At about 9:30 pm, someone with a shotgun wounded three police officers who, with about 20 others, were trying to break up a crowd of about 200 who had gathered at the site of a firebombing. From politics, current events, science and the arts, Allegedly, the Stewarts would go so far as to use the sharp end of a compass to scratch away the grooves of tracks on albums that didnt meet their standards of nice music, in order to prevent rebellious D.J.s from playing them. [2] The station can also be heard on 107.1 KTMY's HD2 channel in the Twin Cities.[3]. Although authorized for only 500 watts from midnight to 4am, it had been broadcasting at full 5,000 watt strength since Crowell-Collier Broadcasting bought the station in late 1959. While a lot of money has gone down the drain, it looks like it has been well spent since the station is gaining solid acclaim in the Twin Cities, and some of the money should start to come back in over a period of the next few years., One fun item is from a Storz Stations Engineering Newsletter dated November 20, 1956. At the time he was operating two mobile discos called Soul on the Roll Disco Rendezvous.. R&B existed right here in the Twin Cities, but was apparently a well-kept secret. Notice the Catman poster on the upper wall. The fact that there were no lights did not compute until I heard the news guy on WLOL say, The radio station studios of KDWB burst into flame this afternoon. With a couple of partners he bought a radio station in Cincinnati and turned it around, selling it at a profit. There were going to be 27 separate short entertainment features every day, ranging from the supernatural to what makes raindrops round. It was discovered during an antenna proof, when it was noticed there was a drop in signal strength in the main lobe and it was traced to this guys house. From an ad from May 1970: WDGYA Touch of Taste.. Bo Diddley got the Marigold going on August 19, 1964. What happened to the records? First air date. A listener needed an FM radio tuned to WLOL and a standard radio tuned to KUOM for full stereophonic effect. All we have are newspaper listings, but on Tuesday, July 7, 1964, there is a full day of Ed Skotchs programming for women, from 6 am until 4 pm when jazz takes over. Today, the station is KTLK, News/Talk 1130, and uses a transmitter site in Credit River Township. Despite the high hopes for I-95, it only lasted until February 2, 1980. Its the swinginest!, In March 1958, WLOLs catchphrases were The Best Sound for Miles and Miles Around and Bigger, Better, Brighter than Ever.. The engineers labored through the night and the following night and on Tuesday, we signed back on. No matter what I did, the signal was always distorted. From the start the station played Memory Music the kind of music everyone likes to hear, according to an article in the St. Louis Park High Echo from June 5, 1958: No long commercials, soap operas, kiddie shows, rock n roll, top 40, or over-enthusiastic disk jockeys This is the radio station that puts the mellow back into music. The owner and president was William E. Schons, and the program director was Marvin Schulz. The station had a country format at the time and was owned by Benita Soho of Los Angeles, doing business as Newport Broadcasting. Unlike most metropolitan areas, the Twin Cities did not have a black radio station in the 1940s or 50s. The call letters of WTCN radio were changed to WWTC on October 2, 1964, after Time Life sold the station to Buckley-Jaeger Broadcasting. Standing from left to right: Steve Shannon and Ed OBrien. The problem was that by the time he got to a place that had soul food, it was all gone. In fact, all were in their 20s. Ad courtesy Jeff Lonto. There was a live broadcast at 9:15 a.m. and a performance at Graham Temple at 3 p.m. A December 1951 ad said [Cassiuss] Bamboo Room is KEYED for your enjoyment, which may or may not mean that there was a tie-in. [made possible by the late summer daytime hours] Now he also does a Saturday afternoon session from 1 to 5. And as many times I tried to get Jim Jennings to talk to me, he ducked me every time. KDAN may not have been muchbut it provided me opportunity and a beginning. The Future is Now (bbzztt) The Future is Y-11, At 3 pm, September 2, 1977, the station changed its format again, this time to country. (Helicopters had to be replaced by limos when things got too dangerous.) The turning point came one night around [January 1956] when we tuned in the Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey Show on TV and they had on Elvis Presley They predicted that he and his music would be the wave of the future, and when we heard what he sang and how he sang it, we began to be concerned. Well, at least with the progressive announcers on KRSI. The broadcast license was cancelled by the FCC in February 1991. Nearby homes similar to 36 CORNICHE Dr Unit B have recently sold between $755K to $755K at an average of $665 per square foot. