1967 bumper sticker courtesy Curt Lundgren. This month the losses should be fairly slight and we have every hope that June will see the station in the black for the first time in a long time. And fortunately I can stop at 1974, for there are greater minds than mine that can keep going past this Golden Age. See www.radiotapes.com/WDGY.html for airchecks and much more, including the very entertaining history of the station written by Haines. Found on Radiotapes.com: Ballad of Minnesota!. Take the elevator, said the sign. Heres the story from Jim Stokes: KRSI originated Red Owl Stores storecast from their transmitter on what is called subcarrier. You can look it up. Preacher Paul (nee Ralph Hull) had come from KDWB and it appears that he was working at both stations until June 1965. The station was also still playing Fibber McGee and Molly and The Lone Ranger.. It was a single engine plane trying to land at St. Pauls downtown airport, even though it was flying without instruments. JAVASCRIPT IS DISABLED. He didnt plan to start his new programming until he got a power increase from 500kw to 1,000kw. The venerable family station bowed to pressure in 1954 and 55 and started playing rock n roll. The 1989 Broadcasting Yearbook reported that the station was now owned by Newport Broadcasting. Frequency. in Golden Valley, across from the Point Supper Club. Wonderful WeeGee, home of the boss jocks like Johnny Canton, hit its stride in the 60s, competing neck and neck with KDWB. 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. The story from Wikipedia: (Punctuation fixed by me). The radios had to be placed at one end of a room 6-8 feet apart and the listener had to stand about 10-15 feet away. On June 6, 1965, Jones dedicated a long, three-column article to the concept of Soul Food, saying that while Billy G made it sound good, it was hard to come by. Im going to stop here I should have stopped long ago, since this website only goes to 1974. Jim went on to work for WDGY and KEEY. 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. When such a strictly-top-40 station as WLOL decides to go in for the classics, it smacks of chaos rather than culture. 589 talking about this. On about September 1, 1962, the AM station expanded to 24 hours. The Pavek Museum of Broadcasting has radio station ratings books that list programs from 1953 to 1955. A 1972 article in the Echo opined that KDWB played new songs that were just released, while WDGY only played nationally-established music. 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." . In February 1963, familiar names Stanley Mack and Lou House were on the air. When you hear it, youll find youve been missing enjoyable listening Music, mature and distinguished, in distinctive settings and performance . The St. Paul Urban League and the St. Paul Human Rights Department also launched their own investigations. The caption to the photo below, from Minnesota Music magazine, 1980, reads. 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. A September 21, 1958 playlist shows jocks Bob Bradley, Tom Wynn, Jim Boysen, Dan Anderson, and Sandy Singer. Phone : (651) 436-4000. . Oh so many levels. Try it yourself. In July the McGuire Sisters were back with a song called Rhythm and Blues Somehow even they heard about it. 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! In 1956 the station was sold to the Crowell-Collier publishing firm. Sources are cited, if known. The Lucky Lou program was on Sundays and was described as Jazz and Bits and Pieces of Music.. Dont ask me what that all means. She missed winning $678. Killed were the pilot, Thomas B. Leivermann, his daughter and son, and his sons girlfriend. Should you have any aircheck of Twin Cities radio stations, let me know and I may be able to include them at this site. 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. It was fun, and by then, Charlie was on the mornings, and I did the news and the bits. Thinking about how to tell the good people of the Twin Cities there was some good radio on the South end of the dial was pretty much all I was thinking about. The Stewarts took a rather conservative approach in programming the station. The only coordination was (sometimes) the Pick Hit of The Week as a freebie to a record maker.. Nearby Recently Sold Homes. The KDAN Remote Caboose Studio was used in the early 1970s for commercial remote broadcasts and for broadcasting from the Minnesota State Fair. 9:00 AM-11:00 AM. September 7, 1963s