Reported the Minneapolis Star, The new station will go on the air in early May with a music format, said Herman, and not all that yakety-yak you hear on some stations. The music first played on KUXL was of the Percy Faith/David Rose/Henry Mancini/Peggy Lee/Bing Crosby/Lawrence Welk fare. Top O The Radio Dial. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!! (Helicopters had to be replaced by limos when things got too dangerous.) Front row John Hines and Larry Carolla. In September/October 1957 it announced new programming, with more music, more news, more often. By October it was a big-time rock n roll station, at least until that December, with DJs Rog Kent, Don Hawkins and Harry Zimmerman. The original call sign for the station's construction permit was WAOZ, but the station was never on the air with those call letters. Apparently the station had a wide variety of programs. 740 kHz AM oldies; David Hersk, founder of North Minneapolis recording company Gaity Records, remembered that Edwards had a late night show where he called himself Uncle Merle and played plenty of R&B and rock n roll in 1954-55. When WDGY began to play it, WDGY salesmen found an amazing reluctance on the part of advertisers to buy time on a station that was rated number two in the market. End Of The World - Skeeter Davis 4 3. I was able to get this shot during a visit to see Jimmy Reed. Contributed by John Pratt 12-6-07. 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. We needed new transmitters, new phones, new carpet, new roofs, new this and new that. [This was what Ed Skotch wanted to be The Nations Most Attention-Programmed Station, remember?] Below is a listing of stations available in the metro area. On December 29, 1972, KUXL announced that it was abandoning rhythm & blues in favor of a telephone talk show. It was Percy Faith type music. Fan Feed More The OFFICIAL Fictional Radio Stations Wiki. And if I were Nancy Wilson, Id be a little ticked to have my song interrupted. Forrest Powers of the Star filed his report on March 17, 1964, explaining how Ed Skotch was doing market research with a group of 40 housewives. I asked a black friend of mine how her father heard his music in the 40s and 50s, and he said that Pullman porter friends of his would bring them in on the train from Chicago. It's the music that stands the test of time. Will Jones reported that they would alternate with the local R&B group, the Amazers. The show was to start at 8 pm and take place at both the Minneapolis and St. Paul Auditoriums at the same time, with the stars shuttled by helicopter between them. So little time. Fortunately, the door blew open before he got there. The transmitter location was .3 miles north from the intersection of Sixth Ave. North and Highway 100 in Golden Valley, and the transmitter would be remotely controlled from the studio. Bob Smith had created his Wolfman Jack character in 1958 at the 250,000 watt border blaster station XERF in Mexico, just over the border from Del Rio, Texas. The KDWB Seven Swingin Gentlemen, 1960: Randy Cook, Dick Halverson, Bobby Dale, Sam Sherwood, Bob Friend, Lou Riegert, Hal Murray. The Twin City a Go Go January 1966 issue mentioned this station and its DJs: Dean Alexander, Dave Charles, Will Grassman, Myrna Jean, Oliver Towne (nee Gareth Hebert), Don Riley, Bob Leonard, and Charles Conrad. MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA Format: T40. Five or six foxes shake and gyrate on the stage each night to KUXL records, and Jones assures us they are the liveliest of them all. Johnson mostly played what was termed easy-listening jazz: Isaac Hayes, Shirley Bassey, George Benson, Herbie Mann, Herbie Hancock, etc. Without their help, the site would have many less pages of radio history. KANO was started in 1956 by Jack Lemme, who owned a radio station in Little Falls. In the summer, you waded through chest high weeds and as important as noting the amperage, was pulling (and, for sport, counting) any number of wood ticks that would jump on you for the ride (I counted 27 one day.). 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! But that was overnights (considered a throwaway daypart by management) on a 50,000 watt station that reached from Canada to Cuba. Bottom Row: Dan Halyburton, Larry E. Cummins, Jimmy Reed. 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. Minneapolis Star, Saturday, April 10, 1965. The text is rather small; it reads: Today WWTC Radio trades violins for violence. Since one company could not own more than one AM or more than one FM station in the same market at the time, they needed to find a buyer for the FM station, and sought out the owners of various AM stations in the area. 