Nashville Public Radio has named Jason Moon Wilkins as the Program Director of its new music discovery radio station which launches later this fall on 91.1 FM. Wilkins, a trusted voice in Nashville radio, has been host of All Things Considered on 90.3 FM WPLN News.
“Jason is deeply ingrained in Nashville’s multi-genre music scene and will bring LOCAL to Middle Tennessee’s newest music station,” Nashville Public Radio President & CEO Steve Swenson said. “In addition to being a veteran radio professional, Jason is a student of emerging music and the ideal person to bring our new music discovery station to the airwaves. We can’t wait to share our new format with the community as it will reflect the diversity and energy of all Nashville’s music.”
Rachel Iacovone / WPLN News
In addition to his career in radio, Wilkins is a Leadership Music alumnus, a founding member of the Mayor’s Music Council, served on the Grammy board, co-founded Do615, consulted for Red Bull Sound Select and worked at Thirty Tigers before making the move to public radio.
“I’m grateful and ecstatic for the opportunity to help Nashville Public Radio launch our Music Discovery station,” Wilkins said. “This city has one of the most vibrant music scenes in the world and more people working in the industry per capita than anywhere in the U.S. We look forward to giving those voices new ways to be heard.”
During his career, Wilkins has worked as a touring musician, music director, manager, music journalist, and helped launch or consult with numerous events and festivals including Next BIG Nashville which served as a mini-SXSW for the city for several years and grew into a platform for everything from hip hop to roots rock.
Wilkins has earned multiple honors from the Associated Press and PRNDI/PMJA and landed numerous features and musical obituaries on NPR’s national shows. Most recently he produced and hosted the special program A Radio Wake for John Prine which was carried by multiple stations nationwide and was the most streamed feature in the history of WPLN News.
Working with Wilkins on the new station’s launch is Mike Henry of Paragon Media Strategies who has helped launch or re-launch some of the top music discovery stations across America including WFUV/New York, KUTX/Austin, WXPN/Philadelphia, “The Current”/Minneapolis among many others. Steve Davis of DK Media Solutions also will work closely with Wilkins and Henry. Davis is an award-winning radio programmer named one of the “Best Program Directors in America” programming radio stations in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Norfolk, Richmond and Birmingham as well as consulting stations both domestically and internationally.
About Nashville Public Radio
Nashville Public Radio serves Middle Tennessee through local, national and global (NPR/BBC) news, engaging music and cultural programs on 90.3 FM WPLN News, 91Classical 91.1 FM, WPLN International 1430 AM, WPLN HD2 and at nashvillepublicradio.org. Nashville Public Radio also produces a variety podcasts that can be found at https://wpln.org/shows-and-podcasts/ and on your favorite podcasting app.