Reviewed by Peter Berk, President and Chief Media Strategist, Berk Marketing · Last updated 31 October 2026

Nashville

Radio Advertising in Nashville

The center of the country music business, with more country stations than most markets, the Titans on a sports FM, and growth spreading into every surrounding county. Berk Marketing buys Nashville for advertisers and represents no station in it.

Radio since 1978Independent since 1999Certified Radio Marketing ConsultantWe represent advertisers, not stations

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Short answer. Nashville is a country market, and not only in the obvious way. The Big 98, 103-3 Country and 95.5 WSM-FM all program country, and WSM 650 carries the Grand Ole Opry. 104.5 The Zone is the sports station and the home of the Titans, and 102.5 The Game is the Vanderbilt flagship. SuperTalk 99.7 WTN is the news talk leader, with Talkradio 98.3 and 1510 as the other talk option. There is no all-news station. Other big signals include 107.5 The River, Mix 92.9 and 96.3 Jack FM. The practical entry point is about five thousand dollars a week.

Station by station

A crowded country dial

The commercial stations most Nashville plans start from. Formats and owners as of October 2026.

Station	Dial	Branding	Format	Owner
WWTN-FM	99.7 FM	SuperTalk 99.7 WTN	News Talk	Cumulus
WLAC-AM	1510 AM / 98.3 FM	Talkradio 98.3 and 1510	Talk	iHeartMedia
WGFX-FM	104.5 FM	104.5 The Zone	Sports	Cumulus
WPRT-FM	102.5 FM	102.5 The Game	Sports	Cromwell Radio Group
WSIX-FM	97.9 FM	The Big 98	Country	iHeartMedia
WKDF-FM	103.3 FM	103-3 Country	Country	Cumulus
WSM-FM	95.5 FM	95.5 WSM-FM	Country	Cumulus
WRVW-FM	107.5 FM	107.5 The River	CHR	iHeartMedia
WJXA-FM	92.9 FM	Mix 92.9	AC	Midwest Communications
WCJK-FM	96.3 FM	96.3 Jack FM	Adult Hits	Midwest Communications

Stations change formats and owners often, so we confirm every station against the current Nielsen book before a proposal goes out. A plan built for you shows the current audience for each station on it. Our top 100 markets page lists every market we buy.

How Nashville listens

Three things about Nashville that change a buy

Country is crowded. The Big 98, 103-3 Country and WSM-FM all program country, and WSM 650 adds the Opry and Americana. Buying all of them usually means buying none of them properly. We pick the one that fits your customer and schedule it with enough weight.

Sports is split by team. 104.5 The Zone carries the Titans, and 102.5 The Game is the Vanderbilt flagship under an extension signed in August 2026. Fall football weekends carry the strongest sports audience in the market.

Growth runs in every direction. Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties keep adding people, and several stations are licensed to suburbs from Franklin to Murfreesboro and Gallatin. Clarksville is a separate market to the northwest. The service area decides the stations.

News, talk and sports

The listener is following a story or a game, so fewer commercials a day do the job. In Nashville that means SuperTalk 99.7 WTN for news and talk, and The Zone or The Game depending on the team.

Music formats

The listener is half attending, so the message needs repeating, which means weight on one station rather than money spread across four. The Big 98, 103-3 Country, The River and Mix 92.9 each reach a large habitual audience bought for frequency.

Why format decides frequency, in full, is on the local radio advertising page.

Money

Buying Nashville: scale, and who does the negotiating

Cumulus owns SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, The Zone, 103-3 Country and WSM-FM, iHeartMedia has The Big 98, The River and Talkradio 98.3, Midwest Communications holds Mix 92.9 and Jack FM, and Cromwell Radio Group has The Game. Each group prices its stations as a package built for its own inventory. We buy the station, negotiate each group against the others, and take remnant inventory where it exists.

The practical entry point for a terrestrial campaign here is about five thousand dollars a week, the same floor as every market we buy, and it needs to run long enough to build frequency rather than a week or two to see what happens. What sets the rate, what moves it and how remnant inventory changes the arithmetic is covered on the radio advertising costs page.

Berk Marketing represents advertisers and holds no Nashville inventory. We go to the stations and the groups for availability and price, negotiate each against the others, write and produce the commercial in house, place the schedule and track what it returns by station. Where a station has unsold airtime, we buy it as remnant, typically 40 to 60% below the published rate card, and you are refunded or credited for any spot that does not run.

Fit

When Nashville is the right buy, and when it is not

Worth a conversation

You can serve the Nashville metro and the surrounding counties, or you are buying Nashville as one market among several
You can fund roughly five thousand dollars a week for long enough to build frequency
You know which kind of listener is your customer, country or otherwise
You have an offer that is genuinely worth responding to
You are prepared to test more than one script

Probably not yet

You want a week or two to see whether radio works
Your service area is one town, where the market is far wider than your customer
You need a guaranteed cost per lead before committing
There is no tracking in place and no plan to put any in
You have already been quoted directly by a Nashville station, which limits what we can do on that signal

Worth knowing first

Call before you call a station, not after

We work with advertisers who have not already been in contact with a radio station’s sales rep. We are not in the business of taking clients away from stations, and once an advertiser has been quoted directly, our ability to bring remnant pricing on that station is compromised.

The consequence lands on you rather than on us. If Nashville is on your list and you have not spoken to anyone yet, that is exactly when this is worth a call.

Find out who is already advertising against you in Nashville

We will run a competitive monitoring report at no charge and with no obligation. It shows which Nashville stations your competitors are on, at what times of day, how many spots, and it includes the actual audio of their commercials.

In many cases nothing shows up at all, and that is worth knowing too.

Get the Report

Questions

Nashville radio advertising questions

Which Nashville radio station is best for advertising?

For a considered purchase, WTN or The Zone bought properly usually does more than a music station. For a broad consumer offer, one country station with enough weight beats several bought lightly.

Which stations carry the Titans and Vanderbilt?

The Titans are on 104.5 The Zone. Vanderbilt is on 102.5 The Game.

Should I buy more than one Nashville country station?

Usually not at first. They reach much of the same listener, so splitting a budget weakens each. Start with one, measure it, and add another only if the plan needs more reach.

How much does radio advertising cost in Nashville?

Plan on about five thousand dollars a week as the practical entry point for a terrestrial schedule, run long enough to build frequency. The rate on any one Nashville station depends on daypart, season and how much inventory is unsold, and remnant airtime can bring it down considerably. What sets a rate is covered on our radio advertising costs page.

Do you represent any Nashville station?

No. Berk Marketing represents advertisers and holds no inventory on any Nashville station. We negotiate with every group on your behalf and are paid to get the schedule right for you, not to fill a station’s airtime.

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