KTCZ
Encyclopedia
KTCZ-FM is a AAA
radio station
broadcasting to the Twin Cities market of Minnesota
and neighboring Wisconsin
.
Cities 97 is owned by Clear Channel Communications
. Its transmitter is located in Shoreview, Minnesota
.
, which was one of the oldest radio stations in Minneapolis-St. Paul, having signed on the air in 1925. In 1949, WTCN-TV
was launched on channel 4 with studios at Radio City Theater at 9th Street and LaSalle Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. WTCN's studios moved to the TV facility in September 1949 and the FM was there, too, by February 1950. All three stations were sold in 1952; channel 4 was sold to CBS
, which changed the call letters to match its WCCO, while WTCN was sold to the Minnesota Television Service Corporation headed by St. Paul businessman Robert Butler, a former ambassador to Cuba and Australia. Butler's company quickly applied for a new TV license for channel 11 (but had to negotiate for the frequency with the owner of WMIN
1400, who also applied for the channel. The two stations, WTCN and WMIN, arranged to share the TV broadcast day, alternating every two hours. This became the area's third TV station on September 1, 1953 and the WTCN call sign remained with it until 1985). Meanwhile, WTCN-FM became KWFM in 1954.
Al Tedesco purchased KWFM in 1968
, mating it with daytimer KTCR. The station became KTCR-FM. Tedesco and his two brothers were inducted into the Pavek Museum of Radio Hall of Fame in 2005.
In the early 1980s, KTCR-FM was a struggling country music
station. KTCR-FM was up against aggressive competition in the late 1970s and early 1980s, most notably KEEY, and Tedesco decided to sell the stations. The stations' new owners, John and Kathleen Parker (married), dropped the country format on February 8, 1984
, and a unique new format was introduced. KTCZ ("Cities 97") was a different kind of station, featuring progressive rock
, alternative rock
, jazz
and New Age music
. The station's approach was similar to stations such as WXRT
in Chicago and KBCO
in Denver. KTCZ's other influences reach back even farther, to progressive FM rock stations from the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the freeform
days of KQRS-FM.
Back then, the term 'AAA
' did not even exist. It was a relatively eclectic rock format, far different than any other rock station around. Cities 97 has continued to thrive, building and sustaining a dedicated listening audience. Over time, the jazz and New Age was dropped, and the station went through a few different phases, at various points leaning more toward classic rock
or alternative rock
. Although Parker Communications sold the station back in the early 1990s, today's Cities 97 is still similar to the version that debuted in the fall of 1983, though the influence of its current owner can be felt heavily. Until recently, the station carried the syndicated talk show "Loveline
", which had gotten strong ratings on the former KEGE
. This was considered to be an odd move, since "Loveline" is geared toward a much younger demographic than KTCZ's, and conflicted heavily with their "more music" mandate.
The studios and transmitter were located at 38th Street and Minnehaha Avenue in south Minneapolis from at least the mid 1950s until 1985. The tower was short for a full-power FM station at approximately 150 feet. The transmitter in 1985 was moved to the site of its AM sister, then known as KTCJ, in New Hope, where it hung on one of the three AM towers. Later, the transmission facilities were upgraded with a move to the KMSP-TV
Channel 9 tower in Shoreview, from where most of the other Twin Cities FM stations transmit.
, Clear Channel announced that KTCZ's HD2 subchannel will be Studio HD, featuring original acoustic rock and chill music
.
Adult album alternative
Adult album alternative is a radio format. A spinoff from the album-oriented rock format, its roots trace to the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier freeform and progressive formats....
radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
broadcasting to the Twin Cities market of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and neighboring Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
Cities 97 is owned by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
. Its transmitter is located in Shoreview, Minnesota
Shoreview, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there are 25,377 people, Males: 12,303 , Females: 13,074 , 9,965 households, and 7,021 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,315.9 people per square mile . There are 10,127 housing units at an average density of 919.2 per square mile...
.
History
The 97.1 frequency in Minneapolis is one of the oldest FM stations in the Twin Cities, having been established in 1947. The original call letters were WTCN-FM, to match its AM sister station, now WWTCWWTC
WWTC is a long-standing radio station serving the Twin Cities region. Despite its up-and-down history, the station spawned two of the area's major television stations and had some very innovative and unusual periods in its history...
, which was one of the oldest radio stations in Minneapolis-St. Paul, having signed on the air in 1925. In 1949, WTCN-TV
WCCO-TV
WCCO-TV, is the CBS owned and operated television station that serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota. Its transmitter is at the Telefarm complex in Shoreview, Minnesota.- History :...
was launched on channel 4 with studios at Radio City Theater at 9th Street and LaSalle Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. WTCN's studios moved to the TV facility in September 1949 and the FM was there, too, by February 1950. All three stations were sold in 1952; channel 4 was sold to CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, which changed the call letters to match its WCCO, while WTCN was sold to the Minnesota Television Service Corporation headed by St. Paul businessman Robert Butler, a former ambassador to Cuba and Australia. Butler's company quickly applied for a new TV license for channel 11 (but had to negotiate for the frequency with the owner of WMIN
KMNV
KMNV is a radio station in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota that airs a Spanish-language music and entertainment format.-History:The station began as WMIN in the summer of 1936, when Saint Paul furniture retailer Edward Hoffman began broadcasting at 1370 kHz...
