Also in 1979, Hubbard-owned KSTP-FM became KS95 and, under program director Chuck Knapp, emerged as the towns first FM station that did more than just play music. For WCCO Radio, the day will be tinged with a sense of foreboding. Its legendary air talent over the last four decades made their mark with a schtick rich in Scandinavian dialects and jokes about herring. His retirement is not merely a symbolic break with the past, but a critical fork in the road that will determine the stations future. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Each time the. Sometimes taking the connection apart and reconnecting can improve the physical connection of the signal conductor. [9], On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio agreed to merge with Entercom. Dave Lee is arguably the last in a line of legacy talent connecting the station with its heyday of the 1960s and 70s. Downdetector only reports an incident when the number of problem reports is significantly higher than the typical volume for that time of day. Knoepke expects station revenues to rebound to 2019 levels this year. Retiring morning host Dave Lee will not be around to broadcast over it, but I think you do need an FM signal, he says. WCCO's Director of Meteorology Mike Augustyniak says those in the purple areas should stay indoors as much as possible. A decade ago, the world was WCCOs oyster, competitively. Moms of autistic kids form support group in Alexandria. Congress passed a law a couple of years ago that essentially forces many TV stations across the country to give up their broadcast frequencies, so that wireless companies can use them to meet the. Knoepke is regarded by competitors and staff as a capable executive but her background is entirely in sales. Washburn Crosby Company, forerunner of General Mills, took over the station and switched the call sign to WCCO for the company's initials. Will you help us keep it this way by supporting our nonprofit newsroom with a tax-deductible donation today? Programmers in town told TCBthat by simulcasting Twins baseball, Entercom has effectively killed The Wolfs ability to hold an all-day audience. She seemed like a big part of the team to just disappear like that. Relatively affluent cord cutters using over-the-air signals by choice could find viewing alternatives with relative ease, but the poor who use free over-the-air TV because they cant afford to pay for TV might see their viewing choices dwindle. WCCO-TV, a television station (channel 32, virtual channel 4) licensed to serve Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lane spent the bulk of his radio career at KSTP/Hubbard Broadcasting in a variety of on- and off-air roles. Tim Walz declares state of state strong (but says state of Florida, not so hot), Minnesota Democrats, except Dean Phillips, say they back Bidens reelection, The tough, lonely job of being a marijuana legalization opponent in Minnesota, A full repeal of Minnesotas Social Security tax now unlikely after Senate DFL concedes to a partial cut, These bikers don't want a bike trail on St. Paul's Summit Avenue, DFL still not united on red flag law, background checks after months of advocacy on guns, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license. The station is dedicated to providing accurate and unbiased news coverage, as well as expert analysis and commentary. While CBS shareholders retain a 72% ownership stake in the combined company, Entercom was the surviving entity, with WCCO Radio no longer being co-owned with WCCO-TV. Hes taken that admonition to heart and turned maintenance of those relationships into an art form. FM was a niche technology; in the 1960s, most cars lacked FM radios. Management manned the mics for five weeks. Once the auction concludes, consumers who receive digital content over the air through a converter box will likely have to re-scan their channels, but their favorite programming should continue on their usual channel numbers. In the February 2021 Nielsen ratings, released as this issue ofTCBwent to press, Minnesota Public Radios all-news KNOW-FM was the #2-rated local station, while iHeart Medias mostly sports KFAN was #3, and CCO was tied for ninth (with sister station Jack FM; Hubbards KS95 was #1). Visit the Downdetector Methodology page to learn more about how Downdetector collects status information and detects problems. Disclosure: Jon Ellis is an employee of Gray Television. With the move to Division I starting in the 2021 season, the football games would move to KSTP. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. KNOW has nearly twice CCOs audience share and more than twice the number of listeners per week. Personally, I'm glad to see her off the air. Once that auction is concluded, the FCC will resell the bandwidth it has purchased in a second auction to wireless companies, where demand is growing. Its driven by a generation of budget cuts across the industry., Theres one other problem, and its a big one. When he took over the WCCO morning show in 1998, he says, then-general manager Steve Goldstein told me Im responsible for revenue and other peoples livelihoods, Lee recalls. He has a great voice. The era of double digits ended around 2000. First, digital streaming and smart speakers may quickly render the AM band struggle moot. As of the latest U.S. Drought Monitor Report, 75% of the state is experiencing severe drought. Public radio started acting like real radio, promoting, employing formatics [programming techniques to hold listeners attention], says Bloom. The studios were in the Oak Grove Hotel near Loring Park in Minneapolis. A local watershed was KFANs move to FM in 2011. Family track or fast track? The Twins would move to KSTP beginning in the 2007 season, and would then move to then-team owned KTWN-FM prior to the start of the 2013 season. WCCO is a Class A clear-channel station. Will it make the city a more affordable place to live? I even went to the KIMT station studio in rochester to see if they had requested CCO to be removed from the cable line up and their place was locked up like Ft Knox and they wouldn't answer their telecom at the door either. 