During the next two years, U100 quickly became the most talked-about and Number one rated radio station in town. I remember recording Rock Around the Clock from a WMIN broadcast on my Wilcox- Gay recorder. Screen grab from the movie Purple Haze. Image courtesy Alan Freed. Jim Foster was the Program Director. (Were they ahead of their time?) On March 7, 2017, WDGY discontinued broadcasting in HD and began broadcasting in C-QUAM AM stereo. Mike Sigelman (General Manager) Rob Sherwood (program director), both hired from KDWB, hired Bill Hartman straight out of WMMR at the University of Minnesota to become a full-time promotion director. Hes still sick of The Wayward Wind., As for where the lists came from, Ramsburg explains, Juke box operators depended on Cash Box, which was a few weeks faster with sales figures than Billboard. A 15-year-old polio victim was smashed, face-first, into the pavement and sent home bleeding. WYOO was owned by Fairchild Industries, an Aeronautics company from Maryland that was looking to diversify. Yeah, but I hated newspaper advertising. The daytimer station was authorized for 1,000 watts. Jones described him as a mild-mannered, blond, pipe-smoking sort, who grew up in Chicago and worked in radio as a writer, director, and producer on radio shows and in TV when that city was its center of the early days. A history of the station prepared much later explained that: In 1956 the owners of WLOL AM added one of the first FM stations. Who had the key? Kosofsky owned several other stations that catered to listener minorities, and the company represented a string of 30 special-interest stations. 11:00 AM-2:00 PM. WDGY, Rock and Roll Oldies Radio, playing the best oldies of the 1960s and 1970s for the Twin Cities! And he noted that it was difficult to even find R&B records in town. In fact, all were in their 20s. In February 2017, WDGY added another FM translator, W221BS 92.1, broadcasting from an antenna atop Wells Fargo Place in Downtown St. Rob and Bill would sit in the basement of the radio station playing air checks and other sources of radio information on disk. It was automated country with a Schaffer pegboard sequencing unit when I was given the duty of being the stations Program Director in early 1975 added to my duties of being production coordinator for the short-lived Viking State News Network. I do believe we did have the first of the top forty station two man morning shows, at least in the Twin Cities, other than CCO. The state of the art facilities were dismantled, salvaged and/or destroyed to make room for the construction of the-then State Farm Insurance Companies regional headquarters. Tweedle Dee, not by LaVern Baker or even Georgia Gibbs, but by someone named Vicky Young. Freed: KDAN, being a daytimer, was a perfect station to shoot at because it was off the air from sunset to sunrise, so a film shoot wouldnt interfere with normal operations if the filming was overnight. Wikipedia says the stations last documented owner was KMAP Broadcasting of Tampa. Following Young's death in 1945, his estate sold the station. Contributed by John Pratt 12-6-07. Minneapolis / St. Paul radio station WDGY 1130 AM survey chart for the week of 1970-02-13. Pleased by the response to a recent project on emotionally induced illness, Skotch said the station will devote another day to the subject in the near future. Alonzo himself was to do the afternoon drive. The best of what youre about to give up on WWTC is what we play all the time on KEEY. (Only eight stations in Minneapolis-St. Paul. When Hagman moved to WDGY, he brought the Top Forty concept with him, as well as the Mutual Broadcasting System, which aired programs like Queen for a Day and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. A schedule from April 1955 shows Eddie Cantor and a lot of Springtime Serenade, but also shows just identified by the DJ (Bill Rudd and Irv Smith put in a lot of time.). I suppose at full speed, in December, the ride to Peoria would take 18 hours. The creepy monstrosity below, entered by St. Michael Elementary School, was the winner. Bobby Freeman, who did Lets Do the Swim, came to the Marigold on Sunday, September 27, 1964. But then on May 2, 1988, new life came to our little station in the form of KMAP. Contributed by John Pratt 12-6-07. In 1962 WDGY broadcast the Vikings games. JAVASCRIPT IS DISABLED. In 1950 it was 1.3 percent, and in 1960 it grew to 2.5 percent. No audio, but the wires would vibrate in time to the modulation. Tom has been in radio for 48 years and was at WDGY in the early 60's. The program was one half hour long and started on October 17, 1964. Curt Lundgren, who would go on the air as Evan Curfew, tells us that the studio was