Theyll take a look at it.. The MPCA says fine particle levels will begin to improve Tuesday as southerly winds begin pushing the smoke out of the state. The vendor provider (Spectrum) no longer has a contract to carry the station. More will be added, so check back. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. At night, the station's signal typically reaches across 28 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. Rate it: WCCO. Reach Agweek reporter Jeff Beach at jbeach@agweek.com or call 701-451-5651. 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. While light rain showers moved over southwestern Minnesota on Friday, no other significant rain is in store for the first few days of August. Thirty seconds earlier, he was cracking his knuckles; she had her elbows on the desk and her chin resting in her hands. Being invited and paid to give up their broadcast spectrum is a first for television broadcasters, Meisch said. WCCO features a talk radio format, with frequent newscasts and sports programming. World and national news is supplied by CBS News Radio. It is neither urban nor urbane. 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. Some notable sports broadcasters have included Baseball Hall of Fame member Herb Carneal, the longtime voice of the Minnesota Twins, Halsey Hall, Ray Scott and Ray Christensen, longtime voice of University of Minnesota's Gopher football and Gopher men's basketball. Sometimes taking the connection apart and reconnecting can improve the physical connection of the signal conductor. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Box 18438 | Minneapolis, MN 55418 | 612.455.6950. In the early days of radio, WCCO was a powerful force in the development of better and more powerful transmitters. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". FM: W9XHW to WCCO-FM to Lite-FM to BUZ'N/The Wolf, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, "Can WCCO Make It in its Second Century? What were trying to do here is realign the use of the spectrum in a way that lets the market decide how much the supply will be and the demand will be, said Charles Meisch, spokesman for the FCC. The strike ended and talent returned, but a third of WCCOs audience did not. WCCO - Wikipedia The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Listen 24/7 for free on Audacy. WCCO delivers the decision-makers the company is trying to reach. CBS affiliate WCCO is turning off its KCCO-TV signal for the Alexandria area at the end of the year, but Selective TV based in Douglas County is hopeful it will be able to relay WCCO. With its diverse range of shows and topics covered, it has something to offer for everyone. WCCO's Director of Meteorology Mike Augustyniak says those in the purple areas should stay indoors as much as possible. There are probably fewer than 10 stations in the country of CCOs scale and format. People tune into talent. It was only six years ago that the United States completed a transition from analog to digital over-the-air signals. Reduce or eliminate splitters or connectors that are not needed. A clause in her WCCO contract required that she stay off the air for a year. WCCO Radio - Home - Facebook I want us to think big, address diversity and inclusion with smart, qualified hosts. For WCCO to survive the next decade, the consensus is the station needs an FM signal. As recently as 1979, WCCO had 1.4 million in cume. Twin Cities Radio Airchecks There are other issues. The Minnesota Public Radio newsroom has a head count of nearly 70. Our biggest challenge is letting people know what were doing and finding a new audience, says Hepola, referring to the challenges of getting the word out about his new program. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. WCCO - CBS Minnesota - YouTube Call any sports play-by-play. Beyond being talented and exceptionally well-liked, Lees show is a cash register for CCO. The consensus in the industry is she needs an equally capable programming executive to manage the burden of talent development and strategy. Public radio started acting like real radio, promoting, employing formatics [programming techniques to hold listeners attention], says Bloom. Today, the station is boxed in. Strike-weary listeners sampled the better fidelity of the FM band, and realized it offered weather, traffic, and news, and some stayed. People have been writing WCCO off for years.. A major risk needs to be taken to capture new audience, says Sunday host Roshini Rajkumar, within our tradition of voices of authenticity. She said if there is a long-term vision for the station, she is unaware of it. You get in a rental car and AM is still set to factory presets, says Twin Cities radio historian and former WCCO marketing exec Tom Gavaras. But KCCO will end at the end of this year, according to a letter that CBS Senior Vice President John Bagwell sent to the Federal Communications Commission in October. (Most news/talk stations attract a disproportionately male audience.) The FCC notes that broadcasters can choose not to participate but that they may have their channels reassigned after the auction is completed. 