4.) But when the camera pans in . Read more Caret down Live now Play Adam and Jordana Play Listen until 5pm Live See full schedule Earlier Today Play Thursday - Apr 27, 2023 Today According to data provided to stations by Nielsen, in 2020, 82.2 percent of the available radio audience did not tune to AM (see AM Blues sidebar, page 36). Keep it clean, keep it Minnesotan, please. Always live on the free Audacy app. "I don't know why (CBS) would want lose that market share up here," said Lonnie Wing, a Selective TV board member. Dave has the strongest relationships with clients in their building, notes an exec at a competing radio group. The radio station was founded 99 years ago as WLAG at 710 AM; it became WCCO in 1924, its call letters reflecting its owners, the Washburn Crosby Co., a predecessor of General Mills. I recently noticed that she doesnt seem to work for the station anymore, but there is next to no information regarding her departure. This site has some photos and recordings. In the analog era, WCCOs former VHF Low analog signal may have been easier to receive than the present-day UHF digital signal. The supposition is that to maximize the economic leverage of owning an urban radio cluster, one or another of these groups will engage in a sale or swap to produce a second six-station cluster. I have to be really hot when I go out for winter storms.". So why not simulcast WCCO all day on FM, as Entercom has done with WBBM-AM in Chicago? Theyre looking for someone to change it without changing anything, Bloom says. Scandinavian Gift Shop to host Wake Up Alexandria on May 5, New robot server 'hired' at Grand Arbor's Pioneer Grill in Alexandria, State FFA band and chorus are the hidden gem of Minnesota State FFA convention, MN 100 Club donates $50,000 to family of Pope County fallen officer, Overpass in Glenwood to memorialize Deputy Josh Owen. Everything on WCCO Radio can be sponsored: time checks, weather forecasts, news updates, the studio itself. More health-related information on air quality can be found here. The consensus in the industry is she needs an equally capable programming executive to manage the burden of talent development and strategy. This is a turning point, says former program director Jon Quick. Johnson announced the news via a Monday morning Facebook post. [Entercom] have not invested positively in any of their Chicago properties, he says. BIA and a combination of local sources estimated WCCO had revenues of slightly over $15 million in 2019 (including digital). Link is dead at least for the moment. Reduce or eliminate splitters or connectors that are not needed. In his letter, Douglas said no attempt was made to negotiate a lower salary. Douglas has served the Twin . . WCCO Radio remains the storied icon of Twin Cities broadcasting. After the advent of television in the 1950s, most national radio programming moved to television; local radio stations, previously dependent on networks for much of their programming, were left to fend for themselves. July 31, 2021 / 8:30 AM With 50,000 watts of power (the maximum permitted) and a nondirectional signal, WCCO reaches much of Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin and Iowa by day, along with a wide area of the Central United States and Central Canada at night. Knoepke was rather unforthcoming inTCBsinterviews, conducted by phone and email, with David Heim, Entercoms corporate communications vice president, monitoring; she declined to talk about ratings, audience data, revenue, nor, unsurprisingly, candidates to replace Lee. Welcome to the official YouTube channel for WCCO News and CBS News Minnesota, your destination for everything local -- including breaking news and the best o. And Hubbards all-sports format at 1500 AM never got enough traction to be relevant. The music was gradually phased out by the early 1990s, when the format was changed to news, talk, and sports. Thats hard to listen to.. