WLOL, named for the "Land Of Lakes", is one of the area's most legendary set of call letters. WLOL's history is intertwined with many other local frequencies over the years. The first incarnation of WLOL signed on at 1300 AM on June 16, 1940, and was a part of the Mutual Broadcasting System, a national radio network in the United States. Studios were at 1730 Hennepin Avenue, at Oak Grove Street across from Loring Park, approximately in the current-day airspace over the westbound lanes of I-94 exiting the Lowry Hill Tunnel. The transmitter was in St. Paul's Midway district. WLOL moved to 1330 AM on March 29, 1941, as required by the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) under which most American, Canadian and Mexican AM radio stations changed frequencies. An FM broadcast began in 1956 when the owners of WLOL purchased WMIN-FM, which had been broadcasting at 99.5MHz since 1945.
The AM station aired a variety of formats over the years, including Top 40 in the 1950s, country music, and a brief return to Top 40 in 1979 as WRRD, "13 Rock", which prided itself as an anti-disco station. Studio locations after the original Hennepin Avenue address include three downtown Minneapolis locations at 1021 LaSalle Avenue, the Northwestern National Bank Building at S. 6th Street & Marquette Avenue, 801 Nicollet Avenue/76 S. 8th Street (same building, alternate addresses), plus 1370 Davern Street in St. Paul (co-located with the station's three antennae), MPR's facilities in downtown St. Paul and later again in downtown Minneapolis at 331 S. 11th Street.
WLOL carried University of Minnesota sports for many years. Ray Christensen announced Gopher football until the mid-1960s, when he moved to WCCO and continued as the Gophers' announcer. Frank Buetel announced Gopher football, hockey and basketball games in the 1970s. From 1972 to 1976, WLOL aired games of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association, with Buetel announcing.
Minneapolis native James Aurness worked at WLOL as a part-time announcer in 1945 for less than a year.[2] He moved to Los Angeles in 1946 and later gained fame as a film and TV actor under the name James Arness, best known as Marshal Matt Dillon in TV's Gunsmoke. Steve Cannon, while best known for his 26 years at WCCO, first worked at WLOL in the mid-late 1950s.[3]Leigh Kamman, noted jazz historian and broadcaster, was at WLOL for two stints; first in the mid-late 1940s and again in the mid-late 1950s.[4][5]
WLOL almost expanded into TV. In 1954, it applied, as did competitors WDGY and KEYD, for channel 9 in the Twin Cities. However, WLOL and WDGY withdrew their applications at the last minute. The new station was awarded to KEYD and went on-air in January 1955. It is known today as Fox O&O KMSP-TV.
In the winter of 1961, WLOL-AM-FM engaged in a novel experiment to give listeners an experience with stereo broadcasting. Paul Hedberg, a WLOL disc jockey in the early 1960s, recalled the episode in his autobiography: "WLOL's chief engineer, Bryce Eckberg, came up with an idea for creating a stereo broadcast by simulcasting one channel of a stereo album on the FM band at 99.5 and the other channel on the AM band at 1330 (at the time WLOL was the only AM/FM combo in the Twin Cities). The station took this idea to Schaack Electronics to see if they would sponsor three hours of this "stereo" broadcast experiment on Sunday nights, from nine to midnight, and they agreed. We tried to pick music that had the best left and right separation, so if you didn't play along and have two radios to blend both channels together the sound from just the AM or the FM broadcast would be muted. The stations stood to lose some audience due to the sound quality on a single band, but time was devoted to explaining what we were doing. Sunday nights were not prime time, anyway, and it was thought that the novelty outweighed the risk – but you'd have to be an active listener to get the full benefit of the experiment. Bryce devised a box that drew two channels of output from one turntable: left channel to AM, right channel to FM. Very unorthodox, but it worked. It had to be the first-ever stereo broadcast in the Twin Cities, since only WLOL had the two stations to do it."[6]
WLOL-FM was an early commercial classical music station in Minneapolis-St. Paul and was co-located with its AM sister. Jim Stokes, a WLOL announcer during that time (1330 AM had a talk format during his tenure), documented some of the period at the Davern Street location, 1972–75, in this commentary. WLOL-FM dropped classical and changed to "beautiful music" in mid-1973.[7]
By 1977, WLOL was running country music, and switched to the WRRD call sign the following year, calling itself "The Big Red." In July 1979, the station flipped to a short-lived rock format branded as "13 Rock".[8] This would be the station's final music format.