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE, WDGY Air Staff 1986. About 350 young people, mostly black (Ill use that word instead of the word Negro used at that time) were in attendance. Most Top 40 and Rock listening had migrated to the FM band (which had necessitated the Mighty 1130s switch in the first place.) This first tape was recorded of the radio on June 4, 1973 from 10 AM to 11:30 AM with the music and commercials out. . An historical archive of surveys and nostalgia from radio station WDGY 1130 AM, Minneapolis / St. Paul. Charlie Smith and Preacher Paul Sunday swing thing. Listen to our News/Talk 1130 WISN podcasts here! By that time Elvis had hit it big with Heartbreak Hotel and Hound Dog a cover of a black record followed. The ratings books from late 1953 to late 1955 identify programs by names of shows and names of DJs, and its a challenge to match them up. Photo courtesy Curt Lundgren a/k/a Evan Curfew. Apparently the station had a wide variety of programs. Although Charles J. Lanphier of Milwaukee took out a construction permit for a new broadcast station on October 7, 1957, for some reason it took four years to be realized. The feeling seemed to be we are not going to advertise on that station., Jim Ramsburg, an early WDGY jock, says we were given strict orders never to utter the phrase, Rock & Roll, because it was black slang for sex. 1945. I do know that Nancy Rosens name is spelled wrong. There were baffles designed to permit travel only in one direction, so a fire in the vent-work should have just traveled out. Not sure what this is announcing. ..This is the true story of the birth of U100. WDGY News Room Shot from DJ Control Room - 1969. Burke will proclaim KUXLs Preacher Paul regional king of rhythm and blues at the event. (Minneapolis Tribune, September 7, 1976), Pharoah Black introduced Earth Wind and Fire, with the Emotions and Wild Cherry at their October 7, 1976, concert at the Met Center. The station was innovative in its promotions, had legendary DJs, features like Solid Gold Weekends, and at least two airings of The History of Rock n Roll, an all-encompassing rockumentary.. WWTC Stationery from 1979 (scoped!). . This site does not charge any fees to listen to the posted recordings. Program directors like me used the more exclusive Gavin Report from Bill and Janet Gavin in San Francisco. The news is left in and you will hear about the big CPI index increase. Listen to Paul Geiger in the morning! But the Country format was gaining acceptance among older baby-boomers and melding that growth with WDGYs big 50,000-watt signal gave new purpose to the station and validation to a growing, willing audience that perhaps Country musics time was coming. Without their help, the site would have many less pages of radio history. Jimmy and his agent were out visiting stations that played country-western music and promoting his latest record. This get together included Jim du Bois, currently CEO and President of the Minnesota Broadcasters Association & formerly of KTCR-FM, WDGY, & K102, Mike Cunningham, former KTCR-FM Operations Manager, and myself, Rick Burnett (also formerly of KTCR-FM).Don talks about his early days in Iowa and tells how very disappointed his mother was when Don failed to get a job at country station KTCR-AM in 1963; instead he got a job at KDWB. When constructed, a Bloomington transmitter location made sense as there was little development to the south at the time. For those who prefer to look on the gloomy side of things, there are always the daytime soap operas on television. At first the prize was proposed at 63 cents per pound, but Station Manager Don French decided that a bigger incentive might be $6.30 per pound. No KDWB! Heres one of the dune buggies. 36 years later, Im still in the radio game with more than my fair share of terrific experiences. Radio and Records magazine, March 18, 1977, courtesy Todd Mitchell, Only reference to Y-11 that came up in a search of the Strib. The Strib is online now! Radio and Records magazine, March 18, 1977, courtesy Todd Mitchell, Only reference to Y-11 that came up in a search of the Strib. Competition was fierce with five rock radio stations at the time, and compared to U100, WDGY, KDWB and KSTP seemed a bit tame in their original on-air presentation. Because the two signals arrived out of phase, they cancelled each other out. All stations will soon be equipped with an echo chamber for ON AIR use. Wikipedia says that the station went through jazz, and all news formats. You will hear Jimmy promote the "All Americans,"you will hear one of the first Gatorade commercials and you will hear the WDGY promo for the WDGY Power Poll where one could win a Craig color TV (I thought this was radio?). "WDGY Means the Most Music and the Most Money." Whats more, we do it selectively enough to fill just the news you want. Rob flew to Dallas to supervise cutting new jingles for Y100 at the media jingle production company PAMs. Bill Hartman commandeered the U of Minnesota theater production company to help create an exterior faade that would cover a small trailer to remote broadcast from the State Fair. In 1953-55 announcers included Howard Viken, Don Riley, Harry Zimmerman, Slim Jim Iverson, and Slim Jims brother the Vagabond Kid. Seriously, who thought progressive rock on AM was a good idea? The station will feature top cuts from current albums along with a selection of singles, with no jingle package and segued sets. Fortunately, the door blew open before he got there. A huge booklet issued in 1949 provides pictures of everyone involved in the station and all the reasons why America is better than any other country. At the time it was programming Classical music. Although the records say that KUXL was granted the license to increase its power to 1000 watts on October 1, 1963, Will Jones of the, Both KFMX 104.1 and KRSI 950 am flipped to Music of Your Life as KRSI AM-FM that day, with Don Shore as the Program Director and morning host. KDWB went on the air on September 16, 1959, as a top 40 station. Guaranteed to make life more fun. Thinking about how to tell the good people of the Twin Cities there was some good radio on the South end of the dial was pretty much all I was thinking about. We thought you could come up with a new product called Formula 63. 