Retired longtime Northwestern Media executive Philip Hendrickson has died at 83. According to his obituary, Hendrickson worked for KNWC (Sioux Falls) and KTIS (Minneapolis) for 47 years.
An additional hour of state-originated programming has recently appeared on Minnesota Public Radio News‘ daytime schedule. “MPR News with Catharine Richert” is listed as airing Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 11 a.m., replacing one hour of the national show “1A.” The schedule continues to include Kerri Miller’s “Big Books and Bold Ideas” on Fridays at 11 a.m. Richert hosted a series of evening shows earlier this year, but the network has since returned to its previous evening schedule.
Audacy’s WCCO/830 (Minneapolis) has recently added “This Morning, America’s First News with Gordon Deal” at 4 a.m. weekdays.
RadioInsight reports that Connoisseur Media’s “104.1 The Blaze” (KIBZ Crete-Lincoln) has dropped its entire local airstaff and switched to national voicetracking. The change comes as Connoisseur awaits FCC approval of its proposed purchase of NRG Media’s competing stations in the market, which would require a waiver of ownership rules.
Following recent news of Riverfront Broadcasting’s purchase of four stations in Iowa, KCOB/1280 (Newton), KCOB-FM/95.9 (Newton), and KRTI/106.7 (Grinnell-Newton) are coming back on the air with a new web presence at iowaradio.us. Meanwhile, The Scarlet & Black recently reported that the return of KGRN/1410 (Grinnell) will take longer to return because the studio is being moved to a new location.
Meteorologist Brad Miller announced his departure from Allen Media ABC affiliate WAOW/9 (Wausau) to become evening meteorologist at sister ABC affiliate WQOW/18 (Eau Claire).
Luke Larson has been promoted to morning co-anchor at Nexstar ABC affiliate KCAU/9 (Sioux City).
Recipients of 2026 Upper Midwest Emmy® Awards included Hearst’s KCCI/8 (Des Moines) for Overall Excellence and Hubbard’s KSTP-TV/5 (St. Paul) for News Excellence. Meanwhile, CBS O&O WCCO-TV/4 (Minneapolis) received awards for two newscasts, with other newscast awards going to Forum’s WDAY-TV/6 (Fargo) and Gray’s KBJR/6 (Superior-Duluth).
Hubbard Radio’s “KB101” (KBHP/101.1 Bemidji) has received a 2026 Marconi Award for Small Market Station of the Year, while Hubbard podcast “Purple Daily” was named Best Radio Podcast of the Year.
In case you missed it here:
- Coloff Sells Northeastern Iowa FM Station to Manager
- FCC/CRTC Monitor: Plans To Return ABC, CBS-TV in Western N.D.
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Disclosure: Jon Ellis is an employee of Gray Media Group. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.