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158-475: The channel was originally founded by a partnership between radio station WSM and Westinghouse Broadcasting as The Nashville Network (TNN) and began broadcasting on March 7, 1983. It initially featured programming catering towards the culture of the Southern United States , including country music , variety shows , outdoors programming, and motor racing coverage (such as NASCAR ). TNN

316-456: A Times Square advertisement asking viewers to phone and email Paramount Network's chief marketing officer Niels Schuurmans to protest Spike's "firing,” as well as a string of self-deprecating posts by the network's Twitter account about its history and programming (including that "My favorite number is 329 because it's the number of times Cops is on every night,” "We had a show called The Joe Schmo Show . Apparently every decent show name

474-537: A country music format (with classic country and Americana leanings, the latter of which is branded as "Route 650") and is known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry , the world's longest running radio program. The station is owned Ryman Hospitality Properties , Inc. After nearly 40 years broadcasting from a studio within the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center , WSM moved to

632-455: A movie channel "within the next year" (to be tentatively known as Paramount Movie Network ). The relaunched network was to focus primarily on original made-for-TV films featuring major talent, with a plan to premiere 52 films per-year. The films would have been largely produced by Paramount Pictures and MTV Studios , with plans for co-productions with ViacomCBS International networks such as Argentina's Telefe , Australia's Network 10 , and

790-582: A "flagship" outlet for scripted programming, as opposed to making inefficient investments into them across individual channels. He added that Paramount Network's offerings would be distinguished from its competitors by continuing to emphasize Middle America as a key viewer base. Even with its subsequent rebrandings, Paramount Network still had significant carriage strength and viewership in the Midwest and South due to its heritage as TNN. Kay argued that its initial slate of original dramas were not as "dark,” citing

948-409: A "sort of populist middle-America flavor" rather than "another network for New York or Los Angeles." Football also became more prominent on the network, as it began airing games of the original Arena Football League (AFL) with Eli Gold as an announcer. TNN was also one of three networks to air games of the ill-fated, WWF-backed XFL (along with NBC and UPN ). As part of its contract, TNN had

1106-507: A 4.1-mile (6.6 km) course, consisting of a 1.5–2.0-mile (2.4–3.2 km) stretch of beach as one straightaway, and a narrow blacktop beachfront highway, State Road A1A , as the other. The two straights were connected by two tight, deeply rutted and sand covered turns at each end. Stock car racing in the United States has its origins in bootlegging during Prohibition , when drivers ran bootleg whiskey made primarily in

1264-583: A bit different from the cars seen in America, being more akin to a late model , though steel tube-framed silhouette bodies powered by V8 engines is still the norm. In December 2006, NASCAR also announced the creation of a new series in Mexico, the NASCAR Corona Series (now Mexico Series), replacing the existing Desafío Corona Series, to begin in 2007. In 2004, NASCAR also began to sanction

1422-628: A car's worth by driving it from New York to Los Angeles. After his death, the famous transcontinental race the ' Cannonball Run ' and the film that was inspired by it were both named in his honor. Baker is enshrined in the Automotive Hall of Fame , the Motorcycle Hall of Fame , and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame. This level of honor and success in each diverse racing association earned Baker

1580-514: A different format to suit a cinematic presentation), but the channel was to abandon non-scripted programming. In preparation for the relaunch, it was stated that Bar Rescue and Lip Sync Battle would move to another ViacomCBS channel to be determined, while Ink Master and Wife Swap were both cancelled. Former Lifetime SVP of original movies Meghan Hooper White had been brought on as ViacomCBS's head of original movies and specials in May 2020, and

1738-458: A few FM stations had begun broadcasting earlier, they were operating under experimental or "Special Temporary Authorizations" and had not yet been granted operating licenses. In 1943 the call sign was changed to WSM-FM, however the station was shut down in 1951, although its antenna is still mounted atop the Blaw Knox tower at Brentwood. Seventeen years later the current incarnation of WSM-FM

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1896-420: A fifth of the broadcast power of WSM and CFZM, and operates directionally such that it is inaudible in the United States.) Bill Cody has been the host of the morning show, Coffee, Country and Cody since 1998 and has been in radio since 1975. Since its establishment on January 1, 2020, the country music oriented TV network Circle simulcast Coffee, Country, and Cody , following a period of several years where

2054-411: A five-year joint sales agreement, however, Gaylord paid Cumulus a fee to operate WSM's sales department and provide news updates for the station. Gaylord Entertainment continued to control WSM and operate all other departments, including programming, engineering, and promotions. The agreement ended in 2008, at which point all control of the station reverted to Gaylord. In 2012, Gaylord Entertainment Company

2212-480: A full season in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition. These include Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards (who both ran for Roush Racing ). In addition, veteran drivers who have had only moderate success at the other two levels of the sport have revitalized their careers in the truck series, including Ron Hornaday Jr. , Todd Bodine , Mike Skinner , and Johnny Benson . Beginning in 2009, the series became

2370-572: A full-time basis. Kevin Harvick was the first Cup series driver to compete full-time in the Busch Series and win a title, actually doing so twice; in 2001, he did this for Richard Childress Racing but only did so out of necessity as Dale Earnhardt 's death forced him into the Cup series ahead of RCR's intended schedule for him. His win in 2006, where he raced three cars for RCR and his race team ,

2528-498: A lap, plus the driver who leads the most laps. Another significant change involves the qualifying process for the Chase. The number of qualifying drivers will remain at 12, but only the top 10 will qualify solely on regular-season points. The remaining two Chase drivers will be the two drivers in the next 10 of the point standings (11th through 20th) with the most race wins in the regular season. In 2014, NASCAR announced another revamp to

2686-575: A mini stock racing series in Mexico, known as the Mexico T4 Series. In early 2012, NASCAR announced that it would sanction the existing European-based Racecar Euro Series as a "NASCAR Touring Series". On July 1, 2013, with partnership from NASCAR Whelen Engineering , the series was renamed the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. In addition to the six main national series, NASCAR operates several other racing divisions under

2844-585: A more mature direction, which were described as an aim to be less like Maxim magazine and more like Esquire . A promotional campaign emphasized adversity as a common theme in Spike's programming. The following year, Spike ordered the new series Rat Bastards (a series following a pest control business in Mississippi), Tattoo Nightmares , along with a revival of World's Wildest Police Videos , and Full Bounty —a bounty hunting reality series that

3002-418: A period during World War II it was designated to provide transmissions to submarines in the event that ship-to-shore communications were lost. It is now one of the oldest operating broadcast towers in the United States. As a tribute to the station's centrality in country music history, the diamond antenna design was incorporated into the new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum 's design in 2001. The tower

3160-596: A point-fund money payout and even more goes to the National champion (driver with most points out of the four division winners). The Whelen All-American Series is the base for stock car racing, developing NASCAR names such as Clint Bowyer , Jimmy Spencer , Tony Stewart , the Bodine brothers, and many others along the way. The Whelen Modified Tour races open-wheel "modified" cars in Northern and Southern divisions. This

3318-529: A reality series carried over from Spike, has also continued to air new episodes on Paramount Network. As Spike, male-oriented programs constituted the majority of the network's schedule upon its original relaunch in 2003. By 2011, Spike had shifted its programming towards shows aimed at a broader audience, such as Bar Rescue . Finally, with its 2015 rebrand, Spike attempted to add more "gender-balanced" programming. The network had formerly carried combat sports programming throughout its various incarnations; being