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. Will Jones tells us that security was so tight that the 120,000 packages were stuffed at the Society for the Blind. Minneapolis Star, Thursday, August 20, 1964. It wasnt long before the radio stations heard about the fact that they were advertising a competing radio station. Youll LOVE IT!!!!! They kept the WYOO call letters, to avoid the hassle and long process of changing call letters with the FCC. We were doing just that. In August 1927, WDGYs transmitter was moved to Superior Blvd. Follow the link to read the story of this long-running radio show. Grew up listening to Jonny on my school bus. 2 Beds. WMIN had several shows that might have included some jump tunes. Don Betzold recalled, It wasnt really a flagpole. Advertising sales for the stations paled in comparison to the competition, and managing both stations became a burden for the couple, so the Stewarts sold the station in 1972 to Fairchild Industries for $1.5 million. In 1983 the station was sold to John and Kathleen Parker. http://twincitiesradioairchecks.com/kstpam70s.html. RecordedMay 12, 1963. I hope you enjoy them. Scads of airchecks and music surveys are posted at, http://twincitiesradioairchecks.com/kdwb630tapes.html. There, at 63, where no Minnesotan had gone before. The format on the 500 watt station was folksy to the point where it may have out-folksied WCCO. Donald K. Martin reading the news in the WDGY newsroom. Johnny Canton is at the top left. We were thinking about this positioning problem when Don remembered something which had been a national marketing phenomenon a few years earlier. 1 tune was Ernie Ford singing Mule Train, and can you imagine me calling from home on the phone that we werent playing Mule Train often enough? . The promotional piece below pictures the stations initial staff. 740 AM began broadcasting as WRPX, featuring a locally based MOR/adult contemporary format targeting the Hudson/St. The station derives a portion of its programming from Scott Shannon 's The True Oldies Channel from ABC Radio. On November 30, 1969, fire spread through the KDWB studio, destroying two transmitters and shutting it down for two days. Photo from Judy Dibble via Rick Burnetts Twin Cities Radio Airchecks. And well supply material so that listeners can excel in certain areas of conversation.. Jimmy also worked at KDWB-AM and KRSI prior to this gig. I continued on Highway 12 to Radio Drive. The competition, sometimes friendly, sometimes not, resulted in memorable merchandising promotions and concerts. Im guessing that KAAYs Beaker Street was influential here. Interestingly enough, in my KUXL file I found an article from the Minneapolis Spokesman, the black communitys weekly newspaper, dated December 26, 1958. They built their studio on Stinson Blvd. Will Jones of the Trib noted on January 11, 1957, that the station suddenly decided to go to symphonic, opera and chamber music. This a recnet PR photo. In May 2006 the recordings started to beconverted to MP3 andsharedhere. He sold me (for the cost of materials and production time) the following: Dick Driscoll, The January '73 Charlie Van Dyke, George Young, Perry St. John, Tom Wynn, Hal Raymond, Dan Daniels, and the Various WDGY DJ (composite) clip. September 18, 1964. band (which had necessitated the Mighty 1130s switch in the first place.) On November 18, 1973, KQ AM and FM began airing The National Lampoon Comedy Hour, a comedy show created specifically for radio by Michael ODonoghue, editor of The National Lampoon magazine. Here in my file is a page out of the July 9, 1966, issue of Billboard magazine, where the information about KUXL lives. It does appear that Kamman was still on the air at 3pm during the month of January 1965. And although this page is about the AM station, what the heck. The program director, Rob Sherwood, used this opportunity to abruptly change the format of both stations, debuting the AM and FM simulcast of Super U100 with a Joe Cocker song and a two-minute montage of the new stations new jingles. Supposedly, a gentleman that lived within the main lobe of the pattern had decided to wind copper around his attic and, with an appropriate capacitor, made a tuned circuit at 1130 which allowed him to power his florescent lights. One contest in 1963 was a challenge to bake the worlds biggest Christmas Cookie. The Insider reported that Evan Curfew was playing a Solid Gold Oldies All Request show on Saturdays from 1 5 (am or pm?) The last listing in the paper as WMKT was April 11, 1970. A gunshot was heard and a policeman was hit in the arm or hand. The station played four categories of Country: Drake-Chenaults sales manager explained that if a station tried to duplicate the format live, youd have to get supertalented country jocks, a top-notch country producer and all the other things. It made its final move to 1130 AM in 1941 as required by the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) under which most American, Canadian and Mexican AM radio stations changed frequencies. The photo below was posted on Facebook by Paul Strickland, who says. I leave it to smarter people than me to figure out the history of this craziest of stations. 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