The FCC has approved a plan from Audacy’s WCCO/830 (Minneapolis) to leave its century-old transmitter site.
WCCO has been granted a construction permit to permanently relocate its transmitter four miles northwest to a site in Ramsey that is already authorized as its auxiliary site. The site on Bunker Lake Road was previously used by the former KANO/1470 (Anoka), which moved its transmitter to Brooklyn Park in the early 1990s and is now KMNQ.
From Ramsey, WCCO will continue to use 50kW daytime but will have to reduce power slightly to 45kW at night, presumably since nighttime interference rules have changed since the current facility was authorized. It will remain non-directional.
Anoka County records say WCCO’s current site in Coon Rapids, owned by Audacy Atlas LLC, has an estimated market value of more than $3 million. The nearly 24-acre plot on Coon Rapids Boulevard was in farm country when the facility was first built but is now surrounded by housing and retail.
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.