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3476-414: A rebrand in an effort to clarify the network's focus. At its upfront presentations in 2006, Viacom unveiled a new logo for the channel (officially shortening its name to "Spike"), and the new slogan "Get More Action.” The new brand was described as being "authentic" and "unapologetically" masculine, and emphasizing action as a core genre of programming for the network. The new branding would launch alongside

3634-622: A record for the highest-rated premiere in Paramount Network history, and on cable overall since 2015, with 4.9 million viewers. McCarthy described this practice as a method of using its linear platforms as a "launch pad" for streaming content. In January 2022, Deadline reported that the network relaunch had been shelved, partly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on television and film production , in addition to Yellowstone ' s ratings success—which had been influenced by

3792-463: A relationship with Bob Barkhimer and his partner, Margo Burke. He went to events with them, stayed weekends with them and generally became very familiar with racing on the west coast. "Barky", as he was called by his friends, journeyed to Daytona Beach and met with Bill France Sr. In the spring of 1954, NASCAR became a stock car sanctioning body on the Pacific Coast under Barky. Wendell Scott

3950-574: A result of that sponsorship, the Grand National Series became known as the Winston Cup Series starting in 1971, with a new points system and some significant cash benefits to compete for championship points. In 1972, the season was shortened from 48 races (including two on dirt tracks ) to 31. 1972 is often acknowledged as the beginning of NASCAR's "modern era". The next competitive level, called Late Model Sportsman, gained

4108-460: A return to original scripted programming. On January 18, 2018, Spike relaunched as Paramount Network , aiming to align the network with its namesake studio (which previously lent its name to the now-defunct United Paramount Network ), and to position it as a flagship, "premium" channel. Paramount Network's most successful original program was Yellowstone — which quickly became its flagship series, and has spawned multiple spin-offs on Paramount+ ,

4266-463: A row by Cale Yarborough in the late 1970s, the only other time when a driver has won three or more NASCAR Cup Series championships in a row. The Cup Series had its first title sponsor in 1972. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company , which had been banned from television advertising , found a popular and demographically suitable consumer base in NASCAR fans and engaged NASCAR as a promotional outlet. As

4424-478: A season, along with the pre-season Clash and mid-season All-Star race. NASCAR runs races primarily on ovals , including superspeedways, short tracks, and dirt tracks , but also road courses and street circuits . Richard Petty holds the Cup Series wins record with 200. He is tied with Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson for the championship record, with seven each. Entering the 2025 season , Joey Logano

4582-598: A series of meetings held at the Streamline Hotel in Florida, beginning on December 14, 1947. At 1:00 pm, France called to order the 35 men who represented the NCSCC on the top floor of the hotel. The meeting was the first of four seminars in which France would outline his vision of an organized group of race car drivers. The name originally chosen for the series was National Stock Car Racing Association ; when it

4740-847: A showcase studio inside the former home of Roy Acuff , just outside the Grand Ole Opry House, in July 2024. Nicknamed "The Air Castle of the South", the station broadcasts with 50,000 watts around the clock from a facility in Brentwood, Tennessee . It has one of the largest daytime coverage areas in the country, providing at least grade B coverage as far southeast as Chattanooga , as far northwest as Evansville, Indiana , as far west as Jackson, Tennessee and as far south as Huntsville, Alabama . At night, WSM's clear channel signal reaches much of North America and nearby countries. WSM reaches

4898-518: A strategy eventually abandoned to refocus Spike.com as a general network site. The iFilm.com domain redirected to the Screen Junkies website for a period of time. During the era where they hosted user generated content, Spike.com's managers only approved videos pre-screened to meet their standards. On January 18, 2018, Spike.com was sunsetted, and viewers were redirected to the new Paramount Network site and domain. In April 1984, while as TNN,

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5056-709: A taste for moonshine , and a number of the drivers continued "runnin' shine", this time evading the "revenuers" who were attempting to tax their operations. The cars continued to improve, and by the late 1940s, races featuring these cars were being run for pride and profit. These races were popular entertainment in the rural Southern United States, and they are most closely associated with the Wilkes County region of North Carolina . Most races in those days were of modified cars. Street vehicles were lightened and reinforced. Mechanic William France Sr. , moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, from Washington, D.C., in 1935 to escape

5214-468: A transition to a new showcase studio inside the home originally built for Roy Acuff on the grounds of the Grand Ole Opry House. WSM's unusual diamond-shaped transmitting antenna (manufactured by Blaw-Knox ) is visible from Interstate 65 just south of Nashville (in Brentwood ) and is one of the area's landmarks. It is located near the I-65 exit 71 interchange with Concord Road ( State Highway 253 ). When

5372-407: A web-based screenwriting community. In January 2011, Spike ordered two new reality television series, Bar Rescue and Repo Games . During Viacom's upfronts presentation that May, it was announced that Spike would undergo a brand repositioning, with a larger focus on reality programming and a broader audience of males in the key demographic . The changes were intended to pivot Spike's brand in

5530-692: A weekly show Friends and Neighbors with his house band, the Stone Fox Five, after most Friday Night Opry episodes. Mandy Barnett hosts a Nashville Songbook series for one hour each Monday evening. Charlie Worsham hosts the Air Castle Community Hour , mainly featuring artists in the Nashville music scene. Jason Coleman hosts a Sunday night piano music show in honor of his grandfather, longtime Nashville keyboardist Floyd Cramer . The Grand Ole Opry fills several nights of

5688-469: A wider demographic, including younger viewers; capitalizing on the success of RollerJam (a roller derby -inspired series with elements of professional wrestling ), TNN reached a three-year deal to broadcast a weekly television series from the Philadelphia-based wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), which would air on Friday nights beginning in late August 1999. Under

5846-799: A worldwide audience via its Internet simulcast. It is the National Primary Entry Point (PEP) for the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in Middle Tennessee and the southwestern portion of Indiana . WSM is one of two clear-channel stations in North America, along with CFZM in Toronto, that still primarily broadcast secular music. ( CKDO , in Ontario, is authorized as a clear channel but operates at

6004-544: A young Bill France placed 5th at the end of the day. By early 1947, Bill France saw the potential for a unified series of racing competitors. France announced the foundation of the "National Championship Stock Car Circuit", otherwise known as NCSCC. France approached the American Automobile Association , or AAA, in hopes of obtaining financial backing for the venture. When the AAA declined support of

6162-554: Is Cole Custer in 2023. The modern incarnation of this series began in 1982, with sponsorship by Anheuser-Busch Brewing 's Budweiser brand. In 1984 it was renamed to the Busch Grand National Series, then later just the Busch Series. The Anheuser-Busch sponsorship expired at the end of 2007, being replaced by Nationwide Insurance from 2008 to 2014, and the series is now sponsored by Comcast through its Xfinity brand. The season usually has fewer races than

6320-581: Is NASCAR's oldest division, and the modern division has been operating since 1985 as the Winston Modified Series and later in 1994 as the Featherlite Trailers Modified Series. The ARCA Menards Series ' feeder divisions, which consists of East and West divisions, race pro-stock cars that are similar to older Xfinity Series cars, although they are less powerful. The east division was originally divided into

6478-451: Is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing . It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in the world and is one of the largest spectator sports leagues in America. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and his son, Jim France , has been the CEO since August 2018. The company

