KCMP

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Coordinates: 44°41′20″N 93°04′23″W / 44.689°N 93.073°W / 44.689; -93.073
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KCMP
KPCC-HD2 (Pasadena, California)
KMSE (Rochester, Minnesota)
KZIO (Duluth, Minnesota)
Links
WebcastListen Live! PLS
Websitethecurrent.org

KCMP (89.3

downtown St. Paul, while its transmitter is located atop the Vermillion Highlands near Coates
. The Current is also broadcast on stations in Rochester, Duluth-Superior, Pasadena-Los Angeles, translators around Minnesota, and online.

The Current, which has been broadcasting its AAA format since 2004, debuted after MPR purchased WCAL-FM, the radio station of St. Olaf College in Northfield, in 2004. St. Olaf had put WCAL-FM on the air in 1968 as an extension of WCAL, a part-time AM station established in 1922 and eventually shut down in 1991.

Format

Bill DeVille wearing a shirt for the Current

The modern "third service" for MPR (the organization already operates "news and information" and classical music networks) programs a wide range of music. The KCMP "anti-format" was announced in December 2004, along with the station's new program director Steve Nelson and music director Thorn Skroch.

KEXP (Seattle),[2] KCRW (Los Angeles), the pioneering WXPN (Philadelphia),[3] and the short-lived Twin Cities station REV-105, where some of the Current's on-air talent established themselves.[4]

History

St. Olaf Era

The station which would later become 89.3 FM began with

AM band. One notable achievement by the station in the next few years was the broadcast of William Shakespeare's play As You Like It
, apparently the first time a play had been broadcast on radio.

In 1924, a financial crunch meant that the station might be forced to close down. The St. Olaf senior class and local newspaper, The Northfield News, campaigned for donations. Money came in from across Minnesota and several nearby states. This made WCAL the first listener-supported station in the United States. From 1928-circa 1954, WCAL was entirely listener-supported and received no direct financial support from St. Olaf College. In 1949, the station's card file held the names and addresses of over 60,000 donors. The station's AM signal was heard as far as the western United States, Mexico, Florida, Alaska and Canada.

WCAL first experimented with FM broadcasts in 1948.

classical music along with a variety of sacred
music and religious programming.

Twenty-four-hour broadcasts began in 1984, and a new 100-kilowatt transmitter went on-air in 1991, meaning that the station could be picked up across most of the Twin Cities region (Northfield is on the southern edge of the area). The transmitter was placed on land owned by the

clear-channel frequency occupied by full-time station WABC
in New York City, it could not be used by other stations at night; as daytime-only stations, WCAL and KUOM each broadcast an average of about six hours per day. The shutdown of WCAL allowed KUOM to broadcast the maximum amount of time allowed by the license.

WCAL's

public radio
network in Minnesota.

Sale of WCAL

On August 11, 2004, St. Olaf College announced that it had decided to sell WCAL in order to enhance the institution's

EMF Broadcasting, a non-commercial religious broadcaster which originates the K-Love
network.

St. Olaf announced in August that it had decided to sell WCAL to Minnesota Public Radio. MPR had made a bid for WCAL as early as 1971, shortly after NPR's formation. The station was now even more attractive to MPR, as it was the most powerful noncommercial signal in the state that wasn't a part of the MPR network. This prompted the formation of a group known as SaveWCAL that attempted to halt the sale to MPR. SaveWCAL argued that the station was a charitable trust held by St. Olaf, and the college should have at least asked a judge for permission to dissolve the trust before selling it to MPR. These efforts were unsuccessful.

The sale agreement for WCAL/KMSE was finalized by St. Olaf College and Minnesota Public Radio on Friday, November 19, 2004. The station ceased broadcasting from its Northfield studios at 10 p.m. two days later, and began

college radio station of California University of Pennsylvania.[1][2]

Continued activism from SaveWCAL, however, resulted in a state district court judge characterizing the transaction [3] as an illegal sale of a charitable trust by an irresponsible trustee [4]. SaveWCAL has since requested that the

Minnesota Attorney General's office declare the sale void [5] and filed a Petition To Redress Breach of Trust [6] in Rice County District Court on September 24, 2008. However, in 2009, another court ruled that SaveWCAL had waited too long to go to court.[7]

The Current

MPR launched the new format at 9 a.m. on January 24, 2005, changing the

alternative weekly newspaper. However, a March 2008 City Pages article criticized the Current for repetitious programming and losing touch with the format that endeared listeners during its first two years.[10]

HD Radio and Web Streaming

KCMP is licensed by the

FCC to broadcast in the HD Radio format.[11]

