WKRN

WKRN-TV

WKRN-TV channel 2 is the ABC affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee. Its transmitter is located in Brentwood, Tennessee. It brands itself as News 2.

History

The station first signed on the air on November 29, 1953 as WSIX-TV, the second television station in Nashville. It broadcast on channel 8 and was owned by Louis and Jack Draughon along with WSIX-AM 980 (now WFYN-AM, a religious station). The calls came from the 638 Tire Company in nearby Springfield, where the Draughon brothers had started WSIX-AM in 1930; neither the radio nor the television stations have ever had the number six in their frequencies, which would explain it otherwise. Originally a CBS affiliate sharing ABC with WSM-TV (now WSMV), it became a full ABC affiliate after only one year when WLAC-TV (now WTVF) signed on and took the CBS affiliation due to WLAC-AM's long history as a CBS radio affiliate. Its original studio was on Old Hickory Boulevard, just outside Nashville. In 1961, WSIX-AM-FM-TV moved to a new studio on Murfreesboro Road, where the TV station is located today.

WSIX-TV, however, did not have much luck against WSM and WLAC. Part of the problem was a weak signal, as its transmitter was short-spaced to channel 8 in Atlanta--occupied first by WLWA-TV (now WXIA-TV) and currently occupied by WGTV. WSIX was also hampered by a weaker network affiliation (ABC was not truly competitive with CBS and NBC until well into the 1970s).

The Draughons sold WSIX-AM-FM-TV to General Electric in 1966. In 1972, GE cut a deal with Nashville's PBS station, WDCN-TV (now WNPT), then on channel 2, to swap dial positions. GE did this because the channel 2 signal travels farther than the channel 8 signal under most conditions. The swap occurred on December 11, 1973, in the middle of evening prime-time programming. At the same time, even though General Electric still owned WSIX-AM-FM, it changed WSIX-TV's callsign to WNGE-TV (for Nashville General Electric), leaving the radio stations' callsigns intact. This was only the third facility swap in American television history.

Knight Ridder bought WNGE-TV in 1983 and changed the calls to the current WKRN-TV. Young Broadcasting, the current owners, bought the station in 1989. It is merely a coincidence that the call letters reflect Young Broadcasting's flagship outlet, KRON-TV in San Francisco. Like all other ABC affiliates owned by Young Broadcasting, WKRN preempted ABC's broadcast of the movie Saving Private Ryan in 2004.

Digital Television

The station's digital channel: Digital channels

Virtual Channel	Physical RF Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
2.1	27.1	720p	16:9	Main WKRN programming/ABC HD
2.2	27.2	480i	4:3	Nashville WX Channel

In 2009, WKRN-TV will remain on its current pre-transition channel number, 27. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WKRN-TV's virtual channel as 2.