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6636-692: Is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida . Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe. NASCAR, and stock car racing as a whole, traces its roots back to moonshine runners during Prohibition , who grew to compete against each other in a show of pride. This happened notably in North Carolina. In 1935, Bill France Sr. established races in Daytona Beach, with

6794-519: Is listed as a National Engineering Landmark and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 15, 2011. In 1939, WSM began operating an experimental high-frequency, high-fidelity AM "Apex" station, W4XA , on 26.15 MHz. This was replaced in 1941 by a commercial FM station, initially with the call sign W47NV and operating on 44.7 MHz. This was reported to be first commercial FM to be fully licensed; although

6952-563: Is primarily a Midwestern United States series. NASCAR acquired the series on April 27, 2018 after being privately owned for 60 years. The NASCAR Canada Series is a NASCAR racing series in Canada that derives from the old CASCAR Super Series (founded in 1981 and bought out by NASCAR in 2006). The new series has races through six of Canada's provinces for a total of 13 events with TV coverage on TSN . Many drivers are content running in Canada while others move up to bigger NASCAR series including J. R. Fitzpatrick and D. J. Kennington . The cars are

7110-610: Is scheduled to continue as planned. The series was renamed again in 2020 to the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series before returning to the Camping World Truck Series name in 2021. On August 26, 2022 it was announced that the original series' sponsor, Craftsman, would return as the title sponsor starting in the 2023 season. The ARCA Menards Series is a racing series that races at big touring series tracks and local racing series tracks. It

7268-491: Is the defending Cup Series champion. In the 1920s and 1930s, Daytona Beach supplanted France and Belgium as the preferred location for world land speed records . After a historic race between Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton in 1903, 15 records were set on what became the Daytona Beach Road Course between 1905 and 1935. Daytona Beach had become synonymous with fast cars in 1936. Drivers raced on

7426-672: The American International Group ) bought NLT. At one time, American General was the parent company of the Life and Casualty Insurance Company based in Nashville, former owner of WSM-TV rival WLAC-TV (now WTVF ), and WLAC-AM-FM, but divested the broadcast properties in 1975, long before the NLT merger. American General was not interested in NLT's non-insurance operations, and sold WSM, Inc. (which included Opryland Hotel , Opryland USA , Ryman Auditorium , The Grand Ole Opry ,

7584-536: The Appalachian region of the United States. Bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit products, and they typically used small, fast vehicles to better evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify their cars for speed and handling, as well as increased cargo capacity. The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 dried up some of their business, but by then the people of the American South had developed

7742-791: The Camping World Truck Series. In 2019, per a branding request made by Camping World, the series was rebranded as the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. As noted previously, the Chase format was extended to the Truck Series in 2016. The format is identical to that used in the Xfinity Series, except that only eight drivers qualify for the Chase (instead of 12 in the Xfinity Series) and only two drivers are eliminated at

7900-715: The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved the channel for carriage by Canadian cable and satellite television providers. Following its re-branding as Spike TV, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters filed a complaint with the CRTC on behalf of Canwest Global , demanding the channel be removed from Canadian television providers. The CAB felt that its new general entertainment format would unduly compete with various Canadian-run specialty channels, arguing that there

8058-500: The Federal Radio Commission implemented General Order 40 , which assigned WSM to a frequency of 650 kHz, as Tennessee's sole "clear channel" allocation. In 1932, the station boosted its power to 50,000 watts. On September 30, 1950, WSM added a television sister station on channel 4, operating as a primary NBC affiliate; WSM-TV was Nashville's first TV station. The studios remained in its original location until

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8216-597: The Grand Ole Opry , was owned by the Nashville-based National Life and Accident Insurance Company . In 1974, National Life and Accident Insurance Company reorganized itself as a holding company, NLT Corporation, with the WSM stations as one of the major subsidiaries. After television became popular (thus largely eliminating the audience for full-length radio programs), WSM adopted a middle of

8374-482: The Great Depression . He was familiar with the history of the area from the land speed record attempts. France entered the 1936 Daytona event, finishing fifth. He took over running the course in 1938. He promoted a few races before World War II. France had the notion that people would enjoy watching stock cars race. Drivers were frequently victimized by unscrupulous promoters who would leave events with all

8532-548: The Heartland network. Cody's Pure American Country syndicated show is flagshipped at WSM. Larry Gatlin , lead singer of the Gatlin Brothers, hosts an hourlong gospel program on the weekends as of 2016. Tracy Lawrence 's syndicated program Honky Tonkin ' has been flagshipped at WSM since 2015. Dailey & Vincent host a monthly radio show on the station. Chris Scruggs , grandson of Earl Scruggs , hosts

8690-660: The One Astor Plaza in New York City to Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles to give the network a closer association with the film studio. This was part of a restructuring plan by new Viacom CEO Bob Bakish to refocus the majority of its media business around six flagship brands, which included Paramount, BET , Comedy Central , Nickelodeon , the Nick Jr. Channel , and MTV . New original series announced in

8848-588: The Paramount+ streaming service in the market instead, a number of major providers began dropping the channel, beginning with Rogers Communications on April 1, 2022, followed by Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct on August 31, 2023, and Eastlink on September 15, 2023. The Canadian feed was discontinued on all other providers on January 1, 2024. WSM (AM) WSM (650 kHz ) is a commercial AM radio station, located in Nashville, Tennessee . It broadcasts

9006-590: The Playboy Mansion , and the premiere of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge —a comedic dub of the Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle . Klasky Csupo 's Immigrants and the John Leguizamo -produced Zilch & Zero were originally slated to run on Spike TV's animation block, but these plans never materialized and the former was released as a film instead. Later that year, Spike premiered

9164-635: The reality television parody The Joe Schmo Show , and launched the Spike Video Game Awards . On January 17, 2005, Spike TV premiered The Ultimate Fighter , a reality competition series following mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters training and competing to earn a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The series helped to raise the profile of the promotion, and would run for 14 seasons, ending its run in 2011 only after Fox Sports acquired

9322-634: The roadsters , which fans perceived as a Northeast or Midwest series. The roadster division was quickly abandoned, while the modified division now operates as the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour . The Strictly Stock division was put on hold as American automobile manufacturers were unable to produce family sedans quickly enough to keep up with post-World War II demand. The 1948 schedule featured 52 Modified dirt track races . The sanctioning body hosted its first event at Daytona Beach on February 15, 1948. Red Byron beat Marshall Teague in

9480-501: The setting of Yellowstone as making it "brighter and a bit more blue sky than some of the things that are on premium cable TV now.” In regards to the programs moved to Paramount Network from TV Land, American Woman was moved to take advantage of its prominent leads Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari , while Heathers was moved because, in Kay's opinion, the show was not appropriate for TV Land's target audience. In June 2018, Heathers

9638-682: The "Grand National" title passed down from the top division and soon found a sponsor in Busch Beer . In 2004, Nextel Communications took over sponsorship of the premier series, and formally renamed it the Nextel Cup Series. A new championship points system, the " Chase for the Nextel Cup ," (renamed "Chase for the Sprint Cup" in 2008) was also developed, which reset the point standings with ten races to go, making only drivers in

