October 2017

MINNESOTA:
With news of WCCO legend Roger Erickson's passing (read coverage from WCCO, Star Tribune, Pioneer Press), here's a previously-unshared aircheck of WCCO's Boone & Erickson morning show (6:00 hour) from Monday, Nov. 28. 1994. It was a day with a moderate amount of school closings, and while that made it an atypical show, it's the kind of show that was likely heard by many more listeners than usual. Click here to listen.

WISCONSIN:
Mid-West Family Broadcasting has launched "The Resistance," an Alternative format, on WRIS-FM/106.7 (Mount Horeb). The frequency was formerly WOZN-FM, simulcasting a "Zone" Sports format with WOZN/1670 (Madison), but became an extra signal when WOZN launched translator W244DR/96.7 a few weeks ago. 106.7 delivers only a fringe signal to the capital city, but audiences are sometimes willing to seek out niche formats like Alternative. (A previous format on 106.7, Hip-Hop, performed well enough to be upgraded to a stronger signal.) "The Resistance" has no direct commercial competitor, falling musically between University of Wisconsin student station WSUM/91.7 (Madison) and Entercom Adult Alternative outlet "105.5 Triple M" (WMMM-FM Verona-Madison). (10/31/2017)

MINNESOTA:
The Linder family's KNSG/107.5 (Marshall), formerly KARZ, has flipped from Rock to Sports as "The Fan." The new format debuted Monday (Oct. 30) after two weeks of stunting with commercial-free Rock. The lineup includes the Minneapolis-based FAN Network during the day, FOX Sports Radio at night, and play-by-play of the Vikings, Wild, and several local teams. It's apparently the first time a talk-based format has appeared on commercial FM radio in southwestern Minnesota. 107.5 traded callsigns with the former KNSG/94.7 (Springfield-Marshall), which continues to carry a Classic Hits format as "Cars." The Linders also own Top 40 outlet KKCK/99.7 and News/Talker KMHL/1400 in Marshall. (10/30/2017)

SOUTH DAKOTA:
KIMM/1150 and K294BT/106.7 (Rapid City) will flip from News/Talk to Sports on Monday (Oct. 30), the Rapid City Journal reports. The change comes on the same day that Nate Brown's Black Hills Broadcasting LLC takes over the station through a time brokerage agreement reported here earlier this month; Brown's company is in the process of buying the station from Aasen Publishing for $175,000. The paper reports that the new KIMM will carry FOX Sports Radio and Brown will host a local show from 4 to 6 p.m. The new format will compete with Haugo Broadcasting's "ESPN Rapid City" (KTOQ/1340 and K289AI/105.7). KIMM's News/Talk format had included Imus in the Morning, Glenn Beck, Dave Ramsey, and Mark Levin. The change leaves Duhamel Broadcasting's KOTA/1380 and K264CP/100.7 (Rapid City) as the only News/Talker in the market. (10/29/2017)

NEBRASKA:
Three years after becoming central Nebraska's NBC affiliate, Gray TV's KSNB-TV/4.1 has rebranded as "Local 4." The station had used the "NBC Nebraska" slogan since 2014, when Gray moved the affiliation from the former KHAS-TV/5 (Hastings) to KSNB and divested KHAS-TV's license to comply with ownership caps. KSNB-TV uses the former KHAS-TV building in Hastings. Its community of license, Superior, is located about 40 miles southwest of Hastings, while its transmitter is located 50 miles east of Hastings near York. KSNB-TV's programming is also relayed on subchannels of Gray CBS affiliates KOLN (Lincoln) and KGIN (Grand Island), the latter of which provides a stronger signal to the Hastings area. Gray continues to use the "NBC Nebraska" brand on stations in the North Platte and Scottsbluff markets. (10/28/2017)

MINNESOTA (UPDATE):
Southwest Twin Cities metro station KQSP/1530 (Shakopee), which recently got new owners, has returned to the air with a News/Talk format. The station had carried a Tropical format until going silent on Oct. 26, 2016, and faced an Oct. 27 deadline to resume broadcasting. New owners Nevada Radio, LLC consummated their $200,000 purchase of KQSP from Yong W. Kim's Broadcast One on Oct. 18, and the station returned to the air Monday carrying programming from USA Radio Network, of which Nevada Radio co-owner Fred Weinberg is CEO. KQSP is licensed for 8.6kW daytime and 10 Watts at night from a two-tower directional array near the Minnesota River in Chanhassen. It has a pending application for a new 250-Watt FM translator on 99.1, which would transmit from the WLOL/1330 tower in Savage. (10/23/2017)

