MTSU‘s WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 joined the local “Murfreesboro Loves” initiative to boost business around the downtown square Nov. 4.

WMOT featured a live four-hour broadcast with host Whit Hubner from Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant, 114 N. Church St. in downtown Murfreesboro. The radio station booked several guest artists to perform throughout the event, which is being called “WMOT Loves.”

Val Hoeppner

“WMOT is more than just a radio station, it’s a community of artists, listeners and supporters,” said Val Hoeppner, executive director of WMOT Roots Radio and director of MTSU’s Center for Innovation in Media.

“Music transforms your mood, your day and makes you resilient. ‘WMOT Loves’ is our way of using music to lift up our Murfreesboro business community who closed last weekend in anticipation of protests.”

The Oct. 28 scheduled White Lives Matter rally prompted numerous downtown businesses to close on what for some was the busiest day of the week.

“Murfreesboro Loves,” the counterprotest effort made up of a variety of individuals and organizations, spearheaded the effort to drive business downtown the following Saturday to help those affected businesses recoup some of their losses.

WMOT Loves artists included Plow’d, India Ramey, Travis Meadows, Webb Wilder, Jon Latham, John Salaway, and HooDoo Men.

WMOT-FM is a 100,000-watt professional radio station housed in the Center for Innovation in Media inside MTSU’s Bragg Media and Entertainment Building.

The station changed formats Sept. 2, 2016, from its classical, jazz and news-talk focus to Americana in a partnership with Music City Roots, a Nashville-based firm that provides programming for both radio and television.

WMOT, which broadcasts at 89.5 FM as well as online at www.wmot.org, is a charter member of National Public Radio since 1969 and the region’s only Americana music channel.

For more information about WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5, part of MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment, visit www.wmot.org.