listings showed: But things were moving along. Original staff consisted of Rob Sherwood, Jeff MotherRobins, Benny Blore (Bill Hartman) Jerry Brook, U.S. WDGY was the Twin Cities' first full-time Top 40 station, going on the air with its new format on February 6, 1956. That beam was so strong that the GROUNDWAVE signal made it at night in addition to the skywave signal. Scads of airchecks and music surveys are posted at, http://twincitiesradioairchecks.com/kdwb630tapes.html. Photo provided by Mark Vollmer to Radio Tapes. Labor Temple, third floor. However, they were not playing records by local groups Earl Trout III told the Insider that the station was on a tighter playlist.. During the next two years, U100 quickly became the most talked-about and Number one rated radio station in town. They are posted here for historical examples of top 40 radio from one of the originators, Storz. By 1957 KSTP was squarely on the rock n roll bandwagon, but got off pretty quickly. Alan Freed posted the photo below of WWTCs control center taken in 1981. Below is a photo thats not too great, but hopefully shows how big the winning monster was. 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. We did it. JoJo Gunne was the last jock. In 1953-55 announcers included Howard Viken, Don Riley, Harry Zimmerman, Slim Jim Iverson, and Slim Jims brother the Vagabond Kid. We chatted and laughed on the air for about 15 minutes, talking about his devilish upbringing, singing at the Grand Ole Opry, the weekend shows at the Flame and played his latest recording. We sold spots a dollar a holler.. Airchecks are samples of old radio recordings, with the music cut out. If you look carefully, you can see the old WDGY transmitter through the studio glass. WDGY was certainly a much different station pre-Beatles than it was as the 60's progressed. On December 29, 1972, KUXL announced that it was abandoning rhythm & blues in favor of a telephone talk show. In May 1961 it was purchased by Red Owl Stores, Inc. which was seeking diversified subsidiaries. Additionally, the recordings can be used byvision impaired visitorsto get an audio perspective of radio history. This first tape was recorded of the radio on June 4, 1973 from 10 AM to 11:30 AM with the music and commercials out. The new station would be broadcast at 1570 kilocycles, way at the top of the AM dial, at only 500 watts, daytime only. Jones described him as a mild-mannered, blond, pipe-smoking sort, who grew up in Chicago and worked in radio as a writer, director, and producer on radio shows and in TV when that city was its center of the early days. This address doesnt exist as Highway 55 was expanded. Much More Music is simply that WDGY played, and is playing, more music with the bright pace of the modern sound. was WeeGee getting ready for the country format switch? There, at 63, where no Minnesotan had gone before. Unfortunately, Mike Siegelman received a letter of cease and desist from Heftel communications in Miami, which owned Y100 Miami. Rob and Bill were in a state of shock, and the decision was made to not launch the station on the first day of the State Fair. The ratings books from late 1953 to late 1955 identify programs by names of shows and names of DJs, and its a challenge to match them up. Front row: Susan Bradley and John Pete (KRSI). Canton, of Edina, had suffered a severe stroke Monday, his family said in an online obituary. Ike and Tina Turner appeared at the Minneapolis Auditorium under the auspices of Preacher Paul and KUXL on August 1, 1965. While there were clearly some country/western shows Saturday Hoedown and Western Favorites and perhaps some old-time songs Tin Pan Allan was on a lot there were others with intriguing names: Ralph (Smith) and His Records, Top Tunes, (Judys) Juke Box, and Your Rhythm Review. On December 9, 1938, Tom Colemans Famous Swing Trio, with Florence Ward, appeared at a dance at Pioneer Hall, 588 Rondo, advertised as being broadcast on WMINs Down Beat Program. Except that police reported that the incident only involved several youths. Interestingly, he was listed as age 29, she 24. It is owned by WRPX, inc. and airs a Classic Hits / Oldies radio format. Also, they are not necessarily in the right order. Early disc jockeys were July 1, 1965 to November 14, 1966: Tom Kaye and Bob Lulline (1965 to 1966), Denny Long (1966 to 1967), Jay Daniels, Phil LaManne (1966 to 1968), Dick Daniels, Ed Lowell, Harvey Moss (1968 to 1969), and Doug White, Tony Young, Dee