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9796-412: The 16 participating in the Cup Series Chase. Four drivers are eliminated at the end of each preliminary round of the Chase in the Xfinity Series, which also mirrors the Cup Series Chase. This means that four drivers are eligible for the series title entering the final race, as in the Cup Series. Similar to Cup, starting in 2017 "The Chase" moniker was dropped and the final seven races are now referred to as

9954-402: The 2011 season, drivers would be allowed to compete for the championship in only one of NASCAR's three national series in a given season, although they could continue to run in multiple series. This change was officially confirmed by France in a press conference less than two weeks later, and has remained in the NASCAR rules ever since. Beginning in 2010, the Nationwide cars adapted somewhat to

10112-521: The Blue , The Crook & Chase Countdown and Y'all Access with Kelly Sutton . In 2017, WSM launched "Route 650", a full-time Americana music streaming station available via its website, mobile app and services like TuneIn . In 2018, WSM launched "Opry Nashville Radio", a full-time streaming station billed as being "based on the Grand Ole Opry and Nashville lifestyle" and focusing mainly on contemporary country music. During December, this channel flips to all Christmas music . As recently as 2020,

10270-432: The Busch North series, which raced in Northeastern states, and the Busch East Series, which raced throughout Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. The west division was originally known as the Winston West Series and raced throughout Southwestern and Coastal Pacific states. In 2008, the series came together in east and west divisions under sponsorship from Camping World as the Camping World Series. K&N Filters took over

10428-497: The CRTC classified as a general entertainment channel targeting males), and that the remaining allegations of overlap with domestic Canadian specialty channels represented only a minority of Spike's overall programming. Due to programming rights issues, programs which the channel does not hold rights to air outside of the U.S. are replaced with alternate programs, consisting mainly of reruns of Spike's previous reality programs. In 2022, with Paramount Global prioritizing promotion of

10586-441: The Chase format, expanding the Chase pool to 16 drivers, and eliminating four drivers after every three races, leaving four drivers to compete for the championship at the season finale at Homestead . In addition, wins were given an increased emphasis, with the 16 drivers with the most wins (15 if the points leader is winless; points leader will receive an automatic berth) gaining a spot in the chase. If there are fewer than 16 winners,

10744-428: The Cup Series, and the prize money is significantly lower. However, over the last several years, a number of Cup Series drivers have run both the Xfinity and Cup Series events each weekend, using the Xfinity race as a warm-up to the Cup event at the same facility. Furthermore, several drivers not only participated in both Cup and Busch/Nationwide/Xfinity events on the same weekend but also began to compete in both series on

10902-421: The Gaylord era was originally produced by Opryland Productions, also owned by Gaylord Entertainment. From 1983 to 1992, all of TNN's auto racing and motor sports coverage was produced by Diamond P Sports. Starting in 1993, TNN started having its NASCAR coverage produced by World Sports Enterprises, and the American Speed Association coverage produced by Group 5 Sports, while Diamond P continued to produce most of

11060-430: The Modified division race. Byron won the 1948 national championship. Things had changed dramatically by 1949, and the Strictly Stock division was able to debut with a 20-mile (32 km) exhibition in February near Miami. The first NASCAR "Strictly Stock" race ever was held at Charlotte Speedway , although this is not the same track as the Charlotte Motor Speedway that is a fixture on current NASCAR schedule. The race

11218-483: The NASCAR Regional banner. Many local race tracks across the United States and Canada run under the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series banner, where local drivers are compared against each other in a formula where the best local track champion of the nation wins the Whelen All-American Weekly Series National Championship. The Whelen All-American series is split into four car divisions as well as state and track championships separately. Each division champion receives

11376-473: The NCS and the ambiguous use of "NASCAR" as a synonym for the series is common. The 2023 NCS Champion is Ryan Blaney . The record for most championships is 7, held by three drivers: Richard Petty , Dale Earnhardt , and Jimmie Johnson . Johnson has the record for most consecutive with five consecutive Cup Series drivers' championships from 2006 to 2010. Previously, the most consecutive championships had been three in

11534-743: The Opryland Hotel, departing their shared building on Knob Road, which still houses WSMV today. WSM broadcast in the C-QUAM format of AM stereo , which could be heard over several states at night, from 1982 until 2000. In 1996, the station was named Radio Station of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards . In 2001, management had sought to capitalize on the success of sister station WWTN 's sports trappings by converting WSM to an all-sports format. Word

11692-498: The Paramount-owned Bellator MMA and Bellator Kickboxing . On October 15, 2005, Viacom acquired iFilm , which was initially launched in 1997. After acquiring the website for $ 49 million, it was eventually rebranded to Spike.com and provided hosting of user-uploaded videos in a short-lived attempt to compete with YouTube (which Viacom had sued to remove user-generated uploads of its programming from),

11850-493: The U.S. television rights to UFC programming and events under a new, seven-year deal. In March 2005, Viacom announced that it would not renew its contract with WWE when it expired in September 2005. Spike TV's new president, Doug Herzog , stated that the network had planned to "expand its investments in original programming and new acquisitions for its core audience", including new scripted programming. The following month, it

12008-554: The US was in Canada, where on July 1, 1952, Buddy Shuman won a 200-lap race on a half-mile (800 m) dirt track in Stamford Park, Ontario , near Niagara Falls . The NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) is the sport's highest level of professional competition. It is consequently the most popular and most profitable NASCAR series. Since 2001, the Cup Series season has consisted of 36 races over 10 months. Writers and fans often use "Cup" to refer to

12166-467: The United Kingdom's Channel 5 . These changes would have mirrored a similar shift in programming that McCarthy undertook at sister channel Comedy Central , which also dropped live-action series development in favor of original specials, films, and adult animation . At least one scripted series or miniseries was to be carried per-quarter, such as Yellowstone (albeit with episodes premiering in

12324-476: The Xfinity Playoffs. Even with restrictions limiting points earnings to one national series, Cup drivers were still running and winning a vast majority of Xfinity series races through 2015. Starting with the 2015 season finale, NASCAR began to add additional restrictions in regards to Cup drivers running Xfinity races. Beginning in the 2020 season, Cup drivers with more than three years of experience in

12482-601: The acquisition of streaming rights to the series by NBCUniversal 's Peacock . The network also acquired linear rights to the Spectrum Originals series George & Tammy . During the Paramount Global upfronts in May 2022, it was announced that Yellowstone spin-off 6666 had been shifted from Paramount+ to Paramount Network, the fifth season of Yellowstone would premiere in November 2022, and that

12640-496: The action drama 18 Wheels of Justice , collegiate bowling competition series Rockin' Bowl , reruns of the Western anthology Dead Man's Gun , and a new promotional campaign targeting younger viewers, were intended to introduce a broader audience to the network. Despite ECW reportedly driving a 200% increase in young male viewership in its timeslot, the promotion had a strained relationship with TNN's management—which had given

12798-633: The attempts for rescue and recovery following the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center site . The film proceeds through the ironworkers' dismantling of the fallen towers. On October 10, 2006, Spike aired the inaugural Scream Awards , an awards show honoring horror , science fiction, fantasy and comic book-based entertainment. In January 2007, Spike premiered the anime series Afro Samurai , whose English-language cast featured actor Samuel L. Jackson . In October 2007, Kevin Kay

12956-520: The buildings at the Opryland complex were repaired. WSM's administrative offices next door to the Grand Ole Opry House were completely destroyed by the flood, resulting in the loss of several priceless documents from the station's history, and later demolished. In 2024, WSM vacated its longstanding studio inside the Magnolia Lobby of Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center , and began