In January 1980, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) purchased the station and changed the call letters to KSJN to correspond with their FM property, KSJN-FM 91.1. Meanwhile, WLOL-FM transitioned to a pop music format before eventually being sold off to different company. The purchase of the AM station was a fallback plan for MPR, which wanted to acquire a second FM signal in order to split KSJN-FM into separate talk and classical music stations; MPR had tried to buy KBEM-FM 88.5 a year earlier to achieve that goal. On October 9, 1989, the call letters were changed to KNOW and the station became the flagship for MPR's new news and information network.
WLOL-FM kept its call sign as it was sold off, and found another owner when it was purchased by Emmis Broadcasting in 1983. The call letters enjoyed their biggest success when the station aired a Top 40 format from 1981 to 1991. The station remained popular until Emmis ran into financial problems in the early 1990s as a result of its purchase of the Seattle Mariners baseball team. Many of Emmis' radio properties were sold off, and in 1991, they sold the 99.5 license to MPR for $12.5 million. MPR moved the KSJN calls and their classical music programming to 99.5 on March 11, 1991. MPR's existing 91.1 signal then became KNOW-FM, with talk and news programming full-time.
With two FM frequencies in the Twin Cities, MPR pondered other uses for 1330 AM. After four years of simulcasting KNOW-FM, it became WMNN in September 1995, the flagship of the commercial Minnesota News Network. WMNN was sold in 2004 to Starboard Broadcasting, which turned it into Relevant Radio a Catholic religious format and soon restored the original WLOL call sign.
Former logo
Between 1991 and 2004, the WLOL call letters were used by several other stations, including 1470 (now KMNQ), 100.3 (KFXN-FM), and 105.3 (WLUP). The call sign returned to the original 1330 AM frequency in 2004 (this time, however, it stands for "Our Lady of Lourdes", reflecting Relevant Radio's Catholic mission).
Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is a public radio network for the state of Minnesota. With its three services, News & Information, YourClassical MPR and The Current, MPR operates a 46-station regional radio network in the upper Midwest.
KBEM-FM is a public radio station broadcasting a jazz format based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, the station serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The station is operated by the Minneapolis Public Schools system and has been partnering since 1989 with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT), providing traffic congestion reports for commuters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. KBEM also broadcasts live headliner performances from the Twin Cities Jazz Festival each June. KBEM is a member of Minnesota's AMPERS network.
KTLK – branded News/Talk AM 1130 and FM 103.5 – is a commercial radio station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota. It broadcasts a conservative talk radio format to the Twin Cities radio market and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios are on Utica Avenue South in St. Louis Park.
WREY is a Spanish-language AM radio station with studios located in the Westside neighborhood in St. Paul. It is licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it was licensed to Hudson, Wisconsin from 1997 to 2005. The station's signal covers the Minneapolis-St. Paul media market. The transmitter and towers are located in Woodbury, Minnesota along South Washington County Highway 19.
KDWB-FM is an American commercial radio station broadcasting in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota, licensed to suburban Richfield. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, and airs a Top 40/CHR radio format.
KQRS-FM is a classic rock radio station in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. The station is licensed to suburban Golden Valley, transmits from the KMSP-TV tower in Shoreview, and is owned by Cumulus Media, with studios in Southeast Minneapolis in the Como district.
KSTP-FM is a commercial radio station in St. Paul, Minnesota, serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market. It is the flagship FM station of Hubbard Broadcasting and airs a hot adult contemporary radio format. The station has long been known on-air as "KS95". The studios and offices, located on University Avenue, along the boundary line between St. Paul and Minneapolis, are shared with sister stations KSTP (AM), KSTP-TV, KTMY, and KSTC-TV. There is a broadcasting tower behind the station, though it is only used as an emergency back-up, in case there are problems with the main tower.
