WRVW is a radio station broadcasting on the FM band at 107.5 MHz, licensed to the city ofLebanon, Tennessee, but serving the nearby Nashville market. It is currently branded as 1075 The River, broadcasting a Top 40 format, and has become something of a heritage station for Top-40 music in middle Tennessee. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and operates out of studios in the world-famous "Music Row" area. Its transmitter is located just north of downtown Nashville.
History
WCOR-FM/WUSW (US107)
The station signed on the air on August 31, 1962 as WCOR-FM on the 107.3 MHz frequency in Lebanon as the FM sister station to WCOR. It played a country music format for its first 19 years on the air. The station also broadcast some gospel music programming in the mid and late 1970s. By 1980, it branded itself as US107 and changed its callsign to WUSW. This station proved to be short-lived; its absentee owner shut it down along with its AM sister, WCOR, in mid-1981. It was sold, moved to Nashville, and had its frequency changed to 107.5 in order to accommodate a power increase.
WYHY (Y107)
The station received a complete overhaul when it moved to 107.5 FM in 1982, and went on to become one of Nashville's most successful radio stations. When the move was complete, the callsign was changed to WYHY. Those call letters and the station's official nickname Y107 lasted from 1982 until 1996. Initially under its new incarnation, Y107 broadcast adult contemporary music. Within a few years, however, Y107 became a Top 40 station, competing with two other similar stations, KX 104 FM and 96 Kiss FM. Needing a dose of attitude and fun, Y107 hired Coyote McCloud from WWKX in 1984 and launched a "brand spanking new" morning show titled The Y107 Morning Zoo Crew or The Y Morning Zoo for short. The station quickly became a more aggressive radio station and calling themselves The Outrageous FM. This format, very edgy for its time but tame by today's standards, was popular among both kids and teens and its targeted demographic, young adults. The antics of the station infuriated older, more conservative area residents, and the station even became the subject of a report on CBS' 48 Hours about "shock radio". During this time, however, WYHY enjoyed enormous popularity across the board, and was regularly Nashville's highest-rated radio station. By the early 1990s, the station's act wore thin, and its popularity began to decline. Ratings went down, and the station no longer impressed advertisers as a result. After a brief stint with a rock-leaning Top 40 format in 1993 failed to improve ratings, the station quickly reverted to mainstream contemporary hits. Around this time, the station entered a local marketing agreement with SFX Broadcasting and became a sister station to WSIX-FM. SFX eventually purchased WYHY outright, and made some wholesale changes to the station. The "Outrageous FM" era was gone and the station again took a more straightforward approach, to make it more popular with advertisers. Despite the changes, the Y107 branding still carried a negative connotation in the advertising community, due to the sheer number of "stunts" the station pulled in order to get publicity earlier in its life. The station also had its lowest ratings in over 10 years during the mid-1990s. Additionally, Coyote and most of the airstaff left the station in early 1995. These factors led management to completely overhaul and rebrand the radio station.
WRVW (107.5 The River)
On February 15, 1996, at 3 p.m. Central time, air personality Gator Harrison was joined in studio by pop artist Lisa Loeb, and the station changed its nickname to "1075 The River", and its format to Hot Adult Contemporary. A few days later, the callsign changed to WRVW. Over the next few years, the station's format gradually evolved back to Top 40. The station, to this day, still operates as "The River". After a series of ownership changes, WRVW was acquired by Clear Channel. The station's flagship show is Woody and Jim in the Morning, hosted by Woody Wood and Jim Chandler, who previously worked together at stations in Albany, New York and San Diego. The staff had been remarkably consistent through the Rich Davis era but changed after his departure. Rich Davis, who joined from WZEE in Madison in 2000 was the OM/PD until late 2011. Madison now handles 1p-3pm, but has been with the station since 2004 and tracked the whole midday show until mid-2008. Ryan Seacrest's show joined in August of '08 for 12n-3p but added an extra hour in June 2009 and now runs 9a-1p. "Ryno" holds down afternoons and has done so since early 2003. Butter - famous for his "What's Down Butter's Britches" game has been with the station on and off for years, but was the full-time night guy and Music Director from 2004 until late March 2012. Program director Brian Mack was made Rich Davis's replacement in spring 2012. "Scooter" and "Lunchbox" worked mostly on weekends.
From 2009 until January 1, 2020, WRVW broadcast an HD 2 signal. It first began as "Future Radio" until 2012, when it changed to "Hit Nation Radio". The HD 2 signal was discontinued permanently altogether on January 1, 2020, because of budget constraints at I-Heart Media.