13114-590: The channel converted to "WSM Entertainment", a separate satellite radio feed that carried the same classic country music format as the AM signal. About a year after the channel was eliminated, then-rival XM Satellite Radio announced the carriage of the Grand Ole Opry on Nashville! channel 11 beginning in October 2007, as well as the Eddie Stubbs Show on America channel 10 beginning in November 2007. After

13272-564: The channel's Summer 2008 lineup, including 1000 Ways to Die . In the fall of 2009, Spike broadcast live Australian rugby league semifinal games from the National Rugby League and also showed the grand final, as part of efforts by David Niu to bring the National Rugby League USA to the United States. On June 1, 2010, Spike launched into the first crowd-sourced pilot episode contest with Scripped ,

13430-465: The claim of the "first country music cable television network." TNN's flagship shows included Nashville Now , The Statler Brothers Show , American Sports Cavalcade and Grand Ole Opry Live . Nashville Now and the Grand Ole Opry were broadcast live from Opryland USA. The Gaylord Entertainment Company purchased WSM, along with TNN and the Opryland properties, in the latter half of 1987. Much of TNN's programming (except for its sports) during

13588-515: The company's building on Seventh Avenue and Union Street in downtown Nashville; this was the original home of the Opry, until 1934. WSM is associated with the popularization of country music through its weekly Saturday night program, the Grand Ole Opry , the longest-running radio program in history. The Opry began as the WSM Barn Dance on November 28, 1925, with Uncle Jimmy Thompson as

13746-841: The contract, ECW also agreed to revenue sharing with TNN for all of the promotion's events (including live shows and pay-per-views ) and merchandising. These two programs would air as part of a Friday-night block themed around extreme sports programming, alongside Motor Madness and bull riding from the Professional Bull Riders (PBR); a TNN executive described bull riding as being "the original extreme sport". In November 1999, TNN announced new programming and primetime theme blocks it planned to introduce in 2000, including Movie Monday (which would target female viewers), Action Wednesday , Friday Night Thrill Zone , Classic Country on Saturday nights, and TNN Outdoors on Sundays. The new schedule, along with new series such as

13904-515: The current " Car of Tomorrow " (or COT) design used by Cup cars, with different bodies from the Cup Series. In 2016, the Chase format was extended to both the Xfinity and Truck Series. Instead of the four-round, 10-race format used in the Cup Series, the Chase in each of the two supporting series consists of three rounds and seven races in all, with each preliminary round consisting of three races. The Xfinity Series Chase involves 12 drivers instead of

14062-401: The current occupant of the 103.3 frequency vacated by the original WSM-FM, WKDF , are now sister stations, with each separately broadcasting a country music format. Television channel 4 (originally WSM-TV, and now WSMV-TV ), was started by WSM, Inc. in 1950 and sold to George N. Gillett Jr. in 1981. NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC ( NASCAR )

14220-435: The early decades of the station's existence, in hopes of getting to perform on WSM. Over time, as more acts and recording companies came to Nashville, the city became known as the center of the country music industry. Disc jockey David Cobb is credited with first referring to Nashville as "Music City USA", a designation that has since been adopted as the city's official nickname by the local tourism board. On November 11, 1928,

14378-580: The end of each preliminary round (instead of four in the Xfinity Series). As in both the Cup Series and Xfinity Series, four drivers are eligible for the series title entering the final race. Similar to Cup, starting in 2017 "The Chase" moniker was dropped and is now simply referred to as the Truck Series Playoffs. On May 8, 2018, NASCAR and Camping World announced the Truck Series title sponsor would be moved to Camping World subsidiary Gander Outdoors starting in 2019. The contract through 2022

14536-405: The first basic cable home of mixed martial arts promotion UFC , and including early seasons of the promotion's reality series The Ultimate Fighter . Other promotions and sports-related programming have included kickboxing events from Glory and K-1 ; professional wrestling from TNA Wrestling , WWE , and Extreme Championship Wrestling ; boxing cards from Premier Boxing Champions ; and

14694-402: The first channel to air reruns of MADtv . These moves went unnoticed for the most part, due to TNN's lack of popularity. By this time, all country-western programming had been purged from the network; some of The Nashville Network's former programming was picked up by CMT, while other classic TNN shows were picked up by Great American Country , including eventually the Grand Ole Opry , which

14852-455: The first half of 2018 included the miniseries Waco and Yellowstone , along with American Woman and Heathers —two comedies originally slated for TV Land . The Shannara Chronicles , which moved to Spike for season 2 from MTV, was not renewed by Paramount Network. Paramount Network is being positioned as a "premium" basic cable network, similar to AMC and FX . Network president Kevin Kay explained that Bakish wanted Viacom to have

15010-492: The first performer. George D. Hay , a newspaper reporter from Memphis, was WSM's first program director. On December 10, 1927, Hay is quoted as saying "For the past hour we have been listening to music largely from Grand Opera, but from now on we will present 'The Grand Ole Opry'", contrasting the preceding program on the NBC Red Network with WSM's local broadcast. The station traditionally played country music in

15168-508: The first two episodes of Sheridan and Sylvester Stallone 's Paramount+ series Tulsa King would receive special airings as lead-outs for Yellowstone . Paramount Network's current programming consists primarily of reruns of sitcoms and drama series , as well as airings of feature films. As of 2022, the network's lone original drama is Yellowstone , which launched alongside the rebranding of Spike as Paramount Network, and grew in viewership throughout its first four seasons. Bar Rescue ,

15326-439: The fledgling The Nashville Network cable television outlet, WSM-FM, and WSM) to Gaylord Broadcasting Company . WSM-TV, due to FCC ownership limits at the time, was sold instead to Gillett Broadcasting and changed its callsign to WSMV-TV . However, there was still considerable overlap between the stations' on-air personnel for some years after the ownership change. Gaylord would also move the WSM radio stations to new facilities at

15484-570: The form of The Game Awards . In January 2015, following a similar deal made by NBC , Spike announced they would air monthly fight cards by the Haymon Boxing -created " Premier Boxing Champions .” During its upfronts on March 3, 2015, Spike unveiled a new logo and tagline, "The Ones to Watch". The re-branding aimed to make the network more inclusive to women, emphasizing a focus on "big talent, engaging shows and hits that get people talking" and further expansions into scripted series. Alongside

15642-573: The formation of the NASCAR SuperTruck Series presented by Craftsman . The first series race followed in 1995. In 1996, the series was renamed the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to emphasize Craftsman's involvement. The series was first considered something of an oddity or a "senior tour" for NASCAR drivers, but eventually grew in popularity and has seen drivers move straight to the Cup Series without running

15800-448: The former Nickelodeon series The Ren & Stimpy Show , led by its original creator John Kricfalusi ), and Stripperella , as well as other new series such as Ride with Funkmaster Flex , joined by its recent acquisitions CSI , Star Trek , and Raw. Other planned programming included interstitial segments on health, technology, and finance in collaboration with Men's Health , Stuff , and MarketWatch . Three days before

15958-701: The former Spike logo, culminating in its demolition. Paramount Network officially launched the following night at 9:00 p.m. ET, marked by a live, Michael Jackson -themed Lip Sync Battle special from the Dolby Theatre . The Spike trademark remains in active use as a series of channels on Paramount Global's Pluto TV , specifically targeted to men. As of January 2024, The channels’ logos are now stylized as “Pluto Spike.” In early 2020, Paramount Network began to cut back on scripted series development, having dropped upcoming projects such as Emily in Paris (which

