WCCO (AM)
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|
FCC | |
Facility ID | 9642 |
---|---|
Class | A |
Power | 50,000 watts unlimited |
Transmitter coordinates | |
Repeater(s) | 102.9 KMNB-HD2 (Minneapolis) |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Webcast | Listen live (via Audacy) |
Website | www |
WCCO (830
WCCO is a Class A clear-channel station. With 50,000 watts of power (the maximum permitted) and a nondirectional signal, WCCO reaches much of Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin and Iowa by day, along with a wide area of the Central United States and Central Canada at night.[4] The transmitter is located off Coon Rapids Boulevard at Lily Street NW in Coon Rapids.[5] It is also heard on the second HD Radio channel of co-owned KMNB (102.9 FM).
History
Early years
WCCO first
In 1927, WCCO was one of the original 21 stations of the
1950s to the 1990s
In 1952, CBS sold majority control of WCCO to the Murphy and McNally families, who formed
In the 1950s, as network programming was shifting from radio to television, WCCO switched to a
In the 1980s, the
Signal and transmitter
In the early days of radio, WCCO was a powerful force in the development of better and more powerful transmitters. On November 11, 1928, with the implementation of the Federal Radio Commission's General Order 40, WCCO changed its frequency to 810 kHz and was granted clear-channel status. It began broadcasting with 50,000 watts for the first time in September 1932.[9] In the 1930s, two additional 300-foot towers were added to increase the range of the station's signal.
WCCO constructed a new 654-foot tower in Coon Rapids in 1939. This is the same tower used today, although the broadcast frequency was changed to 830 kHz as a result of the 1941 North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement-.
Due to the station's power, as well as Minnesota's mostly flat landscape (with near-perfect
At night, the station's signal typically reaches across 28 U.S. states and three
Severe weather coverage
WCCO has a longtime reputation of being the station to tune in for emergency information, especially severe weather and school closings in winter. Listeners would call in during severe weather events and describe what they were seeing at their locations, supplementing information from the National Weather Service. For many years, WCCO was famous for its "klaxon" alert tone for tornado warnings. WCCO is the Primary Entry Point station for the Emergency Alert System in Minnesota.[10]
For a series of live public-service emergency broadcasts in 1965 – the St. Patrick's Day blizzard, the record April floods on the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, and the May 6 onslaught of 24 tornado touchdowns in the Twin Cities area – the station earned the George Foster Peabody, DuPont, and Sigma Delta Chi awards.
FM: W9XHW to WCCO-FM to Lite-FM to BUZ'N/The Wolf
WCCO engineers were experimenting with frequency modulation by 1939, operating W9XHW at 42.3 MHz, but at just 50 watts. With only a handful of Minneapolis residents owning an FM radio, WCCO did not rush into FM broadcasting. As late as 1969, WCCO-FM was broadcasting at 2,700 watts atop the 450-foot Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis, and only for the minimum number of hours required to keep its FCC license. Meanwhile, several local FM stations had already boosted their power to 100,000 watts and were airing new formats on FM, such as beautiful music and progressive rock.
Finally in 1973, WCCO-FM station moved its antenna to 1,250 feet near the top of the Shoreview, Minnesota, Twin Cities antenna farm, with a power of 100,000 watts. A full day's programming of music and a large news operation could be heard clearly for 150 miles in all directions. By the late 1970s, WCCO-FM 103 had come into its own and established an identity separate from AM 830, with a popular adult contemporary/soft rock sound. In 1983, it became WLTE 102.9 Lite-FM, an identity it kept until Christmas 2011, when it switched to a country music format as BUZ'N @ 102.9 with the new call letters KMNB.
