For decades, we lived in a country with only three national commercial TV networks. That left plenty of opportunity for independent stations in markets large enough to support them, including Minneapolis.
Twin Cities viewers had one independent station throughout the first several decades of TV, mostly on WTCN-TV/11 until a three-way swap left KMSP/9 as Minnesota’s only independent station starting in 1979.
Within a few years, several competitors came along, essentially vying to be Minneapolis’ number two independent station. It wouldn’t be easy for any of them.
All of KMSP’s new competitors were on UHF. Prior to their sign-ons, Twin Cities viewers had little reason to switch to the “U” spot on their dial because the only UHF station was KTCI, a lower-powered sister to PBS station KTCA/2. KTCI’s limited schedule was best known for long periods of weather radar (an offering which continues to this day on a subchannel).
An explosion of new UHF stations in 1982 included the scrambled “Spectrum” subscription TV service on KTMA/23 and Christian programming on WFBT/29.
But the Twin Cities’ first secular independent UHF station was actually licensed to St. Cloud. “K41” (KXLI) signed on in November 1982 carrying a lineup of popular recent reruns such as “The Jeffersons,” “M*A*S*H,” and “WKRP in Cincinnati,” some of which were already seen on other Twin Cities stations. The schedule also included that mainstay of independent stations: the prime-time movie.
KXLI faced many challenges. Besides being on UHF, its tower site midway between St. Cloud and Minneapolis provided a weaker signal than other metro-area stations. A 1983 newspaper ad encouraged residents to install rooftop antennas, saying “thirty feet above ground is ideal.” Not many people took their advice, though, and rooftop antennas were an extremely rare sight in the Twin Cities metro in the 1980s.
1983-01-02 KXLI ad 02 Jan 1983, Sun Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Newspapers.com
After a couple of years, KXLI faced new challenges on two fronts. First, new owners bought WFBT and converted it to independent station KITN in May 1984. KITN’s launch lineup included cartoons, reruns such as “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Star Trek,” and a primetime movie, all on a signal that was much stronger across the metro area.
1984-05-06 KITN launch full-page ad 06 May 1984, Sun Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Newspapers.com
Then in fall of 1984, KMSP cried foul to the FCC, alleging KXLI was claiming to be a St. Cloud station to get lower programming rates but actually targeting Twin Cities viewers. In June 1985, KXLI suddenly dropped its most popular shows, with station founder N. Walter Goins telling the Star Tribune that the change was his own decision.
Meanwhile, KTMA’s subscription TV model, which had included professional sports and movies, made less sense as cable TV reached more and more households around the metro area. The service ended in fall of 1985 after the Twins and North Stars moved their games to cable. KTMA began carrying “K-Twin” Jazz and Pop music as interim programming.
Even as cable grew, it was not a guarantee of help for the struggling UHF stations since federal “must-carry” provisions didn’t kick in until the 1990s. Mid-1980s cable channel grids published in the Star Tribune show KTMA and KXLI were missing from some systems and carried on a variety of channel numbers.
KTMA officially became the area’s fourth independent station in September 1986 when an investor group led by Don O’Connor relaunched the station with a lineup of cartoons, reruns, and movies backed by an aggressive marketing campaign. The TV23 logo became ubiquitous on billboards, buses, and bus shelters in the metro area, and the Star Tribune reported the ads were so popular that they were being stolen. A campaign for horror host Elvira was pulled after a month over alleged complaints about showing too much cleavage.
But the investment in programming and promotion didn’t pan out. KTMA lost many of its most popular programs, including “The Andy Griffith Show,” in the summer of 1988, with O’Connor confirming to the Star Tribune that the station was behind in paying for the shows.
These challenges led to an innovative era at KTMA that gave birth to the legendary “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” Starting on Thanksgiving Day 1988, Joel Hodgson and his robot pals appeared as silhouettes on screen to riff the bad movies that KTMA still had the rights to air. The show became a cult hit and MST3K recently began its fifth incarnation as a crowd-funded streaming service.
Kevin Murphy and Jim Mallon of MST3K fame also created other unique KTMA programming including “15 Minutes,” a comedy spoof of “60 Minutes” used to fill time after movies. In one installment, Murphy’s “Bob Bagadonuts” character reports on a supposed wall dividing Minneapolis and St. Paul, interviewing real-life city councilors Barbara Carlson and Vic Tedesco. The creative content also included annual New Year’s Eve watermelon drops and an elaborate “Team 23 News” spoof years before “The Daily Show.”
Meanwhile, KXLI was in store for its own innovative concept. After an ownership change and the launch of satellite KXLT/47 (Rochester), KXLI became “TV Heaven 41” in April 1988, repackaging low-cost reruns around new theme nights for westerns, detective shows, and sci-fi, followed by weekend marathons of one show.
“TV Heaven” was ahead of its time in many ways. There are now, of course, more than a dozen 24-hour classic TV services. The concept of daily themes has been used by several networks, including Story Television’s current schedule. And marathons have become ubiquitous on both cable and broadcast networks.
The “TV Heaven 41” imaging was created by Fred/Alan Inc., the same company behind MTV, Nickelodeon, and Nick at Nite branding of the era.
It was not to last.
KXLI had obtained the rights to the North Stars in a three-year deal starting in 1987, but the ratings were not good. The Stars announced on Dec. 8, 1988, that they would move to KMSP.
Six days later, and after only eight months as “TV Heaven 41,” KXLI went silent. The station was supposed to be resurrected as part of a statewide network that never signed on. (More on that sometime in the future.)
As KTMA and KXLI struggled, KITN grew. It added the FOX affiliation spurned by KMSP in 1988 and picked up more popular programming such as “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Gophers hockey, the Twins, and the Timberwolves.
Of the four independents of the 1980s, none is independent today: KMSP is a FOX owned-and-operated station that operates the former KITN, now WFTC, as the “FOX 9+” My Network TV station. The former KTMA is now CW affiliate WUCW, while the former KXLI is ION O&O station KPXM.
The Twin Cities does still have one true independent, KSTC “45TV,” owned by St. Paul-based Hubbard Broadcasting, which carries on the tradition of the independents with its “Institute of Laughter.”