WWTC
Encyclopedia
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. Today it is owned by Salem Communications
and broadcasts a conservative talk radio
format.
at both 1140 AM and 1150 AM; also that year, the transmitter was moved from the hospital to Fridley and in 1929 WRHM became an affiliate of the CBS
network. It switched to NBC
's Blue Network on January 1, 1937. The Rosedale Hospital Company sold the station to the Minnesota Broadcasting Company in 1930 and the studio relocated from the hospital to the new Wesley Temple Building at 115 East Grant Street in Minneapolis. By this time it had operated on at least three frequencies, 1140 AM, 1150 AM and 1250 AM, which it stayed on until 1941. WRHM was purchased in September 1934 by Twin Cities Newspapers, a partnership between the St. Paul Pioneer Press
and the Minneapolis Tribune, and the call letters were changed to WTCN at that time. The station remained an NBC Blue station through the network's selloff, becoming an ABC
affiliate in 1945 when NBC Blue formally became ABC. The station kept the ABC affiliation until December 31, 1962. WTCN began broadcasting from a new transmitter and tower in Roseville at the intersection of North Snelling Avenue and Minnesota Highway 36 during 1935, a site that was used until 1962 when the station's transmission facilities were moved to the other side of the expanding Twin Cities metro in St. Louis Park, at a point south of what is now Interstate 394 and west of Minnesota Highway 100, using four towers. This site is the station's current transmitter site. WTCN moved from 1250 AM to 1280 AM in March, 1941 as required by the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
(NARBA) under which most American, Canadian and Mexican AM radio stations changed frequencies.
The station had an experimental FM
transmitter by 1939. W9XTC at 26.05 MHz operated for several years, but by 1944 was only being activated intermittently. Area station KSTP also experimented with the medium around this time, as did WCCO-AM
. However, once the modern FM band was established, FM was attempted again with WTCN-FM
97.1 from 1947 to 1954.
Twin Cities Newspapers expanded to television broadcasting with the launch of WTCN-TV
on channel 4 on July 1, 1949 from the Radio City Theater at 9th Street and LaSalle Avenue, becoming the second modern television station in the state after KSTP-TV took to the air a year earlier. WTCN-AM moved from the Wesley Tower to Radio City in September 1949 and sometime during this period, possibly at the same time, its FM sister was housed there, too. However, WTCN-TV 4 was short-lived. Twin Cities Newspapers decided to sell all three stations three years later; the TV station was sold to CBS, the owner of WCCO Radio, on August 17, 1952 and its call letters were changed to match the radio station. This TV station switched to the CBS
affiliation of its parent company, an affiliation that has remained consistent to this day. WCCO-TV 4 remained at the 9th Street location until 1983, when it moved to Nicollet Mall at 11th Street.
WTCN-AM was at the same time sold to the Minnesota Television Service Corporation headed by St. Paul businessman Robert Butler, a former ambassador to Cuba and Australia. The company quickly applied for a new 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 when it became known as WUSA. Channel 11 was merged and sold to the H.M. Bitner Group' in 1955 and eventually was owned by Metromedia
for many years. Gannett is the current licensee. WTCN-TV had no network affiliation for many years, but picked up the NBC
affiliation in 1979 during a marketwide affiliate switch. The station is now known as KARE
. Prior to the TV station's current studio location in Golden Valley, its original studios were in the Calhoun Beach Hotel
on Lake Street at Dean Boulevard, where the radio station had moved in 1952 following a three-year occupancy downtown with its former TV sister, WTCN-TV 4. WTCN Radio and TV-11 were sold to Time-Life Broadcast in 1957, and in 1964 the siblings were separated with the TV going to Chris-Craft Industries (who would later own KMSP 9
) and the radio station purchased by Buckley-Jaeger who changed the call letters to WWTC on October 1. In early 1965, the radio station relocated to downtown Minneapolis in the Builders Exchange Building at 609 2nd Avenue South, to studios formerly occupied by WDGY. In 1970, WWTC began broadcasting 24 hours a day.
