WMIN was still resisting the rock n roll bandwagon in January 1957, when it was playing Easy Listening. Photo courtesy St. Paul Police Historical Society. Although we think of WDGY as the Twin Cities first rock n roll station, it was not at all clear at the time. This venerable station was around for a long time, and occasionally tried on new names, including: This page, like this website, sticks to pre-1975, and tries to focus on popular music. The ad below was placed during the Cuban Missile Crisis: The ad below is from the Minneapolis Herald, the replacement paper started when the Star and Tribune were on strike in 1962. WCCO, by far the Twin Cities most powerful station, called us to express their outrage and to let us know, Were taking this whole fraudulent farce to the FCC. Suddenly it was true, 63 thats easy to remember. Swinging through the Heights area the freeway ended and became Highway 12. The report by the St. Paul Human Rights Department, released in February 1969, placed the blame for the disturbances mainly on how the police handled it. The new owner of KUXL, Universal Broadcasting, had its headquarters in Shreveport, Louisiana. They never expected the gigantic turnout, and the ultra-gigantic cookie that won the contest! During the next two years, U100 quickly became the most talked-about and Number one rated radio station in town. The call letters were changed back to WMIN later that year. Photo dated February 23, 1950 courtesy Minnesota Historical Society. 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. Original staff consisted of Rob Sherwood, Jeff MotherRobins, Benny Blore (Bill Hartman) Jerry Brook, U.S. They kept the WYOO call letters, to avoid the hassle and long process of changing call letters with the FCC. Blore doesnt mention that on the other side of the insert was an ad for a big, star-studded show that was to take place in both Minneapolis and St. Paul on the same night, September 18, 1959. July 30, 1965: Talkative Tina Turner, who interrupts her love songs to give long, impassioned discourses on life and love in the middle of rhythm-and-blues records played mostly on KUXL, will be at Minneapolis Auditorium Sunday night. So., Minneapolis, 5, MN. Two days before, Will Jones reported: Solomon Burke, who has taken to wearing kingly robes and calling himself King Solomon, is booked for a Friday night bash at the Pick-Nicollet Hotel, promoted by a young married folks group called The Weekenders. One more testament to the sheer effective radiated power in WDGYs nighttime lobe. Now. The mother of all remotes was when several people from the station took over the Ebony Lounge, which was located in St. Paul over Roadbuddys Barbeque. They both became enamored with an air check album that contained KFRC, the San Francisco powerhouse. It was a very high energy top 40 presentation featuring Dr. Don Rose and Ed OBrien. All the ways to listen: Seven ways to listen: FM 92.1, FM 103.7, AM 740, FM 107.1 HD2, Live Stream at WDGYradio.com, Smart Speakers through TuneIn and the WDGY Phone App. And, I can confirm that the man was everything his name implied: he was Little (411 tall), Jimmy (for James Cecil), and he admittedly was full of the Dickens. But thats another story. I hope to get some late 60's clips up on the site soon. Johnny does a live Tastee Bread "Baked While You Sleep" spot, but the tape run out before he gets to finish. 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.. Leigh (pronounced Lay) Kamman had presented jazz shows for years, lately on KSTP radio until that station summarily fired him along with a number of longtime staff for some unknown reason. He becomes Uncle Snuffy, Radio Daddy-O, The Cat Man. He said that his stations was making a profit from its enlightened programming and others that followed are probably doing the same. So many questions. Jimmy also worked at KDWB-AM and KRSI prior to this gig. 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. WDGY, Rock & Roll Radio, playing the hits of the '60s and '70s for the Twin Cities! This is a shot of the transmitter site of WDGY/1130AM radio, along 35W at about 102nd Street. 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. KTCR signed on on April 5, 1962, as a Country station. Thus incited, the crowd began yelling invectives at the police and throwing furniture at them. Everyone seemed to be just milling about. In fact, all were in their 20s. And theyre going to be handled by Rio Pardo, whos been doing a jazz show for us, and who will be the only Negro disk jockey in town. I did it several times before Scott discovered it was actually me, and that's what started me doing character bits for his show. Sign-on was at 6 AM followed by five minutes of news and then country-western music for 55 minutes. On August 13, 1968, KDWB started programming underground music from midnight to 5 am. Paul) Radio Stations, Some Recorded Off The Air by Rick Burnett and Many Others Recorded or Provided by Other Contributors to This Site (see footnote at bottom). A construction permit was granted to install a new transmitter and a permit was granted to increase power to 1kw