About WSMV
WSMV 4 is Nashville’s NBC affiliate and began broadcasting as Middle Tennessee’s first television station in 1950. WSMV 4 broadcasts 53 hours of live, local news each week, more than any other station in Nashville, and has been recognized with numerous awards including an Edward R. Murrow Award for continuing coverage of the 2021 Waverly Floods. WSMV is also the home of Nashville’s Certified Most Accurate First Alert Forecast for 3 years running (certified by WeatherRate).
History
WSMV 4 first signed on the air as WSM-TV on September 30, 1950, at 1:10 p.m. CT. It was Nashville’s first television station and the second in Tennessee, behind fellow NBC affiliate WMCT, now sister station WMC-TV, in Memphis. WSM-TV was owned by a subsidiary of the locally-based National Life and Accident Insurance Company, which also owned WSM radio and the original WSM-FM; the AM station is known worldwide for broadcasting the country music show The Grand Ole Opry, which has been heard on the station since 1925.
Since sign-on, the station has been an NBC affiliate.
WSM-TV’s studios were originally located at 15th Avenue South and Compton Avenue in south Nashville, near the present Belmont University. In 1963, National Life and Accident Insurance built new studios on Knob Road. WSM-TV was the first station in Nashville to begin broadcasting in color in 1965.