in the basement of the South Side Lumberyard Building, right behind McCarthys Restaurant on what is now 394. From the early 1940s to the early 70s the brothers owned and operated 11 radio stations throughout the Upper Midwest. April 17, 1973, ad image courtesy Mark Luebker. And they would play some jazz, depending on which of the announcers was on or what day of the week or what time of the day it was, youd turn the radio on and hear something different.. It was made by a student named Goodman, who financed the venture by selling $1 shares to his friends with a double-your-money guarantee. The switch to talk was gradual over two years. With the new sound of Metropolitan Radio coming in strong and clear, youll discover perhaps for the first time why so many more people are now enjoying wtcn 1280s outstanding programs in the Twin Cities. It had 5,000 watts, daytime only. It is imperative that this unit be installed as soon as possible when received.. In November 1962 the call letters were changed to KTWN. Last mention in news listings was on September 13, 1983. But we also know that the Key Room program featured live performances by Augie Garcia, the Godfather of Twin Cities Rock n Roll, performing jump blues in 1954-55 from the River Road Club in Mendota. Whatever the approach, it had to be as different as was our position on the dial. More than a nostalgia station, more than a mixture of rock n roll history and local rock trivia, TC offers listeners personality programming and a fun sense of belonging to a rock n roll community. Sincerely by the McGuire Sisters. 1/6/1961 Bill Diehl - 23 MB 7/10/1963 Bill Diehl - 8 MB (provided by Phil Kitchen) - February 1964 I was prensent at the studio when Jimmy and Tac coordinated play of the same record at the same time on both stations. Peterson gave the example of Hamms and Grain Belt beer highly patronized by the black community, but refused to buy time on the station. The ad below is for Position 63, a rather suggestive takeoff of the popular Position 69 that every schoolboy loved to joke about. In July 1957 Kamman was doing the noon to 2pm show from Southdale, just off the Garden Court. But if you listen to radio to soothe your nerves, reports of mideast tension, recession and crime just might produce the opposite effect. And it was Snyder Drug Stores. On August 13, 1968, KDWB started programming underground music from midnight to 5 am. Although I adored KLBB, which 1400AM took on in 1981. Johnny Canton is at the top left. Today, the station is KTLK, News/Talk 1130, and uses a transmitter site in Credit River Township. Al Tedesco purchased the station in 1968. For awhile they called the AM station KEVE and the FM station KADM Adam and Eve in the Valley. The two stations were simulcasting classical music when they both went to KQRS. In the photo below, the KUXL trailer is in the parking area behind the building. In the first few months of operation, I would guess that WDGY probably lost as much money per month as any station in the history of radio. Jeff Lonto provides this info: The station became WJSW Polka Power around 1969, and they picked up the WMIN call letters in November 1973 after being dropped a year earlier by 1400 AM. Not sure what this is announcing. WPBC: No, thats not a mistake. How could this format possibly be a winner on AM? The KDAN Remote Caboose Studio was used in the early 1970s for commercial remote broadcasts and for broadcasting from the Minnesota State Fair. was? The station was nicknamed "WeeGee," the phonetic pronunciation of the call sign, and its format was near the top of the ratings for several years. An underlying cause was said to be the overall condition of the Selby-Dale area. The concerts were advertised in the Minneapolis Spokesman, the citys African-American newspaper, but rarely in the mainstream dailies. Al, Nick, and Vic Tedesco, photo courtesy Pavek Museum of Broadcasting. Minneapolis has been kind of a combination rat race and three ring circus since the New WDGY started, but the tremendous amount of work being done is paying off in increased ratings and business every month. We were doing just that. SOLD JUN 14, 2022. In his usual wry style, Irv describes how KRSIs General Manager, John Enoch, was testing Control Unit Model 901, which generated automated programming. Cream City purchased the station from Franklin Broadcasting of New York. Download Our Free iHeartRadio App! I took this from a flight I took in 1977. Im going to try Minnesota to the bust before I try and move on someplace, because I feel that black programming is needed here more than anyplace else. (Minneapolis Star, August 3, 1976). Wonder what E.I.I. On October 3, 1955, an ad boasted that the station