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. In the July 2, 1967, edition of the TMC Insider, we learn that KDWB went off the air last Friday when a 50-foot tower was blown down and fell on top of the stations studios. It gets better: Will Jones reported on November 27, 1964, that Leigh Kamman and Herb Schoenbaum had turned KUXL into an all-jazz station and breathed new life into it. As they were limited by their then-daytime only license at 980 AM, they started up WPBC-FM at 101.3 MHz in August 1959, simulcasting the AM station. In Will Joness interview of December 10, 1964, station owner Kosofsky said that out of the first 65 or 75 top markets in the country, ours was the only one that didnt have a rhythm & blues station. I purchased some of the WDGY airchecks from collector Arron Mintz in Maine. Found on Radiotapes.com: Ballad of Minnesota!. (Minneapolis Star, October 18, 1966) Interestingly, the name of the act was never mentioned in the news reports. Rock station WDGY - which can be heard on metro area FM dials at 92.1, 103.7, and 107.1HD2, as well as at 740 AM - announced on Monday that Sue Falls is the new host of its weekday 11:30 a.m. show, slotting in between Morning Drive host Dr. Don Michaels and Afternoon Drive . The colors range from bright to blue, from funny to warm, from entertaining to informative. I guess that means no music. Cream City purchased the station from Franklin Broadcasting of New York. Sources are cited, if known. Joe Edwards does the news outro, ending this segment of WDGY's 20/20 News. On November 30, 1969, fire spread through the KDWB studio, destroying two transmitters and shutting it down for two days. Johnny is on the rear of the bike. Who had the key? 740 AM began broadcasting as WRPX, featuring a locally based MOR/adult contemporary format targeting the Hudson/St. One more testament to the sheer effective radiated power in WDGYs nighttime lobe. For some country airchecks from 1963 and for two Music Surveys from 1974, see http://twincitiesradioairchecks.com/ktcrfmtapes.html, For several Music Surveys from the early 1970s, see http://www.radiotapes.com/surveys.html. There were fire trucks everywhere. Preacher Paul was there three nights a week as a host, and on Saturday afternoons he broadcast from the place. When constructed, a Bloomington transmitter location made sense as there was little development to the south at the time. Coast to Coast AM Weekend Edition. http://www.twincitiesradioairchecks.com/ (Rick Burnett). I stopped and visited him one morning, and he lowered a Bob Dylan album for me. As the tower hit, a light fixture fell and narrowly missed Bob Morgan, who was on the air talking about the weather.. Top Row: Step Up Movie, Steve Highsmith, Gregg Lindahl, Paul Johnson. Eventually we had to accept the reality of what had happened. You can still hear all George Young has to say on this clip. Im going to stop here I should have stopped long ago, since this website only goes to 1974. In late 1953 there were shows called Saturday Date and Rhythm at Random, but what they played is anyones guess. Also my parents listened to WDGY in the mid to late 50's and on the long drive to the lake as well. The call letters of KUXL changed to KYCR on May 19, 1988. Tune in, now . In January 1971 the station started to gradually move away from the oldies and gradually more toward album cuts. Front row: Susan Bradley and John Pete (KRSI). Forrest Powers published his own interview with Ed Skotch on October 7, 1963, in the Star. It was sold to Park Broadcasting [Roy H. Park]. 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. Authorization is only required to store your personal settings. It was perhaps the only American commercial radio station the Russians had to jam to prevent their people from hearing all that decadent American Rock & Roll! Jimmy and his agent were out visiting stations that played country-western music and promoting his latest record. Sweet Potato, September 1979. You will hear Curt share stories on WDGY personalities, including Jim Dandy, Rich Holter, George Young and others. I hope you enjoy them. What became of the building? Hubbards Hundred Days was the headline in late 1973.. In the wake of the incidents, a committee was formed by the St. Paul Urban Coalition to investigate them. (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. Much later, in 1977, Kosofsky would transfer his shares to Miriam Warshaw. We sold spots a dollar a holler.. The station pushed the technological limits of the day and provided a lot of interesting exercises for WDGY engineers, but Dr. Young never got into regular broadcasts. Its billed as the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, complete with nine-piece band, singers Bobby John and Jimmy Thomas and a girl trio called the Ikettes. We thought Formula 63 with the Colonel was really a good way to introduce our station. Grew up listening to Jonny on my school bus. On October 3, 1963, Forrest Powers reported in the Star that, Well soon be the happiest group of radio listeners in the country. His programming was designed to help said housewife by becoming an intimate, informative close friend that will cloud out the things that bug her. Jeff Lonto: The ratings started to go up and so ownership and management had the bright idea of pulling the plug on the whole thing, changing the calls to KJJO-AM, and simulcasting FM sister station KJJO-FM (104.1). The first song was Bad Blood by Neil Sedaka. 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