KSTP is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is the flagship AM radio station of Hubbard Broadcasting, which owns dozens of television and radio stations in nine states. KSTP has a sports radio format and is the ESPN Radio Network affiliate for Minneapolis-St. Paul. Studios are on University Avenue in Minneapolis, shared with sister stations KSTP-FM, KSTP-TV, KTMY, and KSTC-TV.
WWTC is a commercial radio station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Twin Cities region. It is owned by Salem Media Group and broadcasts a conservative talk radio format.
KSJN is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Owned by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), this station serves the Twin Cities region as the flagship of "YourClassical MPR", MPR's classical music network. KSJN's studios are located at the MPR Broadcast Center on Cedar Street in downtown Saint Paul, while its transmitter is located on the KMSP Tower in Shoreview. KSJN broadcasts using HD Radio technology, and uses its HD2 subchannel to carry American Public Media's Classical 24 network.
KYCR is an AM radio station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It is owned by Salem Media Group, and is carrying a business radio format.
KMNV is a commercial AM radio station licensed to St. Paul, Minnesota, and serving the Twin Cities radio market. It is owned by Santamaria Broadcasting and broadcasts a Spanish-language radio format featuring Regional Mexican music with some weekday comedy shows. KMNV's radio studios and offices are in Richfield.
KEEY-FM is a commercial FM radio station licensed to St. Paul, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul radio market. It broadcasts a country music radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The radio studios and offices are on Utica Avenue South in St. Louis Park. KEEY-FM carries two syndicated programs from co-owned Premiere Networks: CMT Nights with Cody Alan, heard overnight, and The Bobby Bones Show, heard Sunday evenings.
KMNB is a commercial FM radio station in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, that airs a country music radio format. It is owned by Audacy, Inc., with studios on Second Avenue South in Downtown Minneapolis. Along with sister station WCCO 830 AM, it carries Minnesota Twins baseball games.
KQQL is a commercial radio station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market and is licensed to suburban Anoka. It plays classic hits and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are on Utica Avenue South in St. Louis Park.
KNOW-FM is the flagship radio station of Minnesota Public Radio's news and information network. It is licensed to St. Paul and serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market. The station is non-commercial and listener-supported. The studios are in the MPR Broadcast Center on Cedar Street in downtown St. Paul.
KZJK is a commercial radio station licensed to St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc., and airs an adult hits radio format known as "104.1 Jack FM." Audacy also owns Jack FM stations in Los Angeles and Dallas. KZJK's studios and offices are on Second Avenue South in Minneapolis.
KTNF is a commercial AM radio station licensed to St. Louis Park, Minnesota that serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The station brands itself as "The Progressive Voice of Minnesota," and offers a combination of locally produced and nationally syndicated progressive talk programming. It is owned by JR Broadcasting.
KMNQ is a commercial radio station licensed to Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and serving the Twin Cities radio market. The station broadcasts a Spanish AC format. The station previously was a simulcast of sister station KMNV, playing traditional Regional Mexican music. In October 2021, it began stunting with a variety format, before leaving the air entirely in early 2022. In January 2023, it returned, again simulcasting sister station KMNV. The station has experienced periods of silence over its lifetime.
WDGY is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Hudson, Wisconsin, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market. It is owned by WRPX, inc. and airs a Classic Hits/Oldies radio format. The station's studios and offices are in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, while its transmitter is off Commerce Drive near Interstate 94 in Hudson. This station is unrelated to the original WDGY, which was a popular Top-40 station in the area during the mid-late 1950s, '60s and '70s.
(January 23, 2004). Minnesota Public Radio selling some operations. Associated Press.
Nicole Garrison-Sprenger and Benno Groeneveld (January 19, 2004). MPR sells WMNN, Minnesota News Network for $10 million; Donor is disappointed. The Business Journal (Minneapolis-St. Paul)
(January 24, 2004). Starboard does big: Buys major Twin Cities AM station from Minnesota Public Radio for $7 million.
Radiotapes.com/wlol.html Historic Minneapolis/St. Paul airchecks dating back to 1924 including airchecks of WLOL-AM, WLOL-FM and other Twin Cities radio stations plus historic documents (including some of WLOL)
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