Carr, and Tom ONeal (1969 to 1970). Special thanks to Jeff Lonto and Alan Freed! . Jones explained how Schoenbohm (whom he calls Dave for some reason) and Kamman had talked the management into limited hours for jazz, and then slowly increased. All stations will soon be equipped with an echo chamber for ON AIR use. This time he was planning to do the same with KUXL, only without partners, using his life savings. WDGY- Don Martin contributed this undated photo from late 60's - early 70's, Don Martin contibuted this October 16, 1974 article on Twin Cities morning radio shows. Seems to be half and half in the photo below, mid-1960s. The Centennial Rhythm & Blues Show was the brainchild of Lamar Adams, who shared his collection of more than 4,000 recordings starting in May 1976. A 1973 ad featured a hippie smoking a pipe on a bed of nails reading a book called Happiness Through Yogurt. . (Storz died in 1964 at age 39.) And then he said that B.B. The other stations had an unwritten agreement not to play race music because they assumed the Twin Cities audience would be outraged. KSTP had some country shows as well, such as Dude Ranch Jamboree, but some of the other programs leave room for speculation that they may have played something hot: Rhythm at Random, Saturday Juke Box, Young Ideas, and Record Rack. April 17, 1973, ad image courtesy Mark Luebker. Wonderful WeeGee, home of the boss jocks like Johnny Canton, hit its stride in the 60s, competing neck and neck with KDWB. I had to park on the highway and walk up the hill to the studios. It had hope to start broadcasting a week ago but was held up by equipment delays. The creepy monstrosity below, entered by St. Michael Elementary School, was the winner. From an ad from May 1970: WDGYA Touch of Taste.. The music was tailored to a more mature (18-25) audience, such as Pablo Cruise. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE, WDGY Guide, Atkinson, 1982. They used KUOM AM instead of WLOL AM because they did not want to scare away their AM Top 40 listeners by playing even only one hour of the FMs classical music. Formula 63 box, courtesy Sam Sherwood. There is a promo for WDGY's Easter Bunny contest, where you can win a McDonald's Easter Bunny. The station kept the name WDGY until 1991. So they convinced Edwards to do it and he became Merle Hub Cap Edwards. They kept the WYOO call letters, to avoid the hassle and long process of changing call letters with the FCC. As part of the anniversary celebration, listeners were urged to send the station a birthday card with a favorite song from the last year, and if it was drawn the listener could win the Yesterhits Souvenir Album and a chance of winning one of six Hondas. 1945. Theres a ton of stories circulating about Top 40 began inspired by an Omaha tavern juke box, developed by a college statistical department, guided by BBDOs Hit Parade formula for Lucky Strike you name it. Well, I found no evidence whatsoever of the Four Tops show, but I did find this: On August 23, 1965, a fracas broke out involving 400-500 young people throwing eggs and rocks at cars, about a block from the Marigold Ballroom. WDGY Jocks teamed up with professionals Ed Kalafat, Bobby Cox, Jim Springer, and Corky Devlin, possibly former Minneapolis Lakers. Broadcasting Yearbooks for 1984 through 1987 show that the name had been changed when KDAN went dark in 1983. Click on the following web address for the museum: http://www.pavekmuseum.org/2006HOF1.htm and click on the following address to see the museum's entire Hall of Fame: http://www.pavekmuseum.org/hall.htm. This is WWTC Spectrum. It discussed an article in the December 3, 1958 issue of Variety, in which Richard J. Miller, president of St. Louis radio station KXLW claimed that: most Negro emphasis radio is a cheap insult to Negroes, a source of self-generated bigotry, religious quackery, charlatanism, and a wallow of ugly, primitive and harmful sounds. Let us assume that the mighty CCO did not dabble in such vulgar music and focus on the others. In May 2006 the recordings started to beconverted to MP3 andsharedhere. Thats what caused the severe distortion, despite registering a 4 on my Wards Airline signal strength scale of 1 to 5. She was awarded a free turkey along with the very important can of cranberry sauce. General Manager was Marlin D. Schlottman, formerly with WLOL. Jimmy Reed cues up a record in the control room at WDGY in 1969. Rhythm. Here was a country station, WCOW, and on Saturday