The Current operates several other music services, including "Purple Current", which offers music inspired by Prince and music that likely inspired him; The Siren (women's music and content); Local Current, focusing on Minnesota-made music; Radio Heartland (Americana and roots music); and Rock The Cradle, a children's music stream.[12] On June 16, 2022, the Current debuted another streaming service, "Carbon Sound", focusing on black music including hip-hop, R&B, afrobeat, and related genres. The new service streams online and is available on the HD 2 subchannel of KCMP.[13]

Notable presenters

Broadcast reach

The Current is heard on 89.3 FM in the

KPCC in Pasadena, California via an HD Radio
subchannel of that station. Additional translators have been periodically added in other cities. The Current's programming originates from St. Paul; the other stations break away during one-minute windows throughout the day for local underwriting and weather, along with legal IDs at the top of each hour. KZIO has a small amount of locally-originated content.

Simulcast stations
Call sign Frequency City of license ERP
W 		Notes
KMSE 88.7 FM Rochester, Minnesota 850
KNSR
 88.9 FM HD-2 Collegeville, Minnesota 100,000 On HD2 subchannel
KPCC 89.3 FM HD-2 Pasadena, California 600 On HD2 subchannel
KZIO 104.3 FM Two Harbors, Minnesota 50,000
KGAC
 91.5 FM HD-2 St. Peter, Minnesota 8,500 On HD2 subchannel
Broadcast translators
for The Current
Call sign Frequency City of license ERP (W) FCC info
K228XN 93.5 FM St. Peter, Minnesota 60 FMQ
K237ET 95.3 FM New Ulm, Minnesota 250 FMQ
K280EF 103.9 FM Austin, Minnesota 9 FMQ
K286AW 105.1 FM Mankato, Minnesota 10 FMQ
W248AS 97.5 FM Hinckley, Minnesota 55 FMQ

References

  • (2002). 80 Years of WCAL: Did five physics students imagine this? WCAL. Accessed November 20, 2004.
  • (December 16, 2004). Minnesota Public Radio to Launch New Music Station in the Twin Cities. Press release, Minnesota Public Radio. Accessed December 16, 2004.
  • Deborah Caulfield Rybak (December 16, 2004). A different beat for WCAL's successor. Star Tribune. Accessed December 16, 2004.
  • (January 21, 2005). The Twin Cities' Newest Radio Station — 89.3 The Current — Takes to the Air at 9 a.m., Monday, January 24 (press release). Minnesota Public Radio. Accessed January 21, 2005.
  • Amy Carlson Gustafson (January 21, 2005). KCMP goes on the air Monday.
    Saint Paul Pioneer Press
    . Accessed January 21, 2005.
  • Jeff Miller, editor (December 30, 2004). A Chronology of AM Radio Broadcasting 1900–1960. History of American Broadcasting. Accessed January 21, 2005.
  • Snyders, Matt (March 25, 2008). "The Current shrinks its playlist; Slogan aside, 89.3 limits its list of songs". City Pages.
  1. ^ "A Real Rock 'n' Roll Radio Station... for Your Pledge of Just $10 a Month?". City Pages. March 2, 2005. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  2. ^ Johnson, Gene (October 16, 2005). "Tiny Seattle station emerges as leading force in indie radio". USA Today. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  3. ^ Barton, Jack (February 12, 2010). "NON-COMM Strategies With WXPN PD Bruce Warren". FMBQ. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
  4. ^ http://www.rev105.com/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ "New Stations: Special Land Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, June 1, 1921, page 3. The leading "9" in 9YAJ's call sign indicated that the station was located in the ninth Radio Inspection District, while the "Y" signified that it was operating under a "Technical and Training School" license.
  6. ^ "American Amateurs Heard in New Zealand", Radio News, June 1923, page 2104.
  7. ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 6, 2011. Retrieved February 6, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ "Crap from the Past - Bonus: 89.3 FM/Minneapolis flips from WCAL (Classical) to KCMP (The Current), January 24, 2005". January 24, 2005.
  9. ^ "BEST RADIO STATION Minneapolis 2005 – KFAI". citypages.com. March 31, 2007. Archived from the original on December 16, 2010. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  10. ^ Matt Snyders (March 25, 2008). "The Current shrinks its playlist". citypages.com. Archived from the original on January 31, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  11. ^ https://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=16 Archived January 11, 2017, at the Wayback Machine HD Radio Guide for Minneapolis-St. Paul
  12. ^ "The Current". MPR/The Current. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  13. ^ "Minnesota Public Radio Launches The Carbon Sound". RadioInsight. June 16, 2022. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  14. ^ Wheat, Mark; Dafar, David. "Mark Wheat says goodbye to The Current". thecurrent.org. Retrieved June 11, 2020.

External links

44°41′20″N 93°04′23″W / 44.689°N 93.073°W / 44.689; -93.073

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