16116-860: The hope that people would come to watch races and that racers would race for him, as other organizers tended to fleece the winners of their payouts. This was a success, and the series was founded in 1948. Races were held in several divisions, which eventually morphed into what is the "ladder:" the Cup Series at the top, the Xfinity Series second, and the Truck Series third, with smaller series spread out below. Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota compete in each series. The vast majority of NASCAR drivers are American, but drivers from Canada, Mexico, Europe, and other places have competed. All Cup Series races are held across America. There are 36 points-paying races in

16274-489: The inexplicable naming of Report on Business Television and CTV Travel for reasons unknown. In January 2005, the CRTC dismissed the CAB's complaint, ruling that it provided insufficient evidence that Spike was directly competing with Canadian specialty channels. The CRTC ruled that Spike did not unduly compete with Men TV, since it was licensed as a service that would carry men's lifestyle programming (in contrast to Spike, which

16432-493: The merger between Sirius and XM, the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts were moved to the service's The Roadhouse channel, which is heard on both Sirius and XM. Following the devastating 2010 Tennessee flood that inundated Gaylord Opryland and the Grand Ole Opry House, the station broadcast from a makeshift studio at its transmitter site for six months, while the Grand Ole Opry rotated between several performance sites, until

16590-541: The mid-1960s, the vehicles were purpose-built race cars with a stock-appearing body. Early in NASCAR's history, foreign manufacturers had shown interest in entering the series; the British car manufacturer, MG , found a few of its vehicles entered, with some placing. For example, on August 16, 1963 in the International 200, Smokey Cook drove an MG to a 17th-place finish. The first NASCAR competition held outside

16748-531: The mid-1960s, when the company built a new headquarters building downtown and new studios for WSM-TV on Knob Road in west Nashville (the TV station had been located near Belmont College ). Upon completion of the new headquarters, National Life and Accident Insurance Company chose to relocate WSM radio to their new TV studios, and WSM radio, joined in 1968 by its new FM sister, broadcast from that location from 1966 to 1983. For most of its history, WSM, along with WSM-TV and

16906-560: The miniseries Tut and the announcement of an expanded episode order for the series Lip Sync Battle (a spin-off of a segment from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ), the network announced an output deal with Dwayne Johnson 's Seven Bucks Productions for a series of specials, Emergency Broadcast , an original drama co-created by Max Brooks , and Sweat Inc. , a fitness-oriented reality series hosted by Jillian Michaels . On February 9, 2017, Viacom announced that Spike would relaunch as Paramount Network in 2018 and move its headquarters from

17064-727: The money before drivers were paid. On December 14, 1947, France began talks with other influential racers and promoters at the Ebony Bar at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida , that ended with the formation of NASCAR on February 21, 1948. The first Commissioner of NASCAR was Erwin "Cannonball" Baker, a former stock car, motorcycle, and open-wheel racer who competed in the Indianapolis 500 and set over one hundred land speed records. Baker earned most of his fame for his transcontinental speed runs and would prove

17222-564: The network with a focus on made-for-TV films . By January 2022, these plans had been scrapped due to the impact of COVID-19 , and success of the Yellowstone franchise; leaving it, and Spike holdover Bar Rescue , as the channel's only original, first-run programs. As of December 2023, approximately 61.33 million pay television households in the United States received Paramount Network; down from 80.24 million in September 2018. The Nashville Network first launched on March 7, 1983; it

17380-525: The network's programming, including the network premiere of Raw Is War — the flagship weekly program of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) — which moved to TNN from USA Network as part of a new contract with Viacom. As WWF programs were among USA Network's top programs, the move was considered a major coup for TNN. MTV Networks chairman Tom Freston described TNN as now being a general entertainment service, albeit one with

17538-399: The nighttime hours, when listeners from around the United States would tune in. During daytime hours, the station broadcast long-form radio , including both local and NBC network programs, in addition to music. WSM is credited with helping shape Nashville into a recording industry capital. Because of WSM's wide reach, musical acts from all across the eastern United States came to Nashville in

17696-700: The original series sponsor's name with the notion of being bushwhacked. In May 2007, NNS director Joe Balash confirmed that NASCAR was exploring options to deal with the Buschwhacker controversy. One of the most often-cited proposals was for Cup Series drivers participating in the Nationwide Series to receive no points for their participation in a Nationwide race. In 2007, NASCAR chairman Brian France indicated that all options, except an outright ban of Cup competitors, were still being considered. On January 11, 2011, NASCAR.com reported that beginning with

17854-591: The past, NASCAR also sanctioned the AutoZone Elite Division, which raced late-model cars that were lighter and less powerful than Cup Series cars, and was originally split into four divisions: Northwest, Southwest, Southeast, and Midwest. At the end of 2005, NASCAR announced that the AutoZone Elite Division would be discontinued after the 2006 season due to having trouble securing NASCAR-sanctioned tracks to successfully host AutoZone Elite Division events, plus escalating costs of competing and downsizing of

18012-486: The planned launch date, film director Spike Lee won a New York Supreme Court injunction preventing Viacom from using the name "Spike TV.” Lee claimed that because of his well-known popularity in Hollywood, viewers would therefore assume that he was associated with the new channel. Lee stated in court papers that: "The media description of this change of name, as well as comments made to me and my wife, confirmed what

18170-539: The premier series title name became the Sprint Cup Series, as part of the merger between Nextel and Sprint . In 2011, NASCAR announced a number of major rules changes, the most significant being abandoning the points system. The winner of a race now receives 43 points, with one-point decrements for each subsequent position (42 for second, 41 for third, and so on). The winner also receives 3 bonus points, and single bonus points are awarded to all drivers who lead

18328-455: The premiere of Blade: The Series in June 2006. An aspect of the rebranding were themed promos with integrated product placement , such as "Men of Action" (which featured homages and parodies of "classic action moments"). On September 5, 2006, Spike premiered the documentary film Metal of Honor: The Ironworkers of 9/11 by filmmaker Rachel Maguire, which profiled the ironworkers' efforts in

18486-628: The program little advertising, among other issues. ECW would reference these difficulties in its storylines with its stable " The Network ,” whose leader Cyrus criticized the ECW program for its content, and showed a blatant adoration for TNN shows such as RollerJam . On September 25, 2000, TNN was folded into the MTV Networks division based in New York City, and was renamed The National Network. The rebranding coincided with major changes to

18644-404: The race, the heavier cars got bogged down in the sand, while the lightweight Fords navigated the ruts of the course, eventually claiming the top 6 finishes for the race. Of the 27 cars that started the event, only 10 managed to survive the ordeal, as officials halted the event 10 miles (16 km) short of the scheduled 250-mile (400 km) distance. Driver Milt Marion was declared the winner, and

18802-450: The remaining spots will be filled based on the conventional points system. Monster Energy became the title sponsor in 2017, which changed the series' name to Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. With Monster Energy's title sponsorship, NASCAR also abandoned "The Chase" name and now refers to the last 10 races simply as "the playoffs" similar to most other sports. After the 2019 season, NASCAR declined an offer from Monster Energy to remain

