From politics, current events, science and the arts, Johnny Canton in the WDGY control room. 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. Alan Freed, an employee to June 1989, says July 1989. in 1330s exciting sportscasts and weather reports. Well hear more from Preacher Paul down below. The station had a conglomeration of programs, ranging from waltzes, classical, show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, Hawaiian, religious, cowboy, and novelty. What should have been a fun night turned into two nights of fear, anger, and violence not only because of a situation handled poorly but because of underlying conditions that faced black communities all across the country. The music was tailored to a more mature (18-25) audience, such as Pablo Cruise. you dont have to listen to rock and roll! 3 Beds. 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. The station had a conglomeration of programs, ranging from waltzes, classical, show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, Hawaiian, religious, cowboy, and novelty. They shied away from the likes of Elvis Presley and most early rock and roll music, which they described as junky music with morally degrading lyrics. Their philosophy extended to commercials as well, to the point that they rejected advertising from beer and tobacco companies. A Super Soul Thirty countdown dated July 1, 1972, pictures DJ Thomas Love and Music Director Jimmy Smith (. Merle Edwards was at WMIN from 1949-55 and had shows like Merle Edwards Caravan and Merles Mad House. Bill Diehl tells the story that a car dealer called Slawik Motors wanted to sponsor a show, but it insisted that the DJ call himself Hub Cap. The station approached Diehl, but he thought the idea was ridiculous he was a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, after all, and had a recognizable name. Unlike most metropolitan areas of our size, the Twin Cities did not have a black radio station until December 1964 when KUXL changed its format from jazz to R&B. It was started through his Minneapolis Brokers Association, which bought the two-hour Sunday time slot from KUXL after Adams and his associates sold enough advertising. I remember recording Rock Around the Clock from a WMIN broadcast on my Wilcox- Gay recorder. Then on Wednesday, July 8, 1964, were back to the old KUXL! Because the two signals arrived out of phase, they cancelled each other out. such tangy extras are part of ear-tickling, toe -tapping UP radio. . Heres a story from Rod, taken from, http://twincitiesradioairchecks.com/wwtc.html, http://twincitiesradioairchecks.com/wmin.html, http://twincitiesradioairchecks.com/wdgy1130tapes.html, http://twincitiesradioairchecks.com/ktcrfmtapes.html, http://twincitiesradioairchecks.com/kqrsphotostapes.html. Today, the station is KTLK, News/Talk 1130, and uses a transmitter site in Credit River Township. They made a big pot of it at noon, and when it was gone, it was gone, seldom lasting past 5pm. By 1972/1973, KRSI and KQRS had almost identical Progressive Rock shows. WDGY (740 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Hudson, Wisconsin, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market. Only the snakes know for sure. Also, they are not necessarily in the right order. (Only eight stations in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Whether it actually had to pony up the $10,000 is unknown. The first two sites below focus of Twin Cities radio stations, while the third is mostly national. It was KFMX from 1974 to 1979. No audio, but the wires would vibrate in time to the modulation. He said Ronn the Rajah would broadcast from 1 to 2pm Monday through Friday, and then Ronn and Billy G the Prime Minister would alternate every half hour. I had to park on the highway and walk up the hill to the studios. Billboards? Talk about a time frame, eh?) A few days later, WPBC-FM became WRAH and programmed an automated album oriented rock format. Coast to Coast AM Weekend Edition. WDGY Survey with Photos of Curtis J. Johnson from June 13, 1969. Airchecks are samples of old radio recordings, with the music cut out. Bottom Row: Dan Halyburton, Larry E. Cummins, Jimmy Reed. Once there, scroll down. Will Jones reported that they would alternate with the local R&B group, the Amazers. The music ran a slow speed on gigantic tape reels. It was the same night Count Basie was at the Prom, and a conflict was feared, but Will Jones reported that Mr. Diddley drew 1,500 sweating youngsters, and the Count drew 1,350 oldsters. (Minneapolis Tribune, August 21, 1964), Minneapolis Star, Saturday, August 15, 1964. (KUXL is loaded with preachers earlier in the day, but most of them are called Brother or Doctor.) In March 1958 WLOL hosted the Royal Crown Cola Bandstand at the Marigold Ballroom, with DJs Dan Anderson and Don Dahl, Sunday afternoons from 2 to 5pm. A unique look at sports. Also appearing were the Amazers. At the same time, the station will be entering the background music field, supplying a separate channel of music to supermarkets, offices, plants, and other installations, reported the Minneapolis Daily Herald on August 8, 1962. Sometime between March 1976 and January/February 1979, the station flipped to Disco. Click on Photo to go to a site with old bloomington antenna site and transmitter photos put together by Aaron White. In 1962 WDGY broadcast the Vikings games. Contacts. On October 30, 2021, WDGY once again discontinued broadcasting in HD Radio. This address doesnt exist as Highway 55 was expanded. Interestingly, he was listed as age 29, she 24. KDWB Studios, 1976 Courtesy RadioTapes.com. So many questions. A 15-year-old polio victim was smashed, face-first, into the pavement and sent home bleeding. 