Audacy’s WCCO/830 (Minneapolis) has filed an application with the FCC to move its transmitter from its longtime site in Coon Rapids to a location about four miles away in Ramsey.
WCCO currently transmits with 50kW non-directional day and night from a century-old site along Coon Rapid Boulevard. Anoka County records say the nearly 24-acre plot, owned by Audacy Atlas LLC, has an estimated market value of more than $3 million. It is now surrounded by housing and retail.
The station has applied to permanently relocate to its current auxiliary site on Bunker Lake Road in Ramsey, which was the home of KANO/1470 before that station moved its transmitter to Brooklyn Park several decades ago.
From Ramsey, WCCO would transmit with 50kW day and 45kW night non-directional. The slight reduction in nighttime power is apparently because FCC rules now require “clear channel” stations such as WCCO to prevent interference to distant stations, a rule which was not in effect when the current facility was licensed decades ago.
The change would not be noticeable to most Twin Cities listeners.
WCCO’s website states that the current transmitter site has been in use since 1925 and the current tower dates to 1939. The facility is so well-known that it’s also featured on the history section of the City of Coon Rapids’ website.
FCC history cards show that in the early 1970s, WCCO filed applications to move its transmitter to the northeastern suburb of Centerville and then to the western suburb of Hamel. Neither move was completed.
This item has been corrected to show that the current site has been in use since 1925. It was acquired in 1924 but transmissions from the site did not begin until the following year.