18960-531: The rest of the racing coverage. Programming included variety shows, talk shows , game shows , outdoor shows (such as hunting and fishing), and lifestyle shows; all centered in some way around country music or the country style of living. Some of TNN's popular on-air talent included local Nashville media personalities Ralph Emery , Dan Miller , Charlie Chase and Lorianne Crook , as well as established stars such as country music singer Bill Anderson and actresses Florence Henderson and Dinah Shore . By 1995, TNN

19118-685: The rights to a late Sunday afternoon game each week except for the first week, when UPN aired the afternoon game instead. In 2001, TNN aired CBS Sports-produced coverage of the inaugural opening round game of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament . The opening round game would later move to ESPN in 2002 . In 2001, TNN added off-network sitcoms and dramas such as Diff'rent Strokes , The Wonder Years , The Rockford Files , WKRP in Cincinnati , Newhart , Hangin' With Mr. Cooper , Miami Vice and Taxi . It also became

19276-526: The road (MOR) music format during the daytime hours, and continued to play country music at night. It was not until 1980 that WSM adopted the 24-hour country music format of today. Country and bluegrass legend John Hartford parodied the distinctive style of WSM DJs on the 1971 album Aereo-Plain , humorously changing the station's call letters to the phrase "Dorothy S. Ma'am". In 1981, the American General Corporation (now part of

19434-503: The second season of The Last Cowboy (a reality competition series by Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan ) moved to CMT. Ink Master was also picked up for a new season by Paramount+. The channel also began a strategy of promoting new Paramount+ original series involving Sheridan, such as Mayor of Kingstown and Yellowstone prequel 1883 , under which their initial episodes were given special television airings on Paramount Network as lead-outs for Yellowstone . 1883 would set

19592-669: The sponsorship in 2010. 2019 was the last season for both of the series before they are to go under the ARCA banner in 2020 as part of the unification of the NASCAR K&;N Pro Series East and West and the ARCA Menards Series. The series became known as the ARCA Menards Series East and ARCA Menards Series West starting in 2020, meaning 2019 was also K&N's last year as the series title sponsor. In

19750-523: The station was live and locally operated during the overnight hours, but the overnight host position was eliminated in February 2020. Founded by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company as a platform to sell the company's insurance products, WSM first signed on October 5, 1925. The call letters were derived from the company's motto, "We Shield Millions". Studios were first located in

19908-563: The station's evening schedule. Following the Opry on most Saturday nights is the Midnite Jamboree , an aftershow that was originally founded by Ernest Tubb in 1947 and continues to be sponsored by Tubb's eponymous record shop . Following the Jamboree is the regionally syndicated Sutton Ole Time Music Hour . Syndicated programming on WSM as of 2024 includes reruns of Bob Kingsley -era American Country Countdown , Into

20066-416: The streaming service owned by its parent company Paramount Global . The network has also featured limited engagements of new Paramount+ original series by Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan , using Yellowstone as a lead-in. Between 2020 and 2021, most of Paramount Network's original programming would either be cancelled, or moved to other Paramount Global outlets, as part of a proposed plan to relaunch

20224-843: The title of "King of the Road". In the early 1950s, the United States Navy stationed Bill France Jr. , at the Moffett Federal Airfield in northern California. His father asked him to look up Bob Barkhimer in San Jose, California . Barkhimer was a star of midget car racing from the World War II era, and later ran about 22 different speedways as the head of the California Stock Car Racing Association. Young Bill developed

20382-502: The title sponsor of the top series. On December 5, NASCAR revealed their new sponsorship model. Instead of a singular title sponsor, four "premier partners" ( Coca-Cola , Xfinity , Busch Beer and GEICO ) would be closely affiliated with the top series, which was simply renamed the NASCAR Cup Series. The NASCAR Xfinity Series is the second-highest level of professional competition in NASCAR. The most recent series champion

20540-431: The top series were limited to five races per season. Furthermore, those same drivers are ineligible to run the regular season finale, NXS playoff races, or Dash 4 Cash races. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series features modified pickup trucks . It is one of the three national divisions of NASCAR, together with the Xfinity and Cup Series. The most recent series champion is Ben Rhodes in 2023. In 1994, NASCAR announced

20698-410: The top ten or within 400 points of the leader eligible to win the championship. In 2007, NASCAR announced it was expanding "The Chase" from ten to twelve drivers, eliminating the 400-point cutoff, and giving a ten-point bonus to the top twelve drivers for each of the races they have won out of the first 26. Wins throughout the season would also be awarded five more points than in previous seasons. In 2008,

20856-410: The tower was built in 1932, it was 878 feet (267.6m) tall and was the tallest antenna in North America. Its height was reduced to 808 feet (246 m) in 1939 when it was discovered that the taller tower was causing self-cancellation in the "fringe" areas of reception of the station (it is now known that 195 electrical degrees, about 810 feet, is the optimum height for a Class A station on that frequency). For

21014-521: The venture, France proceeded to announce a set of rules and awards for the NCSCC. France declared that the winner of the 1947 NCSCC season would receive $ 1000.00 (equivalent to $ 13645 in 2023) and a trophy. The season would begin in January 1947 at the Daytona Beach track, and conclude in Jacksonville the following December. Nearly 40 events were logged during the season, and attendance often exceeded

21172-445: The venue's capacity. The competitors were paid as promised, and by the end of the season, driver Fonty Flock was declared the season champion after winning 7 events of the 24 that he entered. Bill France delivered the $ 1000 and 4-foot high trophy to Flock at the end of the season, along with $ 3000 in prize money to other drivers who competed throughout the season. At the end of the 1947 season, Bill France announced that there would be

21330-480: Was acquired by Westinghouse Electric Corporation , which had recently acquired CBS around that time; two years later, Westinghouse bought CMT, TNN's chief competitor. In 1998, the channel dropped its "The Nashville Network" moniker and shortened its official name to TNN. Ownership shifted to Viacom in the late 1990s after its acquisition of CBS Corporation, Westinghouse's successor. In 1999, TNN began to downplay its previous country lifestyle programming to appeal to

21488-569: Was announced that WWE Raw would return to USA Network. Spike TV subsequently reached a deal with another wrestling promotion, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which saw TNA Impact! premiere on Saturday, October 1, 2005. Later in the month, Spike TV debuted the video game news show Game Head , hosted by Geoff Keighley . In 2005, Viacom conducted research which found that word-of-mouth knowledge narrowly perceived Spike TV's programming as being predominantly " low-brow ,” violent, and reliant on sex appeal . These findings led Viacom to pursue

21646-495: Was announced that TNN would be relaunched as Spike TV on June 16. Promoted with the slogan "The First Network for Men ", Viacom aimed to target young adult males aged 18–34 — a demographic they believed were being served insufficiently by other cable networks. Spike's launch programming would include a slate of new adult animation series such as Gary the Rat , Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" (an adult-oriented revival of

21804-527: Was appointed network president after serving as executive vice president and general manager of the channel for the previous two years. The post had been vacant since December 2006. In 2008, the network premiered DEA , a reality series based on the Drug Enforcement Administration . On April 7, 2008, Spike acquired cable syndication rights for the sitcom Married... with Children . Five new unscripted series were also picked up for