MINNESOTA/WISCONSIN:
A New York investment company headed by Phil Falcone is buying 14 Class A TV stations from the Three Angels Broadcasting Network, including its affiliates in Minneapolis and Madison. HC2 Station Group will pay $9.6 million for the stations, according to the asset purchase agreement. They include K33LN-D/33.1 (Minneapolis) and W23BW-D/23.1 (Madison). 3ABN will retain the right to program one channel on each station. (Class A TV stations operate at the same power level as low-power TV stations but get extra rights in exchange for complying with more regulations.) (10/20/2017)

NEBRASKA:
Two Lincoln TV signals are off the air after a tower collapse on Friday. There are no reports of injuries after the collapse of the 500-foot tower that carried the signals of Sinclair FOX affiliate KFXL-TV/51.1 (RF channel 15) and a translator of Gray NBC affiliate KSNB on channel 18. FCC records indicate the tower at 4100 Industrial Avenue was owned by David Brachter and was constructed in 1990. Both stations continue to be available on cable and satellite, and both are seen on other transmitters serving other parts of the market. Lincoln residents can also receive Omaha's FOX and NBC affiliates over the air. (10/20/2017)

WISCONSIN:
Mid-West Management has signed on two new FM signals in Madison. W233CN/94.5 relays the "Movida" Latin Contemporary format of WLMV/1480, while W244DR/96.7 relays the "Zone" Sports format of WOZN/1670. The translator licenses were moved south from Ironwood and Park Falls, respectively, as a result of last year's AM Revitalization filing window. W233CN transmits with 250 Watts from the WLMV/WOZN transmitter site near Capital Springs State Park and W244DR transmits with 230W from the WMGN/98.1 site south of the city. WOZN's programming is also simulcast on WOZN-FM/106.7 (Mount Horeb). (10/19/2017)

MICHIGAN:
WZMQ/19 (Marquette) is getting new owners who operate major network affiliates in several other markets. WZMQ LLC, owned by siblings Brian Lilly and Kevin Lilly, is buying the station from MMMRC, LLC for $103,475. The buyers began operating WZMQ on Oct. 11 through a local marketing agreement. The Lillys also have TV stations in Pennsylvania, New York, and Hawaii. WZMQ is affiliated with MeTV on its primary channel, This TV and MyNetworkTV on DT2, and Antenna TV on DT3. The station had requested special temporary authority to go off the air earlier this year, telling the FCC it had "suffered consistent losses during its operating history," but said in a subsequent filing that the station never actually went off the air. (10/18/2017)

WISCONSIN:
The first Christmas flip of the season? Kind of. The HD2 signal of WXXM/92.1 (Sun Prairie-Madison) is being used to originate iHeartRadio's "North Pole Radio" format, which consists mainly of Christmas favorites from the `50s and `60s. It's not clear exactly when WXXM-HD2 began carrying the format. iHeartRadio uses HD2 channels of many of its stations to originate national programming carried on the iHeartRadio platform. (10/17/2017)

IOWA:
The owner of two radio stations in south-central Iowa is seeking FCC approval to buy a third station in the region, which the buyers put back on the air one day before its license was due to expire. The deal calls for newly-formed KMYQ Media LLC to buy KMYQ/97.1 (North English) from Justin McLuckie for $2,500. KMYQ Media is owned 10 percent by Greg Watts and 90 percent by Mahaska Media Group LLC, which is held by Branden Muhl, the co-owner of KBOE-FM/104.9 and KMZN/740 (Oskaloosa). Watts is the GM of the station and tells the FCC that KMYQ returned to the air at full power on Sept. 27. McLuckie had taken KMYQ off the air on Sept. 27, 2016 and says in the asset purchase agreement that he had removed KMYQ's equipment in anticipation of letting the license expire due to the "economic infeasibility relating to the continued operation of the station." KMYQ is licensed for 3.9kW/40m (class A) serving a rural area between Oskaloosa and Iowa City. Its current format is uknown. KMYQ was first licensed in 2012 but has repeatedly received FCC permission to remain silent. A 2014 deal to sell the station to a Kansas-based broadcaster was never consummated. (10/16/2017)