would play more music and had a new record library. It was a small shack hoisted on a small tower on the corner of 9th and Nicollet. Whether it actually had to pony up the $10,000 is unknown. In May 2006 the recordings started to beconverted to MP3 andsharedhere. Call them, not me. She was awarded a free turkey along with the very important can of cranberry sauce. WDGY station changed to a country music format in September 1977, around the time when most music stations began shifting onto the FM band. Listen To Podcasts That Examine The Passion, Perseverance, And Power Of Black Culture! could get them on my Lloyds Transistor Six when the batteries were dead., I dated a girl who lived on Fremont Ave. between 101st & 102nd streets. That kind of ended when Mr. Purcell reminded them that WCCO, like every station, is required by FCC rules to know who their advertisers are. In a blurb in the Minneapolis Star (September 1, 1977), station manager Dale Webber was quoted as saying the reason for the change was getting out of the ridiculous Top 40 market. There were three other country stations on AM in the market at the time. Everything was ready and in place on the first day of the Minnesota State Fair, and Rob had the format and jingles ready to go on the air. We sold spots a dollar a holler.. Blore doesnt mention that on the other side of the insert was an ad for a big, star-studded show that was to take place in both Minneapolis and St. Paul on the same night, September 18, 1959. On November 8, 1954, WMIN hosted a four-hour remote from the new Melodee Record Shop at 704 Hennepin Ave., advertised in the Minneapolis Spokesman. KEEY seemed to specialize in handing out these FM radio station directories, which seem to me to advertise the competition more than anything else. KYCR changed to KDIZ on December 24, 2015. Paul caught on fire and was off the air? He spoke about the dangers of ennui, tedium and boredom and how these things could absolutely dull your life. An October 1949 ad in the Trib called it The Northwest Empire Station and morning shows featured Irene and Lou, hillbilly favorites; Sschunemans Red Rooster Hour; and Johnny Aarthun, popular singer of old-country songs. A 1972 article in the Echo opined that KDWB played new songs that were just released, while WDGY only played nationally-established music. Id like to think that 8 Steps Down was some kind of cool jazz program with some Brubeck, some Mingus, etc., but theres no way to know unless someone out there remembers! In August, 1965, Texas Bill Strength went on the air at WMIN after being with KEYD/KEVE (1955 to 1958) and KTCR (1962 to 1965). WLOL first went on the air on June 6, 1940. Try it for a week. Jim went on to work for WDGY and KEEY. The station was fined $10,000 in March 1961 for exceeding its authorized power in nighttime operations. Those shows included: TV Forecast, October 12, 1963, courtesy Jeff Lonto. Bears' Plan For No. Haines wrote: Rock and roll had a difficult entry into the Twin Cities market. Admission was 50 cents and open to teens age 16 and over. WDGY moved from 1130 to 630 AM and became sports station KFAN. Bad news from Wikipedia: Despite receiving positive reviews in some mainstream publishings, Purple Haze was a flop. Well, there is an Alan Freed in Minneapolis, but hes not the guy! Jim Ramsburg says that in 1956 we pulled our own music from the big record library with no rules or restrictions. Optometrist George W. Young started radio station KMFT in 1923; his first broadcast was on January 13, 1924 from his house at 2219 N. Bryant. I really dont remember which station I was on then. Rhythm [in 1955] and played the real soul of rhythm and blues. Solomon Burke performed on May 28, 1965. So many questions. The recordings of the contributors to this web site who recorded them off the air may show up on other sites. The Twin City stations were all on the upper part of the dial at 1070, 1130, 1490, etc., but nothing below 1000. Airchecks are samples of old radio recordings, with the music cut out. The call letters of WTCN radio were changed to WWTC on October 2, 1964, after Time Life sold the station to Buckley-Jaeger Broadcasting. In about 1970 there was a shake-up of personnel. Police said they did not use tear gas to break up the crowd. Or so reported the Minneapolis Tribune, the day after that. Bottom Row: Jenny Rein (secretary), Vic, Nick, ? A newspaper schedule dated December 19, 1972, shows the same preacher tapes, as Ray Moss called them, from 6 am to 1 pm. James Brown and His Revue appeared at the Minneapolis Auditorium on April 25, 1967. Suddenly it was true, 63 thats easy to remember. Crocker, and Brad Piras. 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