afternoon and evening, along came Mr. In the meantime, Rob flew to Dallas to recut the jingles. Even the disk jockeys werent let in on it until that morning. This one, courtesy Sam Sabean, is entitled Hobo Sam and His Bum Program. ARSA: ABOUT: SURVEYS: STATIONS: WDGY 1130 AM. Thought I would share. Breams article explained: KQRS made the format change, explains Dick Poe, station vice-president and general manager, because of impending competition from four FM stations that will be increasing their signal power and potential audience this winter with new antennas atop the IDS Center. Trongard, not Trangard. Once there, scroll down. In July 1957 Kamman was doing the noon to 2pm show from Southdale, just off the Garden Court. Ten people were arrested, most for carrying firearms. Other Facebook stories of the strength of the transmission: In 1952 the station was sold to a group of four local businessmen, one of which was Clarence T. Hagman. To protect stations also on 1130 to the south and east, most of the power was directed north. See www.radiotapes.com/WDGY.html for airchecks and much more, including the very entertaining history of the station written by Haines. In a June 4, 1959, article in the St. Louis Park High School Echo, it was reported that the FM station would feature dance band music on Fridays and Saturdays. Airchecks from 1964 indicate an emphasis on news and prophesy. Old Joe Clark played country music. Im going to try Minnesota to the bust before I try and move on someplace, because I feel that black programming is needed here more than anyplace else. (Minneapolis Star, August 3, 1976). And he skipped out on the landlord, too. Photo courtesy St. Paul Police Historical Society. Below are the same four staff members that were pictured in the piece above, in a print ad. It faded into obscurity shortly after its release.. He planned to conduct on-the-air happiness experiments twice a day. Seven people were arrested the first night. The station began broadcasting on July 1, 1965, as WMKT. Its unclear when KSTP started playing rock n roll. The initial format was apparently Modern Country. The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. In February 2022, the station resumed broadcasting in AM HD. Quick installation and adjustment. The hallway down the middle of the building acted as a firebreak and the hardcore damage was on one side and just water and smoke damage on the other side. You will also hear about his time as a morning co-host and hear him do some of the impressions from back then, including "Truman Compote," Sargent Schultz, and Preacher Paul. He's So Fine - Chiffons 9 5. A Billboard Magazine from July 9, 1966 shows that it was a 250-watt independent station operating 15 hours/day. (Minneapolis Tribune, January 16, 1969). The street address was 6541 Military Road. The original WDGY DJs were Herb Oscar Anderson, Jack Thayer, Bill Bennett, Don Loughnane, Ralph Martin, and Len Bart. internet settings, will start streaming the file once the link is clicked, Some files are large and may take time to open. In 1967 KQ-FM made its first foray into album rock with its Night Watch program, broadcasting from midnight to 5 am. New furnace, electricity etc. A Super Soul Thirty countdown dated July 1, 1972, pictures DJ Thomas Love and Music Director Jimmy Smith (. Also appearing were the Amazers. (Minneapolis Tribune, January 2, 1973), For the first time since 1973, black music was again on the radio, with a new disc jockey named Pharoah Black (nee Thornton Jones). It also aired sports talk at various times as well as leasing time to two groups that eventually purchased their own full-time frequencies: "Straight Talk Radio" (later on 950 KTNF) and "Relevant Radio" (later on 1330 WLOL). Despite the high hopes for I-95, it only lasted until February 2, 1980. Everything was ready and in place on the first day of the Minnesota State Fair, and Rob had the format and jingles ready to go on the air. 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. Call them, not me. In August 1927, WDGYs transmitter was moved to Superior Blvd. There was a live broadcast at 9:15 a.m. and a performance at Graham Temple at 3 p.m. A December 1951 ad said [Cassiuss] Bamboo Room is KEYED for your enjoyment, which may or may not mean that there was a tie-in. The precursor to KDWB was founded in 1951 by Nick, Vic and Al Tedesco, sons of Italian immigrants from the province of Calabria.
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