format known as the "Golden Rock" and achieved its highest ratings in years. With a number of quirky DJ
s such as "Ugly Del" Roberts, Mick "King Kracker" Wagner, and Steve "Boogie" Bowman, the station managed to win an audience in spite of notable mismanagement. During its "Golden Rock" days, WWTC might have been the only Twin Cities station with an attorney on staff moonlighting as a disk jockey. Paul Bergstrom, who practiced law by day in St. Paul, worked a late-night shift for a time in the late '80s under the name Max Adams (the name was derived from those of his two young children). Because of his extensive knowledge of the format's music, Bergstrom was originally brought in by a friend on staff to help build the station's music library. In 1981 WWTC headed seven blocks south, back to the Wesley Temple Building on East Grant Street, where it occupied the entire top floor until 1988.
Ironically, during its oldies years, WWTC claimed to be the first commercial station in the Twin Cities area to play music from local favorite Prince
.
/alternative rock
hybrid format that was called "Metro Music." "Metro Music" ended in September 1985 and, following a month of top-40/Adult Contemporary music, an ill-fated "all-weather" format made its debut. The automated format was not successful - it was sometimes heard playing the day's forecast for sunny weather while a storm was overtaking the area - and "Weather Radio 1280" was blown out after 10 months. The ghost of Weather Radio, however, in name at least, lived on in the following two formats.
"Sunny 1280" was next for 1280, a 16-month run with Nostalgia and with new call letters, KSNE (effective June 20, 1986). In November 1987, the station became known as "The Breeze," taking a satellite feed of an early and more diverse form of what is now known as "Smooth Jazz
" from a service run by the former owner of KTWN 108
. On May 27, 1988, the station switched back to the familiar WWTC call letters and a second run with the 'golden rock' format. During the latter part of this period it operated from 215 South 11th Street, a building in which WCCO-FM, later WLTE
was located for many years. WWTC occupied a space on a lower floor.
, a new radio network which would primarily air children's music
. The station also moved its studios to a former bank at Excelsior Boulevard and Minnesota Highway 100 in St. Louis Park. In 1994, WWTC's new parent company under Dahl's ownership, the Children's Broadcasting Corporation, would also acquire religious station KYCR
in 1994. While the station would move into WWTC's studios, it maintained its religious format. While Radio AAHS would bring some success to WWTC, it would soon face competition from Disney
despite being a marketing partner for Radio AAHS, they would launch their own competing network, Radio Disney
, on November 18, 1996. ABC-owned station KQRS-AM
would be Radio Disney's Minnesota affiliate.
Finding it difficult to compete with Radio Disney, Dahl sued Disney for breaching their agreement with the network, and the Radio AAHS network would be shut down in January 1998. In 2002, the former Children's Broadcasting owners (who now operate Intelefilm) won their court case against Disney and were awarded $9.5 million. Payments totaling $12.4 million, including $2.6 million in interest, were finally made in 2004.
Following the demise of Radio AAHS, Children's Broadcasting enlisted longtime area programmer, DJ and unlicensed broadcaster Alan Freed to provide interim programming for their 10 stations until they could be sold. Freed, in addition to having worked at WWTC twice before during its "Golden Rock" era and "Metro Music" periods, had set up a pirate radio
station in downtown Minneapolis
in 1996, broadcasting electronic dance music
from his apartment on 97.7 FM. Beat Radio
gained a positive response from the public but was shut down by the FCC after operating at 20 watts for a few months. "Beat Radio" aired across Children's Broadcasting's stations beginning in February 1998 between the shutdown of Radio Aahs and the final approval of a sale in late October 1998 to a company planning to run a syndicated service called "Catholic Family Radio." When CFR went bankrupt in 2000, that company sold its stations, including WWTC and sister KYCR 1570, to Salem Communications
.
, until a new studio in KKMS' Eagan
facilities could be constructed. On March 19, 2001 the station was branded "The Patriot."
The "Patriot" branding was a product of Salem. The station became a syndicated talk
outlet, broadcasting Salem's stable of conservative hosts via satellite. The weekday lineup is based around nationally-syndicated hosts Bill Bennett
, Dennis Prager
, Michael Medved
, Hugh Hewitt
, Mark Levin and Michael Savage
. The station currently broadcasts local talk shows on the weekend; Understanding The Times hosted by Jan Markell, and the Northern Alliance Radio Network
, a group of local blog
gers.
