Unlike many large metropolitan areas, the Twin Cities did not have a large enough African-American community to support a black radio station until the mid 1960s.  But some stations began to take baby steps in airing these kinds of tunes, which, before the term rock ‘n’ roll was coined, was just called the Blues.  Possibilities are:

• WLOL’s “Swing Club” program with Bob Bradley.
• Late night request program hosted by “Uncle Merle” (Edwards) on WMIN.  David Hersk remembers that Edwards played plenty of rock ‘n’ roll in 1954-55.  “I remember recording “Rock Around the Clock” from a WMIN broadcast on my Wilcox Gay recorder. Merle announced me when I called in, and gave me five seconds of dead air to start my home recorder at 78 rpm.” “Rock Around the Clock” was recorded in 1954 and became big news in 1955.   Below is not the best picture of Merle but that’s him seated on the left.  Others in the photo are Hall Newell, Stuart A. Lindman and Norm Page.  Next to Merle are Meg Kingbay and Frank Siefert.  Photo dated October 30, 1953, donated by Lindman to the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting.

• Dick Driscoll remembers working at WDGY during those early years and trying to sneak in some hipper tunes, but management was not pleased.
• David Anthony Wacher says “the first station locally was WTCN with a one hour show playing rockabilly/R&B.”
• Available ratings books show that March 1955 was the advent of the “Mr. Rhythm” show on WCOW.  The show ran Monday-Friday from 6 or 6:30 pm until the daytime-only station went off the air when the sun went down.  During the summer of 1955 it was also on Saturdays, and for a couple of months at 7:30 pm on Sunday.  Sam Sherwood explained:

Joe Zingale called himself “Mr. Rhythm.” Here was a country station, WCOW and Saturday Afternoon and Evening, along came Mr. Rhythm and played the real soul of Rhythm ‘n Blues. You can’t imagine how his popularity took off. When he was on the air, there were hundreds and hundreds of people around the radio station just hanging out and listening to the music. Joe then took it a step further and booked the St. Paul Auditorium for a Rhythm ‘n Blues show with great locals such as Augie Garcia. Joe came from Cleveland Ohio and was a time salesman for WCOW and he just got this wild idea about playing that music. It was an overnight smash.”

Joe urged the Tedescos to change the station’s format to all R&B, and they considered it, but since they were only a 1,000 watt daytimer, they figured that a more powerful station would just steal the format and leave them hanging.  See more under WCOW in Radio Stations.