TNN Returns to TV

One of the first country music television channels goes back on the air tomorrow. The Nashville Network spent nearly two decades on cable, but Gaylord Entertainment sold TNN around the same time it closed the Opryland theme park. A few years later, Viacom reformatted the channel, ultimately renaming it Spike TV.

Now The Nashville Network is being revived as a broadcast network airing on digital subchannels.

During much of the 1980s and 90s, TNN shot shows like Ralph Emery’s Nashville Now in studios near the Grand Ole Opry House.

The new TNN will rebroadcast some of that programming along with music videos and a handful of new shows. It’s a joint effort between two Tennessee companies. Chattanooga-based Luken Communications already owns subchannel networks like TuffTV and RetroTelevision. Jim Owens Entertainment is the Nashville production company behind Crook & Chase, a country entertainment news show that was a mainstay of TNN in its cable days.

Crook & Chase kept going in syndication after the old network went under. It will be a centerpiece of the new TNN lineup.

In Nashville, TNN will air on channel 4.2, using some of the extra room on WSMV’s digital frequency.