WNKN is a radio station broadcasting a classic country format. Licensed to Middletown, Ohio, United States, the station serves the Cincinnati and Dayton areas. The station is currently owned by Grant County Broadcasters, Inc.
History
WPFB-FM first signed on in 1959. WPFB-FM was the first FM station in Ohio and the 13th in the United States to broadcast in stereo. Like its AM sister WPFB, WPFB-FM had several format changes over the years. It was a soul gospel music format in the late 1970s. In the early 80's the station switched to Disco calling themselves "Disco 106" after changing the call letters to WPBF. That only lasted a few years. Alan Matthews was hired as program director and flipped the format to soft adult contemporary as WPBF "Mellow 106." in the latter part of 1984 they gave up the AC format and tried CHR, calling the station Rock 106. That only lasted for a few weeks, due to the confusion with AOR/CHR 96 Rock who's city of licence was only 10 miles away from Middletown. Keeping the CHR format they added the word "New" to calling it New Rock 106, PBF-FM. Timing was not to their advantage because a few months later WGTZ Z-93 debuted commercial free with a much stronger signal into Dayton. In 1986 the format was changed southern gospel in and bluegrass music in 1988 when the calls were switched back to WPFB-FM. Over a 2-year period the station blended bluegrass and traditional country before renaming the station to The Rebel in 1988 where it maintained a country music format until the sale to Northern Kentucky University in 2011.
Switch to Public Radio
Beginning on February 1, 2011; WPFB-FM, along with its then-sister station WPAY-FM in Portsmouth, Ohio, began simulcasting the signal of Northern Kentucky University-owned WNKU. At that time, WPFB and WPAY switched from a country format to an adult album alternative format. The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on June 20, 2011 and the station officially changed their call letters to WNKN on that date. In June 2016, former sister station WPFB became a simulcast of Sacred Heart Radio stations WNOP and WHSS.
In April 2016, citing state budget cuts to education, Northern Kentucky University announced that it would "explore the possibility of a sale of WNKU-FM and its assets." On February 14, 2017, the NKU Board of Trustees voted to approve the sale of WNKU's license and transmitter site to the Bible Broadcasting Network for $1.9 million. In addition, the WNKE repeater was sold to the Educational Media Foundation for $750,000 plus 75% of the net sale proceeds of EMF-owned affiliate WEKV in South Webster, Ohio. At the time of this announcement, no decision had been made on the future of the WNKN repeater. The stations continued to be operated by NKU as WNKU until the sales were approved by the Federal Communications Commission. On July 19, 2017, the NKU Board of Trustees approved the sale of the WNKN repeater to Grant County Broadcasters, Inc., owners of classic country WNKR, which is licensed to Williamstown, Kentucky and has studio space in nearby Dry Ridge, for $5.3 million. The price included $4 million in cash and $1.3 in advertising airtime for the University. The sale included all assets of WNKN, as well as the equipment and supplies of WNKU. Upon FCC approval of the purchase, Grant County Broadcasters stated they indended to revert the station back to a locally owned, for-profit, commercial model with a then yet to be determinedon air format. On July 28, 2017, WNKU announced on their Facebook page that the sale of WNKN was expected to be approved by the FCC by the end of October 2017 and that it, along with the wnku.com online stream, would continue to broadcast as WNKU until final FCC approval of the WNKN sale was granted. With the August 3, 2017 format flip of WNKE to the EMF-owned K-Love format along with the August 25, 2017 conversion of WNKU itself to Bible Broadcasting Network programming, WNKN became the final remaining on-air station identifying under the WNKU banner. The sale of WNKN finalized on September 28, 2017 with WNKU permanently signing off both on WNKN and the WNKU online stream at 6:00PM EDT. The final AAA format song played over WNKN before transferring ownership was "This Must Be The Place" by Talking Heads. As stated in the original purchase agreement, in addition to the WNKN license and transmitter site in Middletown, Grant County Broadcasters had purchased all of WNKU's studio equipment. It was also noted at that time that the farmhouse adjacent to the transmitter site, which was WPBF-FM and WPBF 's studios prior to their sale to NKU, was not purchased by Grant County Broadcasters and remains property of NKU. On October 2, 2017, WNKN signed back on the air as a sister station of Grant County Broadcasters-owned WNKR, returning to the classic country format that was played on the station prior to its purchase by NKU in 2011. While the stations are sharing playlists and talent, they are not a simulcast. Each station airs content appropriate to the local market they serve. Both stations are currently branded as "Classic Country 105.9 & 106.7".