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. There are probably fewer than 10 stations in the country of CCOs scale and format. Said one CCO insider, he had the misfortune to arrive with a sports-oriented mentality in a period when hard news became primary., Knoepke says she intends to replace Hanson with a leader with forward vision.. Nonetheless, its recently departed program director told on-air talent to imagine they were aspirationally programming for a 42-year-old man. What is your zip code? Cory Hepola moved from KARE-11 two years ago and describes his midmorning niche as a work in progress. Sign in or register to get started. The AM deficit is so significant that when Twins baseball returned to WCCO in 2018, the team required an out clause if WCCO could not get an FM simulcast by 2020. . The statements and views expressed in this posting are my own and do not reflect those of Gray Television. Everyone is advised to take precautions when air quality is unhealthy, including taking it easy and listening to your body. Editors note: Since this article went to press there have been these developments: WCCO Radio parent Entercom Communications announced a corporate rebranding as Audacy Inc.Audacy.comalso replaces radio.com as its streaming brand. In the January 2021 ratings, that number had sunk to 181,000, a drop of 83 percent. WCCO 830 AM (CBS) One of the nation's great stations and a big part of Twin Cities and Minnesota radio history. We are a neutral grounds where Sotans come from all four corners of our great state to discuss the latest news, share great photographyand memes, discuss politics, the outdoors, and so much more! We dont expect [WCCO] to sell something for us. WCCO seized the opportunity, curating a lineup of legends and dominance in audience metrics. Obvious local radio competitors thatTCBspoke to are uninterested or hemmed in by noncompete clauses or contracts. For a series of live public-service emergency broadcasts in 1965 the St. Patrick's Day blizzard, the record April floods on the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, and the May 6 onslaught of 24 tornado touchdowns in the Twin Cities area the station earned the George Foster Peabody, DuPont, and Sigma Delta Chi awards. Listeners would call in during severe weather events and describe what they were seeing at their locations, supplementing information from the National Weather Service. But does the Good Neighbor have the stamina to make it in its next century? During the day, it provides at least B-grade coverage to most of Minnesota's densely populated area (as far north as Duluth and as far south as Rochester), plus portions of northern Iowa and western Wisconsin. Knoepke dismissed John Hanson during the winter, the third programming exec she has replaced during her six-year tenure. He takes the time to understand the business hes representing. The MPCA says fine particle levels will begin to improve Tuesday as southerly winds begin pushing the smoke out of the state. A coverage map from RabbitEars.info shows over-the-air reception of WCCO may only be possible in limited parts of Rochester and would require a rooftop antenna. WCCO journalist Nick Streiff shared one of the complaints about Frank and Amelia's lack of social distancing while presenting the news. The alert goes into effect Wednesday at 10. Though WCCOs ratings do not include listeners outside the metro counties, its programming often seems equally geared to Greater Minnesota. The FCCs memorandum opinion and order approving KIMTs petition for relief does not specify when WCCO-TVs CBS and syndicated programming must be dropped from Spectrums Rochester cable system. The vendor provider (Spectrum) no longer has a contract to carry the station. But many industry observers believe the only way forward for CCO is a major update and modernization of its sound. In 1983, it became WLTE 102.9 Lite-FM, an identity it kept until Christmas 2011, when it switched to a country music format as BUZ'N @ 102.9 with the new call letters KMNB. WCCO (830 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and owned by Audacy, Inc. [1] Its studios and offices are located on Second Avenue South in Downtown Minneapolis. CCOs air talent was long-tenured and had copious amounts of vacation. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Adam Platt isTCBs executive editor. A clause in her WCCO contract required that she stay off the air for a year. Will it return? WCCO was the top-rated station in the Twin Cities for decades until shifting demographics and a decline in listening to AM radio caused a drop in the Arbitron and Nielsen ratings. WCCO features a talk radio format, with frequent newscasts and sports programming. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. WCCO discontinued broadcasting in AM stereo around the turn of the millennium.[16]. Historically, only Gray TV NBC affiliate KTTC/10 was located in Rochester, but both KIMT and Hubbard ABC affiliate KAAL/6 (Austin) have begun originating full newscasts from the city in recent years. In the current environment, such a move seems untenable. The iconic radio station that was once the town square of Minnesota faces a near-term full of challenges. The following year, WCCO experienced an enormous ratings drop. Job one for Knoepke is to hit a home run with Lees replacement. The format is not conducive to [comedy] bits anymore.. Finally, WCCO remains a cash machine with a community of satisfied advertising partners. Radio is most threatened by people in leadership roles who only account for it as a commodity and see stations as real estate assets, says Langmyer, speaking of the industry in general. But WCCO is in many ways a shell of its one-time self, attracting a fraction of the audience that it commanded in its heyday and no longer a ratings leader among the regions news and information stations. When you're out for as long as we are, that helps you stay dry. Morning drive has pretty much transitioned to