WRNR-FM


WRNR-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to Grasonville, Maryland, broadcasting mainly to the Annapolis / Anne Arundel County area and the Eastern Shore of Maryland on 103.1 FM. WRNR-FM airs an adult album alternative music format.
WRNR-FM's studios are located in Annapolis on Admiral Cochrane Drive. The station's transmitter is located in Grasonville/Queenstown, on Maryland's Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is a "Class A" radio station. WRNR-FM mainly focuses on the Annapolis area, as well as the rest of Anne Arundel, Queen Anne's, and Talbot Counties, although the signal covers Baltimore, Annapolis, the Eastern Washington D.C. suburbs, and many other densely populated areas.
The official music format for WRNR-FM is "Adult Album Alternative", but the station adds a lot to that format musically with deep tracks of classic rock, new alternative rock, vintage alternative rock, reggae, roots rock, and more. They are credited as one of the radio stations that helped launch the bands "Wilco" and many others. WRNR-FM is owned by Empire Broadcasting System, Inc., and is one of the few independent radio stations in the Baltimore-Washington area.

History

Early Years (1979-1981)

WAQA signed on the air in 1979 as a Hot AC/Top 40 station, known as Super Q103 with 3,000 watts from a tower at Kent Narrows, Maryland. The studio and tower were co-located.

Bay Country 103 (1981-1991)

In 1981, the call letters were changed to WBEY and the format changed to Country. The station was known as Bay Country 103.

103.1 The Underground (1991-1992)

In early 1991, Vision Broadcasting purchased 103.1 and changed the call letters to WHVY and the format to Active Rock with an emphasis on Heavy Metal. The WHVY call letters and format were moved from low-power night-time-only non-commercial 96.7 in Baltimore to 103.1. The studio was moved to Annapolis with a secondary studio maintained at the transmitter site.

Rock 103XZL (1992-1994)

In December 1992, the Active Rock format was tweaked some and the call letters were changed to WXZL. The station also increased its power to 6,000 watts from a new tower about 4 miles east of the original tower location.