Changes in ratings
WCCO was the top-rated station in the Twin Cities for decades until shifting
In August 2008, as a cosmetic change to make WCCO in sync with other CBS talk radio stations, the station changed from "News/Talk 8•3•0 WCCO" to "News Radio 8•3•0 WCCO". On September 15, 2011, WCCO was awarded the
Sports
WCCO became the radio home of
WCCO broadcast the Minnesota Twins baseball from their arrival in the Twin Cities in 1961 until 2007. In 2007, the Twins began producing the games themselves while selling Twin Cities broadcast rights to KSTP beginning in the 2007 season.[12] On November 17, 2017, WCCO announced that Twins broadcasts would return to the station beginning in the 2018 season.[13]
Entercom ownership
On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio agreed to merge with
In 2018, WCCO returned to the moniker "News/Talk 8•3•0 WCCO" with its logo reflecting the change.[18]
Past personalities
WCCO broadcasters were known across the
For several years, WCCO has hosted a weekly radio show with the governor of Minnesota. Former Governor Jesse Ventura had a show while in office, and successor Tim Pawlenty followed suit. Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of former Senator and Vice President Walter Mondale, started her career in radio at the station in 1989 as the entertainment reporter, but left after 8 months. She returned to Minnesota in 2006 to co-host a weekday morning show on WCCO with Susie Jones.
More recent WCCO personalities have included longtime
AM stereo history
After nearly a year of work to outfit the station and prepare programming in stereo, on October 2, 1985, WCCO began broadcasting in AM stereo using the Motorola C-QUAM system.[19] The move by the large market dominating WCCO to adopt AM stereo received attention from local and national news outlets. WCCO discontinued broadcasting in AM stereo around the turn of the millennium.[20]
HD Radio
In 2005, WCCO began broadcasting its signal in the HD Radio format.[21] WCCO programming is also simulcast on 102.9 KMNB-HD2. In March 2018, WCCO shut down its HD Radio signal on AM 830.
References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WCCO". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ Platt, Adam (April 15, 2021). "Can WCCO Make It in its Second Century?". Twin Cities Business. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
- ^ "Audacy Announces Updated Programming Lineup for 830 WCCO in Minneapolis".
- ^ "Salt Lake City DX Report". ubstudios.com. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
- ^ "WCCO-AM 830 kHz - Minneapolis, Minnesota". radio-locator.com. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
- ^ "WCCO-TV Timeline" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 8, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
- ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1935 page 38
- ^ "Bob Ridder". Pavek Museum of Broadcasting. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
- ^ "WCCO Inaugural" (PDF). Broadcasting. September 15, 1932. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ "Minnesota Emergency Alert System Statewide Plan" (PDF). Minnesota Department of Public Safety. p. BP-10. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
- ^ "Timberwolves, Lynx and iHeartMedia Minneapolis Announce Multidimensional Streaming and Radio Partnership". National Basketball Association. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
- ^ Zulgad, Judd (August 10, 2007). "Twins should like Arbitron numbers more than KSTP". Minneapolis Star Tribune. pp. C2.
- ^ Minnesota Twins to Return to WCCO
- ^ "CBS Sets Radio Division Merger With Entercom". Variety. February 2, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
- ^ "CBS and Entercom Are Merging Their Radio Stations". Fortune. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
- ^ "Entercom Receives FCC Approval for Merger with CBS Radio". Entercom. November 9, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
- ^ Venta, Lance (November 17, 2017). "Entercom Completes CBS Radio Merger". Radio Insight. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
- ^ "Minneapolis Breaking News, Today's News | WCCO Radio".
- ^ Freeman, Kim (June 22, 1985). "WWCO-AM Readies Switch to Stereo*". Billboard. Retrieved September 15, 2019. *Typo in article title acknowledged in the June 29, 1985, edition of Billboard. Title should read WCCO rather than WWCO.
- ^ Offenders of The Faith - The AM STEREO Page. Archived from the original that has since been removed.
- ^ https://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=16 Archived January 11, 2017, at the Wayback Machine HD Radio Guide for Minneapolis-St. Paul
- (2001). Radio and Television. A History of Minneapolis. Minneapolis Public Library. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
- History of WCCO Tower. City of Coon Rapids. Retrieved September 25, 2004.
External links
- FCC History Cards for WCCO
- Official website
- WCCO in the FCC AM station database
- WCCO in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
- Radiotapes.com Historic airchecks of WCCO-AM and other Twin Cities radio stations dating back to 1924.
- TwinCitiesRadioAirchecks.com Airchecks of Twin Cities stations from the 1960s and 1970s.
- The First Forty - The Story of WCCO Radio 1924-1964
Preceded by None |
Radio Home of the Minnesota Twins 1961–2006 |
Succeeded by KSTP 2007–2012 |
Preceded by KQGO
2017 |
Radio Home of the Minnesota Twins 2018–present |
Succeeded by none |