news, Lee says. The dual auction will marry the economics of wireless providers demand for spectrum with the economics of television broadcasters, says the FCC website. In March 2018, WCCO shut down its HD Radio signal on AM 830. CBS bought WCCO from General Mills in 1932, and switched its network affiliation to the CBS Radio Network. December 18, 2020 1:18 pm. Big changes could be coming for traditional broadcast television stations both commercial and noncommercial. Due to the station's power, as well as Minnesota's mostly flat landscape (with near-perfect ground conductivity), WCCO boasts one of the largest coverage areas in the country. To republish, copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to MinnPost. For the first time in its history, WCCOs biggest programming niches are owned by competitors. WCCO is listed in the World's largest and most authoritative dictionary database of abbreviations and acronyms. There is no band on the internet other than bandwidth, so WCCO is at no competitive disadvantage online, and is increasingly adept at promoting and marketing its digital content. CCOs power ratios [the revenue premium it derives above what ratings metrics would dictate] are what make it hard to change, says former programming boss Andy Bloom, whom Knoepke hired in 2018, but was replaced in less than a year. You cant replace Dave, says Anselmo. The home of. they gave me a number to talk to video repair which is just the generic help line which weaves you through the madness of robots until you finally get to a human, and they have no explanation as to why this is happening. 1968 was CCOs high-water mark in the ratings era. The threat to WCCO long-term may not be the age or size of its audience, but an owner who sees it as a pawn or rook on an industry chess board. Minnesota's trusted station for news, traffic and weather. The weed watchdog: What Minnesota can expect if it legalizes recreational marijuana this year. One outsized aspect of the advertising effort at CCO is personal endorsements by program hosts in place of recorded ads. Our reporters are only able to do their work thanks to support at all levels. And Lees prowess is known throughout town. [3] The transmitter is located off Coon Rapids Boulevard at Lily Street NW in Coon Rapids. Just wondering if you guys have any insight! 3.) They have no bench, and they dont know how to nurture talent.. The Pohlads found it difficult to make money in radio, and recouping their investment proved no easier. WCCO. Some observers and past employees believe it is very little; others say its near-absolute. Because the data is proprietary and WCCO refuses to comment, there is no way to settle the question . Now all that information is available on a smartphone;CCO dropped farm reports two generations ago. Officials advise that people in sensitive groups limit time outside and avoid strenuous exercise or activity. This reinforcing batch of heavy smoke is expected to arrive starting Saturday morning.". More recent WCCO personalities have included longtime Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman, "Whole-Lotta Woman" Ruth Koscielak and Tim Russell, who had been a cast member on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, heard on NPR for many years. Many of the signature elements of CCOs morning show, from school closings to a full-time meteorologist, have been ceded to morning TV. CBS and Entercom both told us youll never make up the lost revenue with a simulcast, says former WCCO sales exec Ethan Adam. Its their reputation and the trust in the community that we hope conveys to us, Fetters says. Advertisers generally are looking for listeners 25-54 or 18-34 years old. MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has extended and upgraded the air quality alert in much of the state due to "unprecedented" conditions caused by wildfire smoke. Usually when these things happen it is one of the following: 1.) Rate it: WCCO. We see that you have javascript disabled. WCCO Radio recently made significant changes to its on-air lineup. As Lee moves from drive time to a photo on the stations wall of fame, WCCO faces the same question it has faced throughout the last quarter-century: What is the cure for its chronic audience atrophy, and is it worse than the disease? The industrys fiscal state is constraining its capacity to spend, says former CBS Radio executive Tom Langmyer: There have just been very few transactions of this type in the past few years, period., This story appears in the April/May 2021 issue with the title The Shrinking Neighbor.. With the transition from analog to digital over-the-air signals, those who use home antennas can receive pristine (and, in many cases, high-definition) television broadcasts. Coincidentally that year, says Philpott, five FM stations moved their antennas to the IDS Center so their signals blanketed the metro area. [citation needed] One sign of the changing times: the well-known farm report was dropped in early 2004, reflecting the fact that many farmers began to 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 (although agriculture remains vital to the region). The St. Thomas football broadcasts would be caried on WCCO until the 2019-2020 season with no season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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