August 2000

IOWA:
K62ES (Ottumwa) has been granted a move to channel 10 as K10OO with 250 Watts. (8/31/2K)

SOUTH DAKOTA:
K204EK/88.7 (Huron) is the latest Family Worship Center Church/Sonlife Network/WJFM/Jimmy Swaggart translator to be granted. (8/31/2K)

MINNESOTA:
KBAJ/105.5 (Deer River) is no longer rebroadcasting 92.1 Kiss FM (WWAX Hermantown-Duluth). Instead, KBAJ is rebroadcasting the Classic Rock format of KQ95 (KQDS Duluth). The change occurred on August 23. (8/23/2K)

MINNESOTA:
WELY-FM (Ely) has moved from 92.1 to 94.5. The change is part of the upgrade plan for WWAX/92.1 (Hermantown-Duluth) which plans to upgrade from class A to C3 (the equivalent of 6kW to 25kW). Another station, WCMP-FM (Pine City), was also moved from 92.1 to 100.9 as part of the plan. That change occurred two years ago. (8/23/2K)

MINNESOTA:
The FCC has approved the upgrade plan for WBJI/98.3 (Blackduck-Bemidji) from 50kW to 100kW. (8/23/2K)

IOWA:
A construction permit has been issued for Sonlife Network translator K208EE/89.5 (Creston). (8/16/2K)

WISCONSIN:
A construction permit has been issued for WHLA-DT/30 (La Crosse). (8/16/2K)

WISCONSIN:
Calvary Satellite Network translator W204BK/88.7 (Sherwood) is on the air. (8/16/2K)

MINNESOTA:
KMSP/UPN9 reported Friday night that its parent company, Chris-Craft, is reported to have been sold to News Corp., which owns the FOX network. This ends months of speculation about what would become of the Chris-Craft stations, which are owned by subsidiary United Television, after Chris-Craft pulled out of the United-Paramount Network. (UPN will become the Paramount Network in 2001.) Now, the speculation is about whether News Corp. will keep KMSP and turn it into the Twin Cities FOX affiliate. KMSP has been around since the `50s and has an established news department, while current FOX affiliate WFTC has been around since the `80s and has never had a news department. KMSP does have wider coverage with its VHF signal than WFTC's UHF signal, but that factor is less important with full conversion to digital only a few years away since both KMSP and WFTC will operate digitally on UHF. (8/12/2K)

MINNESOTA:
Hubbard Broadcasting's KSTP-TV/5 and KVBM/45 will be the new Twin Cities home of lottery drawings starting October 2. (8/12/2K)

IOWA:
KSWI/95.7 (Atlantic) is on the air with a satellite fed Adult Contemporary format. The station uses the slogan "KS95." (orignally posted 8/7/2K, added format info 8/10)

MINNESOTA/WISCONSIN:
A new website called starcd.com is intended to help people find out what song is playing on the radio right now and buy it, but it's also a valuable tool for spying on major market radio stations. Minneapolis and Milwaukee are included in the national site, which allows you to see what songs are currently playing on the major radio stations. You can also see a list of all of the songs that have played in the past five hours. (8/8/2K)

NEBRASKA:
Construction permits have been issued for digital stations KXNE-DT/16 (Norfolk) and KUON-DT/40 (Lincoln). (8/8/2K)

MINNESOTA:
The control of Lakes Broadcasting, owner of WLKX/95.9 (Forest Lake), is being transferred from Eddie S. Cary to Polaris Communications of Salt Lake City. Polaris' President is Daniel Peters. (8/7/2K)

MINNESOTA:
Iowa City Broadcasting (Ingstad) is buying 50kW KAYF/97.3 (Starbuck), which is not yet on the air, from Digital Broadcasting. Control of Digital was transferred to Thomas Ingstad earlier this year. (8/7/2K)

MINNESOTA:
The latest batch of new Jimmy Swaggart translators: K214DS/90.7 (Montevideo, MN), K218BK/91.5 (Marshfield, WI), W201CW/88.1 (Merrill), W214BM/90.7 (Richland Center). (8/7/2K)

WISCONSIN:
WRVM, Inc. is buying W221AE/92.1 (Merrill) and W265AY/100.9 (Wausau) from Wisconsin Valley Christian Radio. Both translators already rebroadcast WRVM/102.7 (Suring). (8/7/2K)