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. WDGY operated on a number of different frequencies before settling onto 1130 AM in 1941. In April 1957 the station was owned by the Franklin Broadcasting Co., William F. Johns, Jr., Vice President and General Manager. An historical archive of surveys and nostalgia from radio station WDGY 1130 AM, Minneapolis / St. Paul. The KDWB Seven Swingin Gentlemen, 1960: Randy Cook, Dick Halverson, Bobby Dale, Sam Sherwood, Bob Friend, Lou Riegert, Hal Murray. On other pages of this site I also have some airchecks (in addition to tape from my personal collection)I obtained directly from others. Mort Garren left but stayed on at KMSP-TV, so apparently he was working at both places. (Minneapolis Star, October 18, 1966) Interestingly, the name of the act was never mentioned in the news reports. In September 1956 a Will Jones item in the Trib referred to WMIN as the anti-Presley station, with a DJ called Alice Presley playing Benny Goodman records. This may or may not be the building in another iteration. 1945. Total information News, in-depth, authoritative, 1280s programming for metropolitan listeners has long been one of radios finest. An obvious reference to his old employing station. See www.radiotapes.com/WDGY.html for airchecks and much more, including the very entertaining history of the station written by Haines. Proceeds would go to a charity mutually agreed upon by the two teams. I had hired Don French to be the KDWB PD. 1967 bumper sticker courtesy Curt Lundgren. While there were clearly some country/western shows Saturday Hoedown, Western Favorites and perhaps some old time songs Tin Pan Allan was on a lot there were others with intriguing names: Most importantly, WMIN had three powerhouse disk jockeys: Bill Diehl worked at WMIN from 1948-49 and from 1951-55. Who had the key? I leave it to smarter people than me to figure out the history of this craziest of stations. He now does a morning news/talk show in Fargo. By that time Elvis had hit it big with Heartbreak Hotel and Hound Dog a cover of a black record followed. CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE, WDGY's Johnny Dollar in a promotional photo from the mid-60's. WPBC: No, thats not a mistake. A touch of Formula 63 is the perfect way to brighten up your mundane day. I love Will Jones, but this one is listed under Weekend girlwatching tip. MCP. Remember that this website only goes up to 1974, and I did do a thorough search on Newspapers.com for KUXL and other offshoots. Published in the Star Tribune on 3/30/2008. Here in my file is a page out of the July 9, 1966, issue of Billboard magazine, where the information about KUXL lives. Metropolitan Radio. Alan Freed found another award made by the station to the American Legion North Side Post on May 1, 1962, for Excellence in Community Service. Don and I had both been part of the KTSA deejay team in San Antonio a couple of years earlier. Wednesday, February 10, 1965, was the first day the newspaper schedule showed Paul Anthonys name. He left in July 1957 to become Vice President of ABC in New York and was replaced by Jack Thayer. About 350 young people, mostly black (Ill use that word instead of the word Negro used at that time) were in attendance. Stuart A. Lindman with photos of Steve Cannon, Merle Hub Cap Edwards, and Bill Diehl, 1949. Leigh Kamman left to join KEVE, which became KQRS. Long hours! It had hope to start broadcasting a week ago but was held up by equipment delays. WDGY, Rock and Roll Oldies Radio, playing the best oldies of the 1960s and 1970s for the Twin Cities! 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. ARSA: ABOUT: SURVEYS: STATIONS: WDGY 1130 AM. In the first year they logged over a million calls to the Request Line: 920-9999. In July 1957 Kamman was doing the noon to 2pm show from Southdale, just off the Garden Court. The list of performers runs the gamut of the important influences on rock n roll; Bullmoose Jackson, LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Earl Bostic, Dinah Washington, Wynonie Harris, Johnny Otis, James Moody, Louis Jordan, the Clovers, Amos Milburn, Percy Mayfield, Johnny Ace, the Orioles, the Ravens, B.B. 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). Freed: KDAN, being a daytimer, was a perfect station to shoot at because it was off the air from sunset to sunrise, so a film shoot wouldnt interfere with normal operations if the filming was overnight. It made for a very fast, progressive Top 40 and far less corrupt than sales lists that could be influenced by cases of free product which is how payola really worked. Even among Storz stations, Ramsburg says that each individual station made up its own Top 40. Preacher Paul. In 1966, he went to work for the then-popular station WDGY, which was 1130 on the AM dial, and. I worked with Jim when he was at KTCR-FM. http://www.twincitiesradioairchecks.com/ (Rick Burnett). For more on Progressive/Underground Rock, see KRSI. The report of the St. Paul Urban Coalition, headed by Arthur S. Fleming, President of Macalester College, was released in March 1969 and echoed the first but was much more detailed and damning. But Glover was probably the most popular and well-known. 