” Paulson noted. “Nashville is Americana’s hometown.”

The station will remain the flagship for Blue Raider Athletics and will continue to air “MTSU On the Record,” a 30-minute public affairs interview program highlighting the university community, as well as regular area news updates.

MTSU and Music City applaud Americana performers as they usher in the new WMOT-FM/Roots Radio 89.5. From left to right, front row, are Ken Paulson, dean of the College of Media and Entertainment; MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee; and Val Hoeppner, executive director of the Center for Innovation in Media. In the second row, from left to right, are Laurie Gregory, senior producer for Music City Roots; John Walker, executive producer for Music City Roots; Abby White, development director for MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment; and Greg Reish, director of MTSU’s Center for Popular Music. (MTSU photo by J. Intintoli)

WMOT, which first went on the air in April 1969, reaches as far north as Bowling Green, Kentucky, to as far south as the Alabama border.

It has aired mostly classical music, with jazz on the weekends and evenings, since 2009, when it moved from its all-jazz format.

In a nod to its tradition of jazz programming, the university will also launch on Sept. 2 the MTSU Jazz Network on WMOT’s HD channel as well as its FM signals 104.9 in Brentwood and 92.3 in Murfreesboro.

“As much as Nashville has cried out for a true Americana station that represents the roots revolution taking place here, we also see jazz as a pure American art form that deserves its own focus,” said Walker, who will oversee the development of new programs for WMOT. “We couldn’t imagine a Music City radio landscape without it.”

Listeners can expect live radio hosts from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, including veterans of roots music broadcasting. Anchoring the team and directing musical programming will be industry icon Jessie Scott, the first roots music director on satellite radio and a founding board member of the Americana Music Association.

Music City Roots’ Walker will host morning drive. Keith Bilbrey will handle midday, tapping his expertise in country music. Long-time radio man Whit “Witness” Hubner will work early afternoons.

All shows will be able to accommodate drop-in guests, including Music City artists as well as MTSU’s extensive roster of expert faculty.

Greg Reish, for example, is the director of the Center for Popular Music at MTSU, one of the nation’s deepest archives of recordings, sheet music, books and ephemera. He will host a weekly “Lost Sounds” show drawing on the archives with historic context. Plus the archive will inform and inspire other programming and special on-campus events.

The format transition marks only the latest progression in WMOT-FM’s 47-year history of dedicated service to the university and the community.

From its inception as a pop and rock music listening resource for students in 1969, through its jazz and classical incarnations, the station’s professional broadcasters and their student protégés always have put the listeners’ concerns first, said Val Hoeppner, executive director of MTSU’s Center for Innovation in Media.

WMOT has received more than 70 awards from the Tennessee Associated Press Broadcasters’ Association since 1984 with more than half of them being first-place honors. It also is one of the most honored radio newsrooms in the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters’ history. This legacy will continue with regular area news updates and top-of-the-hour national and international news from National Public Radio.

“This change will allow WMOT to grow audience, relevance and influence in the Music City market – and beyond,” Hoeppner said. “And we will be able to leverage our ties to the Nashville recording industry by showcasing artists on a radio stage that will reach almost all of Middle Tennessee.”

As a public radio station, WMOT depends on underwriting support from community-minded businesses. Music City Roots’ Walker and Mayo have drawn on long-standing relationships with some of Nashville’s biggest music supporters.

Additionally, remote venue broadcasts will be a big part of WMOT’s community outreach, with shows originating from the Factory at Franklin, Acme Feed and Seed downtown, and The Family Wash in East Nashville.

WMOT/Roots Radio will broadcast and stream the 2016 Americana Awards Show and Red Carpet arrivals from the Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 21.

Americana artists welcome the transition of WMOT-FM to an Americana format by performing “Sittin’ On Top of the World.” The vocalists are, from left to right, Will Hoge, Jim Lauderdale, Suzy Bogguss and Mike Farris. (MTSU photo by J. Intintoli)