IOWA:
iHeartMedia has brought Adult Standards back to Cedar Rapids on KMJM/1360. The new "Leo 1360" is named in honor of the late Leo Greco, who hosted the "Variety Time" show on sister station WMT/600 for several decades before his death in 2011. "Variety Time" continues on WMT Sunday mornings from 7 to Noon and is simulcast on "Leo 1360." The new format also includes NBC News. The KMJM callsign is a holdover from when the station carried a similar format in the early 2000's, which was followed by Sports and then Classic Country. KMJM is rebroadcast on 30-Watt K268CY/101.5, which is licensed to Cedar Rapids but has only a deep fringe signal to the city due to its location at the WMT transmitter site northeast of Marion. (10/10/2017)

NEBRASKA:
KNCY/1600 (Nebraska City) has reverted to Classic Country, a format it had carried until adding a simulcast on K288GS/105.5 (Nebraska City) in 2014. The stations had carried an information-heavy Classic Hits format for the past several years, first as "Big Apple News Radio" and then "News Channel Nebraska." The new "Otoe County Country" format on KNCY/K288BS launched Monday, Oct. 9, and carries a pre-1990 playlist complementing the Country format of sister station "B103" (KBIE/103.1 Auburn-Nebraska City). The stations are owned by Flood Broadcasting, which also operates a local cable channel under the "News Channel Nebraska" name and has radio stations and low-power TV stations elsewhere in the state. (10/10/2017)

WISCONSIN:
A Christian broadcaster is spinning off a commercial AM station it recently acquired as part of a merger. Galaxie Broadcasting LLC is buying WJUB/1420 (Plymouth) from The Family Radio Network, formerly known as Evangel Ministries, for $90,000. Evangel merged earlier this year with Jubilation Ministries, which had owned WJUB and WSTM/91.3 (Kiel). Galaxie, owned by Stuart A. Muck of Fond du Lac and David J. Hendrickson of Waldo, has been operating WJUB under a local marketing agreement since August. WJUB carries an Adult Standards format as "The Breeze." (10/10/2017)

TV MARKET RANKINGS:
When is good news also bad news? When your market ranking goes up despite losing households. Nielsen Media's newly-released market rankings for the 2017-2018 TV season show Fargo rose three spots in the rankings to market 113, while Duluth and Rapid City each rose two spots to numbers 140 and 170, respectively. However, Nielsen's 2017-2018 numbers compared with 2016-2017 show all three markets, and many others, lost TV households as the number of TV households fell 2.2 percent nationally. Des Moines, Sioux Falls, Sioux City, and Cheyenne-Scottsbluff each rose one spot in the market rankings, while all other Upper Midwest markets were either flat or fell on the list. (10/9/2017)

MINNESOTA:
An Alternative format has launched on the St. Cloud area's W293CS/106.5, originating on the HD3 signal of Tri-County Broadcasting's WHMH/101.7 (Sauk Rapids-St. Cloud). The translator had previously relayed the Adult Standards format of Tri-County's WMIN/1010 (Sauk Rapids-St. Cloud). The switch to Alternative, which apparently happened about a month ago, comes after Townsquare Media dropped "REV 96-7" in favor of Classic Hits "The River" on KZRV (Sartell-St. Cloud). 106.5's format does not have a name other than its frequency and is positioned as the "new rock alternative" and "music for a new generation." It apparently has no web or social media presence; here is an audio sample of the imaging. (10/8/2017)

IOWA:
Iowa Public Radio has signed on new translator K284CN/104.7 (Ames), relaying the IPR News network from WOI/640. The new 250-Watt signal transmits from a tower near WOI's studio on the Iowa State University campus. It's the only FM outlet carrying IPR News 24 hours per day, since other IPR FM signals either carry a mixture of News and "Studio One" Adult Alternative programming or 24-hour Classical. The translator permit was moved west from Iowa City as a result of last year's AM revitalization filing window. (10/8/2017)

IOWA:
The FCC has dismissed an informal objection from a Cedar Rapids station and will allow a new station to have a stronger signal to the city than originally permitted. Plus Charities' KMMK/88.7 (Coggon), which is not yet on the air, has been seeking a "Raleigh waiver" to move its transmitter closer to Cedar Rapids with 25kW/94m (class C3), adding most of Cedar Rapids to its 60 dbu contour. Kirkwood Community College, the owner of KCCK/88.3 (Cedar Rapids), objected, saying Raleigh waivers are only supposed to be used to upgrade existing stations, not new stations. The FCC has now stated that new permittees can be eligible for a Raleigh waiver and granted KMMK's application. The action also extended KMMK's deadline to get on the air to 2020. (10/6/2017)