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. A fellow out of Texas, after first commissioning himself a Colonel, was bottling what was essentially sweet prune juice, calling it Serutan, and telling the great American radio audience over and over again, day after day, Serutan is Natures spelled backwards. WDGY - The Original Rock and Roll Station. On October 3, 1963, Forrest Powers reported in the Star that, Well soon be the happiest group of radio listeners in the country. KUXLs broadcast license was voluntarily assigned from Edward D. Skotch to Greater Happiness, Inc. (presumably his company) on October 7, 1963. Sixteen pastors gathered to support this action and expressed their concern that the investigation be impartial and representative. KDWBs general manager at the time, Gary Stevens, claimed that they did not buy WYOO-FM to shut down a competitor, but rather to take advantage of what they saw as a good deal. Unfortunately the photos arent dated, but we do know that the band formed in 1954 when Augie returned from Korea. [In 1961, when the KFWB was having labor trouble, the owner shipped some Minnesota DJs to LA to cover.] Program Director Sam Sherwood: I so remember how Don French was on the hot seat for getting hit by such a large prizehe and I argued: Ill take the hitno I willno no, I will and thats the way it went until the cookie picture hit the front pages of news papers across the country.THEN.we became heroes, both Don and I. Clockwise from Jack are Bill Diehl, Don Kelly, Dan Daniel, Stanley Mack, and Ramsburg. 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. It was discovered during an antenna proof, when it was noticed there was a drop in signal strength in the main lobe and it was traced to this guys house. Now. band (which had necessitated the Mighty 1130s switch in the first place.) By 1955 the station was starting to play covers of rock n roll in with Perry Como and Doris Day. FM station (104.1) was KRSI-FM until 1974. 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. At night (with 25,000 watts) you could hardly pick up the station 5 miles to the south of the site, but the signal had an effective radiated power of 300,000 watts to the north and went right over the North Pole into the Soviet Union. 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. Presumably the shows Cannonball Express and Cannon Fodder were his. Meanwhile, they borrowed a little trailer studio from someone and that was our production room for the next month or so. On October 10, 1958, the station was moved from 1590 to 630 kc (Channel 63). How could this format possibly be a winner on AM? The fire from the furnace traveled to the transmitters and out the intake vents. 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. He had a student pilots license and certainly shouldnt have been flying alone, in the night, in a storm, with passengers. 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.. This heat siphoned off through ductwork that eventually combined with ductwork from the furnace and heating system. So two cops from the morals squad took the elevator and found 150 men and women, a four-piece band, 36 tables and a 15-foot liquor bar with 54 quarts of liquor, 21 bottles of beer. In an article in the February 1972 Insider, Tom Murtha noted that Glover was the prime mover in bringing more diversified programming to local radio. Glover was not the first to present underground music in the Twin Cities when he took on the overnight shift in 1969, George Fisher at KQRS had already been playing a diverse selection of underground rock, jazz, blues and comedy (Firesign Theatre, Cheech and Chong) for a couple of years. Larry Bentson, President. Did the snakes and ticks take over the studio? Forrest Powers of the Star filed his report on March 17, 1964, explaining how Ed Skotch was doing market research with a group of 40 housewives. Youre not losing WWTC, youre gaining a KEEY. Wedgy Devices for a variety of Electrical, Low Voltage, Plumbing, Piping, Mechanical, HVAC, Fire Protection and other construction applications using Wedgy Cable Supports. Check out airchecks and more at RadioTapes.com, where the home page features newly-discovered TV commercials from 1974 1975. The 9-tower array beaming 50,000 watts was used to produce one of the most restrictive signals in the USA. From an ad from May 1970: WDGYA Touch of Taste.. In April 1957 the studio was in the Builders Exchange Building in downtown Minneapolis, and the transmitter was described as WDGY Transmitter Plant, Oxboro, Minn. Sherwood and the rest were at their antic best, cooking up contests and announcing test answers to kids. When constructed, a Bloomington transmitter location made sense as there was little development to the south at the time. 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. On June 18, 1975, 1280 switched to NBCs News and Information Service (NIS). [made possible by the late summer daytime hours] Now he also does a Saturday afternoon session from 1 to 5. The other stations had an unwritten agreement not to play race music because they assumed the Twin Cities audience would be outraged. WDGY at one time carried "The True Oldies Channel" programmed by New York City DJ Scott Shannon. The two competitors seesawed back and forth in ratings supremacy for area teen and young adult audiences throughout the 1960s and '70s. U100 Studio. Burke will proclaim KUXLs Preacher Paul regional king of rhythm and blues at the event. Two of them, a married couple, were from Minneapolis, and they had a loaded submachine gun in the trunk of their car and a .45 pistol under the seat. The address of the first transmitter and main studio was 7711 Sixth Ave. No. Yonny Yonson played old time (polkas, waltzes and shoddiches) from 9 am to noon and 3-6 pm. Ave. no radio market investigation be impartial and representative KUXL and other offshoots Don French to be the PD... The Twin Cities walk up the hill to the modulation Francisco powerhouse 1957 the was... 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