1400, who also applied for the channel. The two stations, WTCN and WMIN, arranged to share the TV broadcast day, alternating every two hours. This became the area's third TV station on September 1, 1953 and the WTCN call sign remained with it until 1985). Meanwhile, WTCN-FM became KWFM in 1954.
Al Tedesco purchased KWFM in 1968
1968 in radio
The year 1968 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:* 1 February: WABX Detroit drops classical music to air progressive rock/freeform full-time....
, mating it with daytimer KTCR. The station became KTCR-FM. Tedesco and his two brothers were inducted into the Pavek Museum of Radio Hall of Fame in 2005.
In the early 1980s, KTCR-FM was a struggling country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
station. KTCR-FM was up against aggressive competition in the late 1970s and early 1980s, most notably KEEY, and Tedesco decided to sell the stations. The stations' new owners, John and Kathleen Parker (married), dropped the country format on February 8, 1984
1984 in radio
The year 1984 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:* June 18 - Controversial KOA/Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg gunned down in driveway of his home.* Sports writer Ralph Barbieri joined KNBR to host his own sports talk show....
, and a unique new format was introduced. KTCZ ("Cities 97") was a different kind of station, featuring progressive rock
Progressive rock (radio format)
Progressive rock is a radio station programming format that prospered in the late 1960s and 1970s, in which the disc jockeys are given wide latitude in what they may play, similar to the freeform format but with the proviso that some kind of rock music is almost always what is played...
, alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and New Age music
New Age music
New Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
. The station's approach was similar to stations such as WXRT
WXRT
WXRT, also known as WXRT 93.1, XRT, and 93-XRT is a AAA radio station in Chicago, Illinois. For many years their slogan has been "Chicago's Finest Rock". WXRT is a primary sponsor of the Chicago nonprofit Rock For Kids.-History:...
in Chicago and KBCO
KBCO
KBCO is a AAA radio station licensed to Boulder, Colorado, United States, that serves the Denver-Boulder area. The station's format, dubbed "World Class Rock," is an eclectic variety of pop, rock, blues, reggae and folk, from the late-1960s to the present.The Clear Channel Communications outlet...
in Denver. KTCZ's other influences reach back even farther, to progressive FM rock stations from the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the freeform
Freeform (radio format)
Freeform, or freeform radio, is a radio station programming format in which the disc jockey is given total control over what music to play, regardless of music genre or commercial interests. Freeform radio stands in contrast to most commercial radio stations, in which DJs have little or no...
days of KQRS-FM.
Back then, the term 'AAA
Adult album alternative
Adult album alternative is a radio format. A spinoff from the album-oriented rock format, its roots trace to the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier freeform and progressive formats....
' did not even exist. It was a relatively eclectic rock format, far different than any other rock station around. Cities 97 has continued to thrive, building and sustaining a dedicated listening audience. Over time, the jazz and New Age was dropped, and the station went through a few different phases, at various points leaning more toward classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
or alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
. Although Parker Communications sold the station back in the early 1990s, today's Cities 97 is still similar to the version that debuted in the fall of 1983, though the influence of its current owner can be felt heavily. Until recently, the station carried the syndicated talk show "Loveline
Loveline
Loveline is a syndicated radio call-in program in North America, offering medical and relationship advice to listeners, often with the assistance of guests, typically actors and musicians. Its flagship station is KROQ-FM in Los Angeles....
", which had gotten strong ratings on the former KEGE
KRXX
KRXX is a commercial radio station in Kodiak, Alaska, operating as the Jack FM affiliate for South Central Alaska.-External links:* — official website...
. This was considered to be an odd move, since "Loveline" is geared toward a much younger demographic than KTCZ's, and conflicted heavily with their "more music" mandate.
The studios and transmitter were located at 38th Street and Minnehaha Avenue in south Minneapolis from at least the mid 1950s until 1985. The tower was short for a full-power FM station at approximately 150 feet. The transmitter in 1985 was moved to the site of its AM sister, then known as KTCJ, in New Hope, where it hung on one of the three AM towers. Later, the transmission facilities were upgraded with a move to the KMSP-TV
KMSP-TV
KMSP-TV, channel 9, is the Fox-owned-and-operated television station serving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota designated market area, owned in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC...
Channel 9 tower in Shoreview, from where most of the other Twin Cities FM stations transmit.
Programming
On Sunday nights, Cities 97 airs a specialty show featuring local music. Some local music does make its way into fairly regular rotation, but many consider some of the area's public radio stations to be better sources of music by local artists.KTCZ HD2
On April 25, 20062006 in radio
The year 2006 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting.-Events:*January 3 - The BJ Shea Morning Experience switches to KISW in Seattle, Washington, from the former FM Talk station KKWF....
, Clear Channel announced that KTCZ's HD2 subchannel will be Studio HD, featuring original acoustic rock and chill music
Chill out music
Chill out music is an umbrella term for several styles of electronic music characterized by their mellow style and mid-tempo beats — "chill" being derived from a slang injunction to "relax."Chill out music emerged in the early and mid-1990s in "chill rooms" at dance clubs, where relaxing music...
.
External links
- Cities 97 official website
- Radiotapes.com - Airchecks of KTCR-FM / KTCZ-FM along with an aircheck of the format switch from country to Cities 97 (plus airchecks and videos of other Twin Cities radio stations)
- Rick Burnett's TwinCitiesRadioAirchecks.com - Old radio airchecks and photos from the 1970s of KTCZ's predecessor, KTCR-FM and other Twin Cities radio stations