on October 1, 1963. The transmitter and three-tower antenna array are located in New Hope on Winnetka Avenue north of 36th Avenue. (The name change from WISK was reflected in the radio listings in the newspaper on September 19.) Special thanks to Jim du Bois for the use of the recording studio & to Donald K. Martin and Mike Cunningham for spending timein the interest to preserve some of the Twin Cities radio history. On July 1, 1977, the station went from free-form to album rock. In an article in the Star dated August 3, 1977, Jon Bream called the new format commercial, superstar rock. DJs were restricted to playing a list of songs chosen by a consulting firm in Atlanta. But stay tuned. Radio was going through a fearful period in the face of the TV monster, and Stewart and his co-owner wife, Becky Ann, urgently called their staff together. In a column dated January 24, 1954, Will Jones of the, Merle Edwards was at WMIN from 1949 to 55 and had shows like, Michael Scroggins, General and Program Manager, Program Director, Jean Myts, Commercial Manager and News Director, Al Alonzo, Vice President and Program Director (also identified as General Manager by the, Mornings featured DJs Larry Fitzgerald and DonOvan Staar Johnson, formerly of KMOJ. In April 1963, the listings showed Jerry Boyum on from 6 to 10 am, Mort Garren from 10 to 2 pm, and John Sewall from 2 to 7 pm. Johnson mostly played what was termed easy-listening jazz: Isaac Hayes, Shirley Bassey, George Benson, Herbie Mann, Herbie Hancock, etc. On November 7, 1961, Will Jones reported in his entertainment column in the Minneapolis Tribune that the station was still awaiting its approval from the FCC to go on the air. In July the McGuire Sisters were back with a song called Rhythm and Blues Somehow even they heard about it. And if I were Nancy Wilson, Id be a little ticked to have my song interrupted. Advertisement. It was a small shack hoisted on a small tower on the corner of 9th and Nicollet. Curt discusses his early career and talks about his time at WDGY and shares some stories about the people he worked with during his career. The music ran a slow speed on gigantic tape reels. Ft. 7013 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042. Can't Get Used To Losing You - Andy Williams 5 4. (The top 40 announcers were a different breed, and we had little to do with each other off-the-air.). Wikipedia says the stations last documented owner was KMAP Broadcasting of Tampa. In contrast to WCCO and KSTP, WPBC carried no network programming, and were live and local all day. In 1942, the station gained approval to broadcast at night. One early promotion involved a sticker that said KDWB is Everywhere. $630 would be awarded to the person who placed the sticker in the most unusual place, which turned out to be on the St. Paul Cathedral dome! These summaries focus on the 1950s through the 1970s, with an emphasis on trying to figure out which stations might have played rhythm & blues, rockabilly, or straight-on rock n roll before WDGY, the first full-time rock n roll station, hit the airwaves in February 1956. KANO was located in Anoka, with the studio and tower located on a gravel road just north of the Anoka County Fairgrounds in present-day Ramsey. An invaluable source of information about the history of WDGY comes from a Masters Thesis written by Jerry Verne Haines in 1970. Almost everybody in the country who had anything at all ailing them, bought into the pitch. WDGY 40 STAR SURVEY Week *Ending* May 7, 1966 1. To call attention to WDGY's new identity, Storz kicked off a cash giveaway contest craze that would involve almost every other station in the Twin Cities and force hopeful listeners to "stay tuned." . My wife and I had long discussions late into the evening. 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. was? Try it for a week. Front row: Susan Bradley and John Pete (KRSI). At least 48 times a day, if you happened to be tuning across the dial at that exact time all you could hear was the Colonel saying, You remember me? For that matter, we were discouraged from using the term teenager too. May 17, 1965, saw the introduction of Billy G to the announcing staff, when the sun stayed up long enough for another shift. could get them on my Lloyds Transistor Six when the batteries were dead., I dated a girl who lived on Fremont Ave. between 101st & 102nd streets. The switch was preceded by a five minute retrospective radio collage of the history of WDGY, and the first song played was John Denvers Thank God Im a Country Boy.. Jack Nugent said they went from 13th in the market to 2nd in 105 days. As it stood, it was then peppered with public service announcements rather than the preferred commercials. It is owned by WRPX, inc. and airs a Classic Hits/Oldies radio format. I was a young kid when I first listened to WDGY and KDWB. People walking by the facility at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds would comment, what is this? U100 the twin cites powerhouse playing top 40 and album rock from the speakers with no one in the booth! 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