Salem also ran "The Patriot II" on sister station KYCR in Golden Valley
. KYCR's program schedule was initially almost the same as WWTC, with the addition of Bill O'Reilly
's midday show, and mostly aired repeats of shows already on WWTC. However, in 2005 the KYCR was forced by FCC simulcasting rules to expand its programming to other syndicated shows. In 2007, KYCR changed to a separate talk format called "AM 1570: The New Talk of the Twin Cities". It now broadcast mostly business news and talk shows as Business1570, Twin Cities Business Radio. Featuring Bloomberg Radio, Lou Dobbs and a live local show "The Peter McClellan Show" weekdays at 5pm
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...
serving the Twin Cities region. Despite its up-and-down history, the station spawned two of the area's major television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
stations and had some very innovative and unusual periods in its history. Today it is owned by Salem Communications
Salem Communications
Salem Communications is a U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher specializing in evangelical Christian and conservative political talk radio. It owns 99 commercial radio stations, 65 of which are in the top 25 markets. Salem is the fifth largest U.S....
and broadcasts a conservative talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
format.
History
The station now known as WWTC is one of the oldest in the Twin Cities area. Since its inception, the station has gone through many formats, call letter and ownership changes.Early history
The station began as WRHM (for "Rosedale Hospital" at 4429 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis) on August 10, 1925. In 1927, it shared time for a few months with WDGYKFAN (AM)
* See also KFXN-FMKTCN —branded News/Talk 1130—is a commercial radio station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, broadcasting a conservative news/talk format. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications, and serves the Twin Cities market. KTCN's main studios are in St...
at both 1140 AM and 1150 AM; also that year, the transmitter was moved from the hospital to Fridley and in 1929 WRHM became an affiliate of the 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...
network. It switched to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Blue Network on January 1, 1937. The Rosedale Hospital Company sold the station to the Minnesota Broadcasting Company in 1930 and the studio relocated from the hospital to the new Wesley Temple Building at 115 East Grant Street in Minneapolis. By this time it had operated on at least three frequencies, 1140 AM, 1150 AM and 1250 AM, which it stayed on until 1941. WRHM was purchased in September 1934 by Twin Cities Newspapers, a partnership between the St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is a newspaper based in St. Paul, Minnesota, primarily serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the eastern metro region, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, along with western Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota and Anoka County,...
and the Minneapolis Tribune, and the call letters were changed to WTCN at that time. The station remained an NBC Blue station through the network's selloff, becoming an ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate in 1945 when NBC Blue formally became ABC. The station kept the ABC affiliation until December 31, 1962. WTCN began broadcasting from a new transmitter and tower in Roseville at the intersection of North Snelling Avenue and Minnesota Highway 36 during 1935, a site that was used until 1962 when the station's transmission facilities were moved to the other side of the expanding Twin Cities metro in St. Louis Park, at a point south of what is now Interstate 394 and west of Minnesota Highway 100, using four towers. This site is the station's current transmitter site. WTCN moved from 1250 AM to 1280 AM in March, 1941 as required by the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
The North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement, usually referred to as NARBA, is a treaty that took effect in March 1941 and set out the bandplan and interference rules for mediumwave AM broadcasting in North America. Although mostly replaced by other agreements in the 1980s, the basic bandplan...
(NARBA) under which most American, Canadian and Mexican AM radio stations changed frequencies.
The station had an experimental FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
transmitter by 1939. W9XTC at 26.05 MHz operated for several years, but by 1944 was only being activated intermittently. Area station KSTP also experimented with the medium around this time, as did WCCO-AM
WCCO-AM
WCCO is a radio station located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. The station broadcasts on a clear-channel frequency and is owned by CBS Radio. The station's studios are located in downtown Minneapolis, while its transmitter is located in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.With 50,000 watts of power, WCCO's...
. However, once the modern FM band was established, FM was attempted again with WTCN-FM
KTCZ
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.-History:...
97.1 from 1947 to 1954.