5. In January, WCCO attracted slightly more female than male listeners, per Nielsen data. TV stations - including 20 in Twin Cities - being paid for going off Having six stations in town is key to maximizing revenue, explains Anselmo. In a large area stretching from northern Minnesota to the Twin Cities, fine particles are expected to reach the "Purple AQI category", which is a level considered very unhealthy for everyone. According to data archived by local radio historian Jay Philpott, in 1968, WCCO attracted a 51 share, meaning more than half of the people listening to radio in the Twin Cities at any given time were listening to WCCO. 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. The biggest problem is finding people qualified to update a heritage brand, says Langmyer. Sources: Mike Max is out at WCCO - Bring Me The News 11 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of TV Meteorologists A decade later, in early 1979, with an FM band now full of competitors, CCO still drew over a 30 share. They would need only to rescan for stations that have new channel locations. "They told me they wanted to go in a different direction," Johnson said Monday . 2.) Former Governor Jesse Ventura had a show while in office, and successor Tim Pawlenty followed suit. And despite CCOs audience shrinkage, BIAs estimates of historical revenues at the station show a much smaller decline. St. Paul ABC affiliate KSTP is also included in Spectrums Rochester listings but is subject to blackouts. We dont expect [WCCO] to sell something for us. Rumors abound that WCCO-TV morning anchor Jason Derusha is high on the stations list of possible successors, and the former CBS corporate siblings might even look to simulcast some of his 4:30 a.m.7 a.m. TV newscast. WCCO has a longtime reputation of being the station to tune in for emergency information, especially severe weather and school closings in winter. http://wcco.com/local/wcco.tv.transmitter.2.1710777.html wcco.com The final factor limiting WCCOs reach is that, like most radio stations in America, it is owned by an overleveraged media company that reported miserable 2020 results. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. [Management is] definitely trying to young it up, explains Adam. The divisive Trump presidency, COVID-19, and now the year of the trials connected to the death of George Floyd have provided an extraordinary opportunity for news-driven stations to reintroduce themselves to the market. [15] The move by the large market dominating WCCO to adopt AM stereo received attention from local and national news outlets. Johnson announced the news via a Monday morning Facebook post. KFAN has outpaced WCCO in talent development as well. Will you help us keep it this way by supporting our nonprofit newsroom with a tax-deductible donation today? December 18, 2020 1:18 pm. Questions about its future are not new to WCCO yet it has long shied away from dramatic shifts in tone or emphasis. Even television wants part of CCOs legacy. If it can stave off additional audience erosion, it can tread water for a long time before sinking below the horizon. 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 cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Is the station gone completely, or another channel in its place? After nearly a year of work to outfit the station and prepare programming in stereo, on October 2, 1985, WCCO began broadcasting in AM stereo using the Motorola C-QUAM system. For a decade then, CCO routinely rated in the upper single digits, but between 20122013,CCO saw more audience loss, concurrent with competitor KFANs move from AM to FM. The petition included ratings data showing that WCCO no longer meets the threshold of broadcast viewership to be considered significantly-viewed in Rochester. I went on the road to listen to radio, like a baseball scout. Quick found Lee in Fargo and former midday host John Williams, now at WGN, in Peoria, Illinois. With the move to Division I starting in the 2021 season, the football games would move to KSTP. Spectrum is working on a new contract to carry the station, but can not broadcast the network until they have a new have a new carriage agreement. This has never been done anywhere in the world, Meisch said. Downdetector only reports an incident when the number of problem reports is significantly higher than the typical volume for that time of day. WCCO became the radio home of Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team starting with the 20112012 season, acquiring the broadcast rights from rival AM 1130 KFAN. He can host any time slot. [8] In the 1930s, two additional 300-foot towers were added to increase the range of the station's signal. WCCO features a talk radio format, with frequent newscasts and sports programming. 