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WCCO (AM)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WCCO | |
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| City of license | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Minneapolis-St. Paul |
| Branding | 830 WCCO |
| Slogan | The Good Neighbor Today's 8-3-0 WCCO |
| Frequency | 830 kHz AM (Also on HD Radio) simulcasted on WLTE-HD2 102.9-2 (HD Radio) |
| First air date | 1922 |
| Format | Commercial; News/Talk |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Class | A |
| Callsign meaning | Washburn Crosby COmpany (previous owner) |
| Former callsigns | WLAG (1922-24) |
| Affiliations | CBS |
| Owner | CBS Radio |
| Sister stations | KZJK, WLTE |
| Webcast | Listen Live! |
| Website | www.wccoradio.com |
WCCO is a radio station with a storied history spanning more than 80 years that serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota. The station is owned by CBS Radio and broadcasts on the designated "clear channel" frequency of 830 kHz, allowing it to reach a wide area of North America at night when other stations on the frequency are required to reduce power or shut down for the night. The call sign comes from the Washburn Crosby Company (now known as General Mills), which was an early owner.
From 1947 to 1996, WCCO radio and WCCO-TV won twelve George Foster Peabody Awards, more than any other Twin Cities broadcast outlet.
WCCO's history begins with the "Call of the North" station WLAG, which began broadcasting in the region on September 4, 1922. However, the station soon landed in financial trouble and closed down in 1924. Washburn Crosby Company (a flour milling company; predecessor to General Mills) took over the station and renamed it to WCCO, and broadcasts resumed less than two months later on October 2, 1924. (But for that brief interruption, WCCO would be the oldest station on the air today in Minnesota.) Early broadcasts took place on the frequency of 710 kHz.
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 FRC's General Order 40, WCCO changed its frequency to 810 kHz and was granted a Clear channel license. Construction of a new 50,000-watt tower operating at this frequency was complete by September 1932. In the 1930s, two additional 300-foot towers were added to increase the range of the station's signal, allowing it to be picked up as far away as Hawaii and the Caribbean Sea when atmospheric conditions were right. The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) added WCCO to its network in 1937, and it remains affiliated with the CBS Radio Network to this day.
In 1939, construction of a new transmitter, still at 810 kHz, was completed in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. This is the same tower used today, although the broadcast frequency was changed to 830 kHz just before World War II.
During the day, WCCO's signal covers 88 counties in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota. At night, the station's signal typically reaches across 28 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. Certain conditions can make the signal stretch much farther— legendary station personality Howard Viken says that he once picked up the station while he was stationed at Guadalcanal in 1943. In 2005, WCCO began broadcasting in the HD Radio Hybrid waveform during the daytime hours.
During those days, WCCO broadcasters were substantial celebrities across the Midwest. Perhaps the greatest of them all was Cedric Adams who first appeared on WCCO in 1931, and broadcast on the station until his death in 1961. Pilots flying over the upper Midwest reported watching the lights go out all over the region each night when Adams finished his 10:00pm newscast. Howard Viken, Maynard Speece, Charlie Boone and Roger Erickson, Jergen Nash, Joyce Lamont, Randy Merriman and others were so well known and loved that when distinguished broadcaster Steve Cannon arrived at WCCO from KSTP in 1971, he was still thought of my many as the "new guy" nearly until his retirement 26 years later. WCCO Radio is known in its home market by its call letters, the phrase "Radio 8-3-0" or "Minnesota's 8-3-0" or the nicknames "'CCO" or "The Good Neighbor", and plays a talk-oriented format, presenting news, opinion and a number of shows throughout the day, with occasional short stories like the station's "Point of Law" program which serves to both entertain and educate the station's listeners about finer points of the American legal system. The format also included a broad mix of music, which leaned MOR until the 1980s, when the playlist shifted more toward adult contemporary. The music was gradually phased out by the early 1990s, when the format was changed to all news/talk. WCCO also has had a longtime reputation of being the station to tune to for emergency information, especially severe weather. Listeners would call in during severe weather events and describe what they see in their locations, supplementing information from the National Weather Service. For many years, they were famous for their "klaxon" alert tone for tornado warnings, which was a purposely irritating, terrible sound designed to alert even the drowsiest listeners of impending danger. This sound was created by putting a metal tape reel on a bulk eraser and pushing the erase button, creating a foghorn-like tone, which was then recorded for subsequent use.
