WRNL
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| City | Richmond, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Metro Richmond |
| Branding | "Fox Sports 910" |
| Slogan | Richmond's Sports Radio Station |
| Frequency | 910 kHz |
| First air date | 1937 |
| Format | Sports |
| Power | 5,000 Watts daytime 1,500 Watts nighttime |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 11960 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°36′50.0″N 77°30′53.0″W / 37.613889°N 77.514722°W |
| Callsign meaning | Richmond News Leader (former owner) |
| Affiliations | Fox Sports Radio |
| Owner |
iHeartMedia (CC Licenses, LLC) |
| Sister stations | W241AP, W253BI, WBTJ, WRXL, WRVA, WRVQ, WTVR-FM |
| Webcast | WRNL Webstream |
| Website | WRNL Online |
WRNL is a Sports formatted radio station licensed to Richmond, Virginia, serving Metro Richmond and broadcasting on 910 kHz on the AM dial. WRNL is owned and operated by iHeartMedia and features programming from the Fox Sports Radio Network.
WRNL is licensed by the FCC to broadcast in the HD Radio (hybrid) format.
WRNL began operations in 1937 with a frequency of 880 kHz and 500 watts of power (daytime). Its studios were at 323 East Grace Street in Richmond, and the transmitter was in Henrico County, Virginia. The station had been in Petersburg, Virginia, with the call letters WPHR, before it was moved to Richmond and renamed by its owner, The Richmond News Leader newspaper.
On September 1, 1940, The Richmond News Leader merged with the Richmond 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 the Federal Communications Commission effective midnight August 31, 1940. At the same time, WRNL became the NBC Blue Network affiliate in Richmond. WRNL simultaneously went to 100 watts of power (full-time).
In the late 1940s, the 111 Building (at 111 North Fourth Street) was built for WRNL.
WRNL provided one of the first broadcasting opportunities on a U.S. radio station for the country/folk group the Carter Family. Beginning June 1, 1943, Maybelle Carter and her daughters, using the name "The Carter Sisters," had a program on WRNL that was sponsored by Nolde Brothers Bakery.
In addition to being a journalist and historian, Douglas Southall Freeman was part-owner of WRNL. The editor of The Richmond News Leader, he extended his journalistic activities to broadcasting with twice-daily newscasts at 8 a.m. and noon. Among those interviewed by Freeman was poet Robert Frost, in what Frost said was his first time to knowingly appear on radio. 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."
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Wikipedia