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. Today Friday, April 30 Dave Lee will wake up at his southeast suburban home, walk to his basement studio, and begin his three-hour air shift at WCCO Radio. The sale was conducted using a Reverse Morris Trust to shield the deal from taxes. Adam Platt isTCBs executive editor. One reason youre unlikely to see a major programming shift from WCCO is that the only space not occupied by a more robust competitor is the one it holds. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Theyre looking for someone to change it without changing anything, Bloom says. . WCCO is a Class A clear-channel station. The FCC has granted a petition for special relief from the Rochester market's CBS affiliate and issued an order that will result in WCCO-TV's CBS programming being dropped from cable in the Med City. But competition has hollowed out that position. Because the data is proprietary and WCCO refuses to comment, there is no way to settle the question . We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. He builds trust while he gathers facts.. Finally, WCCO remains a cash machine with a community of satisfied advertising partners. View a list of Minnesota TV Channels available by TV Antenna. Usually when these things happen it is one of the following: 1.) Paul Douglas loses his job at WCCO - Star Tribune (Games are now simulcast over Entercom country station The Wolf at 102.9 FM.). The dual auction will marry the economics of wireless providers demand for spectrum with the economics of television broadcasters, says the FCC website. WCCO-TV informed morning anchor Kim Johnson she was fired while she was It has to be distinctive, even memorable. 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. WCCO - News Talk 830 radio stream live and for free WCCO was the former home of University of Minnesota Golden Gophers athletics and Minnesota Wild hockey. Here's how to restore reception with your TV antenna when - KOMO After working for almost 10 years as a weekend anchor and reporter for the WCCO Good Question program, he started working as a morning anchor. WCCO. 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. KMNB, a radio station (102.9 FM) licensed to serve Minneapolis, Minnesota, which used the call sign WCCO-FM from May 1969 to November 1983. Cory Hepola moved from KARE-11 two years ago and describes his midmorning niche as a work in progress. Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of former Senator and Vice President Walter Mondale, started her career in radio at the station in 1989 as the entertainment reporter, but left after 8 months. Anselmo says most stations are getting 10 to 15 percent of their audience from the stream. Channel 4 is completely gone from the lineup. In that vein, theres some talk that WCCO will go to more of a continuous newscast in AM drive and might not immediately designate a successor. Stations that do relinquish their broadcast bandwidth would be required to have a 39-month post-auction television transition to put into effect their required changes, according to the FCC site. Water City Chamber Orchestra. It resonated for enough of us, but if you didnt grow up on a farm or in a deeply Lutheran suburb, it could also be a barrier. He has covered media businesses in the Twin Cities since 1985. As of Friday morning, air quality conditions were listed as unhealthy around the Twin Cities and in north-central Minnesota. CCO suggests it is ready. CCO held a 20 share as late as 1991, but by 1998, with Steve Cannon and Boone & Erickson all retired from their drive-time strongholds, the station had fallen to a 10 share. Its your job to build a bench, explains Quick. There will be some slight improvement in air quality throughout Friday and Friday night," the MPCA said in a release. KIMT submitted a petition for special relief showing that viewing patterns have changed since the significantly-viewed list was created. An inability to maintain programming leadership with a consistent vision is another factor. In the 1980s, the playlist shifted from middle-of-the-road music toward adult contemporary. The . Channel 4 outage? Current problems and outages | Downdetector Family track or fast track? 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.. "They are married. 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ICYMI: An air quality alert is in effect through Tuesday, with conditions being called unprecedented. Disclosure: Jon Ellis is an employee of Gray Television. There are only two AM stations left in the region that even attract a substantial audience:CCO and iHearts conservative talker, KTLK. News Talk 830 WCCO is Minnesota's source for news, traffic and weather plus Twins and Timberwolves. Even the stations detractors acknowledge this is not an easy proposition. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. 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. This left WCCO with a 4 to 6 share of the audience, which it has held for most of the last decade, though periods between 34 shares have not been uncommon. This is a problem for a station already fighting for listeners with iHearts K102 and streaming services. Meanwhile, several local FM stations had already boosted their power to 100,000 watts and were airing new formats on FM, such as beautiful music and progressive rock. