The station signed on the air at 10:00 p.m. Central time on December 31, 1946, with the first full day of broadcast taking place at WGNS on January 1, 1947.

WGNS has been carrying high school football and basketball games, as well as Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders sporting events, since 1947.

[6] WGNS was broadcasting a rock n’ roll format until 1990, but news and sports also occupied the program schedule.

The station's original self-supporting tower, which was 328 feet (100 m) tall and dated back to the World War II-era, was destroyed during a severe thunderstorm on April 15, 2001.

WGNS was the first AM radio station in the United States to broadcast with this new type of FM translator.