KYTN 104.9 - KYTN

A commercial FM country music station broadcasting on 104.9 MHz, licensed to Union City, Tennessee, and serving the Jackson, Tennessee metropolitan area along with the Ken-Tenn region spanning northwest Tennessee and the Jackson Purchase area of western Kentucky. The station is owned by Thunderbolt Broadcasting Company and supplements its locally produced programming with content from Fox News Radio, Compass Media Networks, and Westwood One. The station holds the distinction of being the first FM outlet to sign on in Union City, originally launching September 27, 1974, under the call sign WALR-FM, which stood for "We Advertise the Land of Reelfoot," a reference to Reelfoot Lake in the region. Its founder, Ed Perkins of McKenzie, Tennessee, operated it as Perkins Broadcasting Company, and early on-air staff included several local personalities. The station programmed middle-of-the-road music in its early years before transitioning to country music, a format that has remained central to its identity. A significant disruption occurred in 1982 when the original studio and transmitter facility on the Ken-Tenn highway was destroyed by fire. Operations relocated to downtown Union City before eventually moving to a modern broadcast center on Westgate Drive in February 2007, the same year Thunderbolt Broadcasting completed its acquisition of the station. Thunderbolt, based in Martin, Tennessee, also owns a second Union City FM outlet. The station's management includes a president who worked at the station as an on-air personality during his college years at UT Martin, reflecting decades of local continuity in ownership and operations.