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Shame on WCCO. But the CBS network signal has been coming through KCCO off a tower near Westport in Pope County. Radio is no exception, butCCO has defied convention. WCCO-TV's Jason DeRusha talks about his decision to leave: 'It's been 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. Big changes could be coming for traditional broadcast television stations both commercial and noncommercial. Northern Lights Broadcasting, the radio arm of the Pohlad family enterprises, which had paid $28 million to acquire GO 96.3 FM in 2007, put the station and its low-power sibling at 95.3 FM up for sale. The weekend forecast looks to be mild and dry, with temperatures in the low 80s. And most car radios do not allow you to switch between stations on different bands easily. The essential question to contextualize WCCOs future is whether these dire audience metrics are really meaningful. July 31, 2021 / 8:30 AM 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. In 2019 WCCO-TV had no measurable viewing, and in 2020 it reached a 0.02 percent share of total viewing hours and 1.81 percent net weekly circulation including one standard error. For decades, WCCO was the place Minnesotans turned for news and sports. Pilots flying over the Upper Midwest reported watching the lights go out all over the region each night when Adams finished his 10 pm newscast. Were going through a search process, auditions.. Its driven by a generation of budget cuts across the industry., Theres one other problem, and its a big one. Dave was the reason we moved a lot of our advertising to WCCO. Without a deal, viewers that relied on the KCCO signal may not be able to pick up CBS. There was no warning of any kind, via TV, spectrum app, spectrum bill. He is an absolute natural. We never really recovered, says former WCCO program director Jon Quick. There was one FM station reporting miniscule ratings that fall, Entercom music station WAYL, known by the tagline The Beautiful Whale. (Prior to the CBS merger, Entercom was an owner of mostly music stations in midsized markets.) WCCO has a tattered rep replacing marquee talent. 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). ), Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. WCCO had been the radio flagship of the Minnesota Vikings football team from 1961 to 1969, 1976 to 1984, 1988 to 1990, and 1996 to 2000. WCCO journalist Nick Streiff shared one of the complaints about Frank and Amelia's lack of social distancing while presenting the news. (Cable households do not count for the purposes of determining significantly-viewed status under FCC rules.). It seems kinda weird, I dunno. But when the camera pans in . 1,867 were here. This reinforcing batch of heavy smoke is expected to arrive starting Saturday morning.". The decline of AM radio has been happening for decades. WCCO is also a PEP station for the Emergency Alert System. (Edison Research found in 2019 that as many people were listening to radio on a mobile device as on a radio.) The station [is] sold on results for clients. Its a self-serving justification, of course, but it is also not without an element of truth. He has a great voice. In 1927, WCCO was one of the original 21 stations of the NBC Red Network. WCCO engineers were experimenting with frequency modulation by 1939, operating W9XHW at 42.3MHz, but at just 50 watts. Sports anchor Mark Rosen plans to leave WCCO-TV after roughly 50 years on the air. The Free Dictionary. The station hired Brad Lane as market manager for WCCO from WTMJ in Milwaukee. Fees asked for by the station may have been too high to renew a contract. For several years, WCCO has hosted a weekly radio show with the governor of Minnesota. KIMT is the official CBS affiliate for Rochester and presents newscasts from a studio in the city, but has long competed for CBS viewership on cable due to the status of WCCO-TV/4 (Minneapolis) as a significantly-viewed station in Rochester. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. A 100 year-old AM station can dream, cant it? In the 1950s, as network programming was shifting from radio to television, WCCO switched to a full-service middle-of-the-road format, including popular music, news, sports, and talk. Each time the. Not [be] sappy and placating, but challenge people to think for themselves.. WCCO 830 AM (CBS) One of the nation's great stations and a big part of Twin Cities and Minnesota radio history. Mark Rosen announces his departure from WCCO-TV after 50-year career Every format element is a small piggy bank. [Entercom] have not invested positively in any of their Chicago properties, he says. Chicago-based broadcast industry columnist Robert Feder toldTCBthat Entercom-owned market leader WBBM-AM lost its morning drive cohost to retirement a year ago and was not replaced, an apparent cost-cutting move.