WISCONSIN/ILLINOIS:
Big Radio has announced plans to launch a `90s Hits format on two FM signals along the stateline. "The Beat 92.3 and 98.9" is slated to launch Monday, Oct. 9, on W222AU/92.3 (Beloit) and W255CZ/98.9 (Janesville), both of which will relay WBEL/1380 (South Beloit, IL). W255CZ was moved west from Michigan as a result of the AM revitalization window and W222AU was purchased from another local broadcaster. The change will displace a broad Oldies format currently heard on WBEL, a 5kW station with regional coverage. "The Beat" lineup will include Micki Morgret in the mornings, Paul Michaels middays, Liz Rudolph afternoons, and Wayne "Grizzly" Adams evenings. The station is operated by Ben Thompson and his father, Scott. (10/5/2017)

MINNESOTA:
KEYC/12 (Mankato) has announced plans to add a morning newscast in January. "KEYC News 12 This Morning" will air from 6 to 7 a.m. on the station's primary CBS channel, anchored by Lisa Cownie, Kelsey Barchenger and Meteorologist Tom Clements. The station currently airs half-hour newscasts at Noon, 5:00, 6:00, and 10:00 on its main channel and at 9:00 on its FOX subchannel. KEYC is the only station in the Mankato market, competing with Twin Cities stations. (10/3/2017)

NORTH DAKOTA/MINNESOTA:
Members of the Ingstad family are adjusting their radio holdings in the Red River Valley. Three members of i3G Media LLC are buying out the fourth member, with Robert J. Ingstad, Todd Ingstad, and Tallie Ingstad Colville buying out Tami Ingstad Knudson's shares in the company for $50,000. (The four are siblings.) i3G currently owns KQLX/890 (Lisbon) and KQLX-FM/106.1 (Lisbon). It is also the proposed assignee of KBMW/1450 (Breckenridge) and KBMW-FM/92.7 (Breckenridge), which i3G is buying from Brooke Ingstad's Radio Wahpeton Breckenridge LLC for $925,000. Radio Wahpeton Breckenridge retains ownership of KEGK/106.9 (Wahpeton-Fargo). Brooke Ingstad also owns 11 percent equity in a company headed by her father, James Ingstad, which owns six stations in the Fargo market.

In another recently-filed deal, five members are exiting Scott Hennen's Bakken Beacon Media LLC and one is entering. The company owns WZFG/1100 (Dilworth-Fargo) and KTGO/1090 (Tioga). Gregory Butler, Eugene Graner, Fred Evans, Kathleen Neset, and Walter Grotte are selling their combined 77.4 percent equity in the company for $538,130. After the transaction is completed, Hennen and Steven Hallstrom will each own 50 percent of the company. (10/3/2017)

SOUTH DAKOTA:
A Black Hills Talk station is getting a new owner: its afternoon host. Nate Brown's Black Hills Broadcasting LLC is buying KIMM/1150 (Rapid City) and K294BT/106.7 (Rapid City) from Aasen Publishing for $175,000. Brown, who owns all of the equity in the buying company, hosts a Sports talk show on the station from 2 to 4 p.m., according to the KIMM website. The buyer will take over operations of the station on Oct. 30 through a time brokerage agreement. (10/2/2017)

IOWA:
iHeartMedia has done some tweaking at its Contemporary Hits station in Cedar Rapids amid a three-way Top 40 battle. KOSY-FM/95.7 (Anamosa-Cedar Rapids) has changed its slogan from "Y95-7" to "Hot 95.7," keeping Elvis Duran's syndicated morning show and adding Ryan Seacrest in middays. Local hosts air in the afternoon and evening. "Hot 95.7" battles locally-owned "Z102.9" (KZIA) and Townsquare Media's "i107.1" (KRQN Vinton-Cedar Rapids), as well as rimshot signals from Townsquare's Quad Cities and Waterloo CHR outlets. (10/2/2017)

NORTH DAKOTA:
KLBF/89.1 (Lincoln-Bismarck) has returned to the air and is now carrying Christian Talk and Teaching from the Faith Radio Network. The change follows University of Northwestern-St. Paul, which owns the Faith Radio Network, buying KLBF from the Educational Media Foundation. Bismarck is the westernmost city where the network is heard and is one of the few markets where Northwestern operates a Faith Radio station but not a local Contemporary Christian format. (10/2/2017)