21962-462: Was dedicated to the culture and lifestyle of country music and the Southern United States . It originally operated as a joint venture of WSM, Inc., at the time owned by National Life and Accident Insurance Company , and Group W Satellite Communications. TNN operated from the now-defunct Opryland USA theme park near Nashville, Tennessee . Country Music Television (CMT), founded by Glenn D. Daniels, beat TNN's launch by two days, robbing them of

22120-677: Was dropped by Paramount Network and Viacom, citing network concerns over the content of the series in the wake of recent shootings in the United States, such as the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting . The series would eventually air on Paramount Network in October 2018 in an edited form, with two episodes dropped due to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting . Paramount Network began a viral marketing campaign to promote its launch in December 2017. The campaign included

22278-402: Was established after a National Life subsidiary purchased WLWM and renamed it WSM-FM in 1968. This WSM-FM (95.5 MHz) was WSM's sister until 2008, when Cumulus Media , the full owner of WSM-FM since 2003, ended its joint sales agreement with the AM station. Despite having the same base call sign, the two stations are no longer related; incidentally, both the current WSM-FM on 95.5 MHz and

22436-461: Was held on June 19, 1949 and won by driver Jim Roper when Glenn Dunaway was disqualified after the discovery of his altered rear springs. Initially, the cars were known as the "Strictly Stock Division" and raced with virtually no modifications on the factory models. This division was renamed the "Grand National" division beginning in the 1950 season. Over a period of more than a decade, modifications for both safety and performance were allowed, and by

22594-442: Was later revealed to actually be a third season of The Joe Schmo Show . In 2013, Bellator MMA made its network debut with the premiere of its eighth season ; the now Viacom-owned mixed martial arts promotion previously aired on sibling channel MTV2 . Later that year, Fox reality series Cops moved to Spike beginning September 14. In the fall, kickboxing promotion Glory made its network debut with Glory 11: Chicago . This

22752-424: Was leaked to other media resulting in protests, including longtime Opry personalities and country music singers, outside the station's studios. Management eventually made the decision to keep the station's classic country format. In 2003, WSM-FM and WWTN, sister stations to WSM, were sold to Cumulus Media. Cumulus intended to purchase WSM as well, but Gaylord decided to maintain ownership at the eleventh hour. Through

22910-573: Was not Spike's first time broadcasting a kickboxing event as, in 2012, they partnered with K-1 to broadcast several events on their website. The end of the year saw the Video Game Awards revamped and become known as VGX. At the end of the year, Impact Wrestling would air its last episode on Spike on December 24, 2014, before moving to Destination America in 2015. Spike also announced that they would drop their video game award show; Geoff Keighley would go on to create his own award show in

23068-467: Was obvious—that Spike TV referred to Spike Lee." Spike Jones Jr., son of comic musician Spike Jones , became a party to the lawsuit as part of Viacom's defense to protect the rights to his father's name. Most of the new programming would premiere on the originally-planned date as a soft launch , at this time, the TNN name and logo was downplayed heavily in favor of the "First Network for Men" tagline. The suit

23226-410: Was overlap in its niche and its then-current schedule with Men TV (men's lifestyle), Space ( Star Trek ), sports channels such as TheScore (WWE), Discovery Health (interstitial segments focusing on men's health, although the network did not air any full-length programs on the topic and mainly focused on generic women's and children's health and pregnancy-related programming at the time), along with

23384-555: Was pointed out that that name was already in use by a rival sanctioning body, "National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing", proposed by mechanic Red Vogt , was selected as the organization's name. NASCAR was founded by William France, Sr. on February 21, 1948 with the help of several other drivers of the time. The original plans for NASCAR included three distinct divisions: Modified, Roadster, and Strictly Stock. The Modified and Roadster classes were seen as more attractive to fans. It turned out that NASCAR fans wanted nothing to do with

23542-543: Was purchased by the Gaylord Entertainment Company in 1983. After Gaylord bought CMT in 1991, TNN's music programming was shifted to CMT, leaving TNN to focus on entertainment and lifestyle programming. In 1995, TNN and CMT were acquired by Westinghouse, which was in turn acquired by Viacom in 1999. Under Viacom ownership, TNN would phase out country-influenced programming in favor of a general entertainment format appealing to Middle America . It

23700-472: Was pushed off to CMT and eventually removed by Viacom after they did not renew the agreement to carry the series. In 2001, TNN began to market itself as "The New TNN", an inadvertent pleonasm in its full context. By late 2002, the channel had picked up more male-oriented shows, such as Baywatch , Monster Jam , the hidden camera game show Oblivious , Robot Wars Extreme Warriors , Star Trek: The Next Generation , and Slamball . In April 2003, it

23858-480: Was renamed The National Network in September 2000, coinciding with the network premiere of WWF Raw . In August 2003, TNN relaunched as Spike TV , which targeted a young adult male audience . From June 2006, the network's programming had a more explicit focus on the action genre, while in 2010, the network had an increased focus on original reality series. This culminated with a final rebrand in 2015 to emphasize gender-balanced series (such as Lip Sync Battle ) and

24016-535: Was renamed Ryman Hospitality Properties. Ryman sold minority stakes in the Opry businesses to NBCUniversal and Atairos in April 2022, but spun WSM's license off into a subsidiary that remained separate from that transaction and wholly-owned by Ryman. From 2002 until 2006, the station was a choice on Sirius Satellite Radio , which carried a full-time simulcast of WSM's signal, except during NASCAR races. Briefly in 2006,

24174-436: Was settled on July 8, 2003, in announcing the settlement, Lee admitted that he did not believe that the channel intentionally tried to trade on his name. On July 28, 2003, it was announced that Spike TV would officially launch on August 11, 2003—eight weeks later than initially scheduled. Its launch night programming featured two programs originally intended to air on June 16, including Party with Spike —a launch special filmed at

24332-417: Was subsequently picked up by Netflix ), and cancelling 68 Whiskey after a single season. On September 11, 2020, it was announced that Bellator would move to CBS Sports Network in October 2020. It would later move to Showtime in April 2021. On September 22, 2020, ViacomCBS president of Entertainment and Youth Brands Chris McCarthy told Variety in an exclusive that Paramount Network would relaunch as

24490-400: Was taken", and that "There's a reason all our early shows were CSI , UFC , TNA , MXC , UTI . No one around here knew how to read"). A network executive stated that the campaign was meant to represent a "public meltdown" by a fired employee. The campaign concluded with a live streaming event on January 17, 2018, where users could vote on various ways a crew would deface a large model of

24648-560: Was the first African-American to win a race in the Grand National Series, NASCAR's highest level. He was posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina , January 30, 2015. On March 8, 1936, a collection of drivers gathered at Daytona Beach, Florida . The drivers brought coupes , hardtops , convertibles, and sports cars to compete in an event to determine the fastest cars, and best drivers. Throughout

24806-476: Was the first of five consecutive titles in NBS/NNS that were won by Cup series regulars. The practice received criticism because it was thought to give the Cup Series teams an unfair advantage, and that the presence of the Cup Series drivers squeezes out Nationwide Series competitors who would otherwise be able to qualify. These dual-series drivers have been labeled " Buschwhackers ", a play on words which combines

24964-531: Was to oversee the Paramount Movie Network slate, as well as television films and specials across all other ViacomCBS networks. However, she was released from the company in August 2021 as part of a reorganization of Paramount+ and MTV Entertainment Group's executive structure. In the interim, new seasons of Bar Rescue and Yellowstone would premiere on the network in 2021, and in October 2021,

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