Twin Cities Newspapers expanded to television broadcasting with the launch of 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 :...
on channel 4 on July 1, 1949 from the Radio City Theater at 9th Street and LaSalle Avenue, becoming the second modern television station in the state after KSTP-TV took to the air a year earlier. WTCN-AM moved from the Wesley Tower to Radio City in September 1949 and sometime during this period, possibly at the same time, its FM sister was housed there, too. However, WTCN-TV 4 was short-lived. Twin Cities Newspapers decided to sell all three stations three years later; the TV station was sold to CBS, the owner of WCCO Radio, on August 17, 1952 and its call letters were changed to match the radio station. This TV station switched to the 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...
affiliation of its parent company, an affiliation that has remained consistent to this day. WCCO-TV 4 remained at the 9th Street location until 1983, when it moved to Nicollet Mall at 11th Street.
WTCN-AM was at the same time sold to the Minnesota Television Service Corporation headed by St. Paul businessman Robert Butler, a former ambassador to Cuba and Australia. The company quickly applied for a new 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 when it became known as WUSA. Channel 11 was merged and sold to the H.M. Bitner Group' in 1955 and eventually was owned by Metromedia
Metromedia
Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...
for many years. Gannett is the current licensee. WTCN-TV had no network affiliation for many years, but picked up the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliation in 1979 during a marketwide affiliate switch. The station is now known as KARE
KARE
KARE, digital channel 11, is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota and portions of western Wisconsin. It also operates KARE WX NOW, formerly known as NBC Weather Plus on its second digital subchannel...
. Prior to the TV station's current studio location in Golden Valley, its original studios were in the Calhoun Beach Hotel
Calhoun Beach Club
The Calhoun Beach Club is an apartment community, health club, and commercial center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, just across Lake Street from its namesake Lake Calhoun. Its founders intended the club to meet their residential, recreational, and entertainment needs in one building...
on Lake Street at Dean Boulevard, where the radio station had moved in 1952 following a three-year occupancy downtown with its former TV sister, WTCN-TV 4. WTCN Radio and TV-11 were sold to Time-Life Broadcast in 1957, and in 1964 the siblings were separated with the TV going to Chris-Craft Industries (who would later own KMSP 9
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...
) and the radio station purchased by Buckley-Jaeger who changed the call letters to WWTC on October 1. In early 1965, the radio station relocated to downtown Minneapolis in the Builders Exchange Building at 609 2nd Avenue South, to studios formerly occupied by WDGY. In 1970, WWTC began broadcasting 24 hours a day.
"Golden Rock"
Over the years, WWTC had a number of formats, including the distinction of being the Twin Cities' first all-news radio station (using NBC's ill-fated News and Information Service), beginning in June 1975. In 1979, WWTC switched to an oldiesOldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
format known as the "Golden Rock" and achieved its highest ratings in years. With a number of quirky DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
s such as "Ugly Del" Roberts, Mick "King Kracker" Wagner, and Steve "Boogie" Bowman, the station managed to win an audience in spite of notable mismanagement. During its "Golden Rock" days, WWTC might have been the only Twin Cities station with an attorney on staff moonlighting as a disk jockey. Paul Bergstrom, who practiced law by day in St. Paul, worked a late-night shift for a time in the late '80s under the name Max Adams (the name was derived from those of his two young children). Because of his extensive knowledge of the format's music, Bergstrom was originally brought in by a friend on staff to help build the station's music library. In 1981 WWTC headed seven blocks south, back to the Wesley Temple Building on East Grant Street, where it occupied the entire top floor until 1988.
Ironically, during its oldies years, WWTC claimed to be the first commercial station in the Twin Cities area to play music from local favorite Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
.
Various format changes, then a return to oldies
The "Golden Rock" format fizzled after a few years, and the station went through a long string of format changes. In November 1984, WWTC adopted a unique locally-oriented urban contemporaryUrban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
/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...
hybrid format that was called "Metro Music." "Metro Music" ended in September 1985 and, following a month of top-40/Adult Contemporary music, an ill-fated "all-weather" format made its debut. The automated format was not successful - it was sometimes heard playing the day's forecast for sunny weather while a storm was overtaking the area - and "Weather Radio 1280" was blown out after 10 months. The ghost of Weather Radio, however, in name at least, lived on in the following two formats.
