Broadcast History: The Sound of Twin Cities AM Radio in 1994

In 1994, the Twin Cities AM band had five Nostalgia stations and four stations relaying FM music formats, the latter of which was quite handy if you happened to be a high school student driving a car that only had AM radio.

I happened to be one of those high schoolers, and around that time, my interest in radio and TV was exploding. I amassed blank cassettes and started recording of all of the Twin Cities radio stations. Here’s a glimpse at how the Twin Cities AM radio dial sounded by the time I had made an initial recording of everything (FM coming soon!)

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630 WDGY: Nostalgia. The format only lasted about a year; the station went silent shortly after this audio clip was recorded due to the sale of its tower site.

Now: WREY “Radio Rey” Regional Mexican

690 KTCJ: Rebroadcast of KTCZ/97.1. Since the AM station was a daytimer, it ran separate sign-on and sign-off announcements.

Now: KFXN, Hmong-language programming

740 WMIN: Nostalgia, with a format callsign that had been moved over from 1030 the prior year.

Now: WDGY, Oldies

770 KUOM: “Radio K” College Alternative. This clip is actually from the format’s launch day in 1993.

Now: Unchanged

830 WCCO: News/Talk. On this November day, school closings were in full force.

Now: Unchanged

900 KTIS: Christian teaching/preaching. I don’t have an ID recorded from the AM side, but here’s one during a period of simulcast with KTIS-FM.

Now: Unchanged, with no KTIS-FM simulcasts

950 KJJO: Country, rebroadcast of KJJO-FM. The format evolved from “Thunder Country 104” to “Classic Country 104” in 1994 and was dropped the next year.

Now: KTNF, Liberal Talk

980 KRXX: Modern Rock, rebroadcast of KEGE-FM. After Cap Cities took over KEGE-FM, the AM station remained owned by Entercom and briefly kept the KRXX callsign while rebroadcasting the FM station with a separate legal ID. It changed to KEGE(AM) later in the year.

Now: KKMS, Christian Talk

1030 WCTS: Christian, having moved from 100.3 FM the prior year.

Now: Unchanged

1130 KFAN: “The Fan” Sports, continuing today on 100.3 FM.

Now: KTLK, Conservative Talk

1220 WIMN: Nostalgia. The Stillwater station had recently returned to the air after a period of silence.

Now: KLBB, very low power weather radio

1280 WWTC: “Radio Aahs” Children’s format, flagship of the network that folded several years later after Disney decided to launch its own radio network.

Now: Conservative Talk

1330 KNOW: NPR News/Talk, rebroadcast of KNOW-FM until August, when they switched to AP’s All News Radio format. This ID is recorded from the FM station during the time of simulcast; I can’t find a recording of KNOW carrying AP but I probably have it around here somewhere. The format later relaunched as commercial outlet WMNN.

Now: WLOL, Catholic Talk

1400 KLBB: Nostalgia. Despite all of the competition from lower frequencies, KLBB was the established station in this format.

Now: KMNV, Regional Mexican/Tropical

1440 KQRS: Classic Rock, rebroadcast of KQRS-FM/92.5. This is recorded from the FM side.

Now: KYCR, Business Talk

1470 WLOL: Nostalgia, rebroadcast of KLBB/1400. This station had previously been Country-formatted KBCW and went silent at the end of 1993 after being sold to Cargill Communications, which was amassing stations for what became the “REV 105” network. They ultimately decided to instead use 1470 to rebroadcast KLBB, improving its signal to the northern suburbs, and it became the new home of the heritage WLOL callsign after 105.3 in Cambridge became WREV-FM.

Now: KMNQ, status unknown

1500 KSTP: Talk. Around this time, KSTP was among the many talk radio stations evolving in a more Conservative Talk direction due to the success of Rush Limbaugh and the “Republican Revolution,” but the station still had a mix of conservative, liberal, and non-political talk. Its celebrity morning host would be elected governor in just a few years.

Now: ESPN Radio

1530 KKCM: Brokered Christian.

Now: KQSP, status unknown

1570 KYCR: Contemporary Christian. This recording is actually from 1995.

Now: KDIZ, Conservative Talk