WCCO engineers were experimenting with frequency modulation by 1939, operating W9XHW at 42.3 MHz, but at just 50 watts. The station continued to only consider the medium tepidly. Around 1970, WCCO-FM was broadcasting at 2700 watts and only for the minimum number of hours required to keep a license to the frequency. It eventually became today's WLTE 102.9 FM.
WCCO was the top-rated station in the Twin Cities for decades until shifting demographics and interests finally brought KQRS-FM to the top spot. One sign of the changing times: the well-known farm report was dropped in early 2004, reflecting the fact that many farmers now rely more on the Internet for such information and that the number of farmers in Minnesota has drastically shrunk since the station first began broadcasting (though agriculture remains vital to the region).
For several years, WCCO has hosted a weekly radio show with the governor of Minnesota. Jesse Ventura had a show while in office, and successor Tim Pawlenty has followed suit.
More recent WCCO personalities have included longtime Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman, "Whole-Lotta Woman" Ruth Koscielak, Tim Russell, also a cast member on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, award-winning Minnesota jazz vocalist Patty Peterson, herself the daughter of long-time WCCO vocalist and pianist Jeanne Arland Peterson, and for a brief time, satire host Phil Hendrie. Some notable sports Broadcasters have included Baseball Hall of Fame member Herb Carneal the long time voice of the Minnesota Twins, Halsey Hall, Ray Scott and Ray Christensen, long time voice of University of Minnesota's Gopher Football and Gopher Men's Basketball. Some of WCCO's current programming includes the morning show with Dave Lee during the week days from five to nine. The afternoon drive with Don Shelby from three to six, and Sports to the Max with Mike Max from seven to nine. Dark Star hosts Sports Tonight Monday through Thursdays from nine p.m. to one a.m and on Fridays from nine p.m. to twelve a.m.
WCCO is the radio home of University of Minnesota Golden Gophers athletics, Minnesota Wild hockey, and formerly Minnesota Twins baseball. It was announced on August 1, 2006 that KSTP will begin broadcasting Minnesota Twins games in 2007. The Twins had been on WCCO since arriving in Minnesota in 1961, but because of a dispute between WCCO parent CBS and XM Satellite Radio over compensation for its Major League Baseball broadcasts, CBS has ordered its stations not to renew its MLB contracts.
- Official website
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WCCO
- Radio Locator Information on WCCO
- WCCO (AM) is at coordinates Coordinates:
- Radiotapes.com: featuring historic airchecks of WCCO-AM and other Twin Cities radio stations
- TwinCitiesRadioAirchecks.com A site for airchecks of many Twin Cities stations from the 60'sand 70's.
- (2001). Radio and Television. A History of Minneapolis. Minneapolis Public Library. Accessed September 25, 2004.
- Jeff Baenen (September 24, 2004). Good Neighbor WCCO Radio celebrates 80 years. Associated Press. Accessed September 25, 2004.
- History of WCCO Tower. City of Coon Rapids. Accessed September 25, 2004.
| Preceded by None |
Radio Home of the Minnesota Twins 1961–2006 |
Succeeded by AM 1500 KSTP 2007– |
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| by AM frequency | |
| by FM frequency | |
| by callsign |
K214DF · K218DK · K260BA · K273BH · K277AD · K279AZ · KBEM · KBGY · KCMP · KDIZ · KDWB · KDXL · KEEY · KFAI · KFAN · KFXN · KKMS · KLBB · KLCI · KMNV · KMOJ · KNOF · KNOW · KNXR · KQQL · KQRS · KQSP · KRJJ · KSJN · KSTP · KSTP · KTCZ · KTIS · KTLK · KTNF · KTTB · KUOM · KXXR · KYCR · KYMN · KZJK · W221BS · W225AP · W227BF · WCCO · WCTS · WDGY · WFMP · WGVX · WLKX · WLOL · WLTE · WMCN · WMIN · WWTC |
| Defunct | WLOL (FM) · WYOO |
| Satellite Radio Local Traffic/Weather: XM Channel 219 · Sirius Channel n/a
Minnesota Radio Markets: Duluth-Superior • Mankato-New Ulm-St. Peter • Minneapolis-St. Paul • Rochester • St. Cloud Other Minnesota Radio Regions: Alexandria • Bemidji • Iron Range
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