"Sunny 1280" was next for 1280, a 16-month run with Nostalgia and with new call letters, KSNE (effective June 20, 1986). In November 1987, the station became known as "The Breeze," taking a satellite feed of an early and more diverse form of what is now known as "Smooth Jazz
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....
" from a service run by the former owner of KTWN 108
KQQL
KQQL is a classic hits music formatted radio station serving the Twin Cities region of Minnesota, licensed to the suburb of Anoka...
. On May 27, 1988, the station switched back to the familiar WWTC call letters and a second run with the 'golden rock' format. During the latter part of this period it operated from 215 South 11th Street, a building in which WCCO-FM, later WLTE
WLTE
WLTE is a radio station in Minneapolis-St. Paul that carries a "Lite rock" adult contemporary format and has done so for more than two decades. WLTE is owned by CBS Corporation, which also owns WCCO radio today...
was located for many years. WWTC occupied a space on a lower floor.
Children's Broadcasting and Radio AAHS
WWTC was sold by the Short family to Christopher Dahl in 1990, and re-launched in May as the flagship of Radio AAHSRadio AAHS
Radio AAHS was a radio network managed by the Children's Broadcasting Corporation. Its flagship station was WWTC-AM 1280 in Minneapolis, which broadcast from the former First Federal Bank building at Highway 100 and Excelsior Boulevard in St. Louis Park. At its height in 1996, Radio AAHS had 29...
, a new radio network which would primarily air children's music
Children's music
Children's music is used here to refer to music composed and performed for children by adults. In European influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment...
. The station also moved its studios to a former bank at Excelsior Boulevard and Minnesota Highway 100 in St. Louis Park. In 1994, WWTC's new parent company under Dahl's ownership, the Children's Broadcasting Corporation, would also acquire religious station KYCR
KYCR
KYCR is a radio station serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, and licensed to Golden Valley, Minnesota. The station is owned by Salem Communications and broadcasts a secular talk radio format...
in 1994. While the station would move into WWTC's studios, it maintained its religious format. While Radio AAHS would bring some success to WWTC, it would soon face competition from Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
despite being a marketing partner for Radio AAHS, they would launch their own competing network, Radio Disney
Radio Disney
Radio Disney is a radio network based in Burbank, California and headquartered out of the Disney Channel headquarters on West Alameda Ave., from where it has been based since November 2008. Prior to that, the network was based in Dallas, Texas...
, on November 18, 1996. ABC-owned station KQRS-AM
KDIZ
KDIZ is a radio station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It is owned by The Walt Disney Company, and airs the Radio Disney radio network.-History:...
would be Radio Disney's Minnesota affiliate.
Finding it difficult to compete with Radio Disney, Dahl sued Disney for breaching their agreement with the network, and the Radio AAHS network would be shut down in January 1998. In 2002, the former Children's Broadcasting owners (who now operate Intelefilm) won their court case against Disney and were awarded $9.5 million. Payments totaling $12.4 million, including $2.6 million in interest, were finally made in 2004.
Following the demise of Radio AAHS, Children's Broadcasting enlisted longtime area programmer, DJ and unlicensed broadcaster Alan Freed to provide interim programming for their 10 stations until they could be sold. Freed, in addition to having worked at WWTC twice before during its "Golden Rock" era and "Metro Music" periods, had set up a pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
station in downtown Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
in 1996, broadcasting electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
from his apartment on 97.7 FM. Beat Radio
Beat Radio
Beat Radio originally was an unlicensed radio station in Minneapolis, Minnesota that played dance music. Founded by local radio DJ and programmer, Alan Freed, in 1996, the station served downtown Minneapolis and surrounding neighborhoods and reached into the western, northwestern and southwestern...
gained a positive response from the public but was shut down by the FCC after operating at 20 watts for a few months. "Beat Radio" aired across Children's Broadcasting's stations beginning in February 1998 between the shutdown of Radio Aahs and the final approval of a sale in late October 1998 to a company planning to run a syndicated service called "Catholic Family Radio." When CFR went bankrupt in 2000, that company sold its stations, including WWTC and sister KYCR 1570, to Salem Communications
Salem Communications
Salem Communications is a U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher specializing in evangelical Christian and conservative political talk radio. It owns 99 commercial radio stations, 65 of which are in the top 25 markets. Salem is the fifth largest U.S....
.
"The Patriot"
Following the purchase by Salem, WWTC began simulcasting the programming of new sister station KKMSKKMS
KKMS is a Salem Communications-owned radio station licensed to Richfield, Minnesota, United States and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Studios are located in Eagan, Minnesota...
, until a new studio in KKMS' Eagan
Eagan, Minnesota
Eagan is a city south of Saint Paul in Dakota County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River. Eagan and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the fifteenth largest...
facilities could be constructed. On March 19, 2001 the station was branded "The Patriot."
The "Patriot" branding was a product of Salem. The station became a syndicated talk
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
outlet, broadcasting Salem's stable of conservative hosts via satellite. The weekday lineup is based around nationally-syndicated hosts Bill Bennett
William Bennett
William John "Bill" Bennett is an American conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist. He served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He also held the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W...
, Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager is an American syndicated radio talk show host, syndicated columnist, author, and public speaker. He is noted for his conservative political and social views emanating from conservative Judeo-Christian values. He holds that there is an "American Trinity" of essential principles,...
, Michael Medved
Michael Medved
Michael Medved is an American radio host, author, political commentator and film critic. His Seattle, Washington-based nationally syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the U.S...
, Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, lawyer, academic, and author. An outspoken Republican, evangelical Christian, he comments on society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is also a law professor at Chapman University School of Law.-...
, Mark Levin and Michael Savage
Michael Savage (commentator)
Michael Savage is a conservative American radio host, author, and political commentator. He is the host of The Savage Nation, a nationally syndicated talk show that airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network...
. The station currently broadcasts local talk shows on the weekend; Understanding The Times hosted by Jan Markell, and the Northern Alliance Radio Network
Northern Alliance Radio Network
The Northern Alliance Radio Network is an American radio talk show, the first in the world hosted entirely by bloggers. The show airs in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul on AM1280 The Patriot.The program is hosted by six bloggers:...
, a group of local blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
gers.
Salem also ran "The Patriot II" on sister station KYCR in Golden Valley
Golden Valley, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 20,281 people, 8,449 households, and 5,508 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,982.3 people per square mile . There were 8,589 housing units at an average density of 839.5 per square mile...
. KYCR's program schedule was initially almost the same as WWTC, with the addition of Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (commentator)
William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television...
's midday show, and mostly aired repeats of shows already on WWTC. However, in 2005 the KYCR was forced by FCC simulcasting rules to expand its programming to other syndicated shows. In 2007, KYCR changed to a separate talk format called "AM 1570: The New Talk of the Twin Cities". It now broadcast mostly business news and talk shows as Business1570, Twin Cities Business Radio. Featuring Bloomberg Radio, Lou Dobbs and a live local show "The Peter McClellan Show" weekdays at 5pm
Books
Area author Jeff Lonto wrote a book about the station in 1998, "Fiasco At 1280" (ISBN 0-9660213-4-7), which covered many of the station's missteps during the 1980s. The book was published just before the demise of "Radio Aahs," so it doesn't include that part of the station's story.External links
- AM 1280: The Patriot
- Radiotapes.com Airchecks of WWTC radio formats dating back to 1972 including All News Radio, The Golden Rock, Metro Radio, Weather Radio, Radio Aahs and more. In addition, the site has photos of the Wesley Temple Building and studio, an article about the mid 1970s news format, and other documents and history
- TwinCitiesRadioAirchecks.com includes some old 1970s airchecks of WWTC.
- Beat Radio
- Studio Z-7 Publishing: Fiasco At 1280
- Minnesota Historical Society photos of WTCN
- WTCN Radio transmitter site & tower, 1947 from Minnesota Historical Society
- WTCN TV & Radio billboard, 1950 from Minnesota Historical Society
- Direct streaming link