WTCN – 1280 kc

Much of the following information about this ever-changing station comes from Jeff Lonto’s book Fiasco at 1280, The Rise and Hard Fall of a Twin Cities Radio Station, available through the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting.

WTCN Radio’s history goes back to September 1934, and even further back if you count its predecessors, but I’ll just start with the 1950s.  At one time I was trying to find out who/what station started playing rock ‘n’ roll / R&B first, but I was told in no uncertain terms that there was no Alan Freed in Minneapolis.  Well, there is an Alan Freed in Minneapolis, but he’s not the guy!

This billboard at 9th and Hennepin tells us that WTCN’s radio and TV studios were at Radio City. Photo dated February 23, 1950 courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

The ratings books from late 1953 to late 1955 identify programs by names of shows and names of DJs, and it’s a challenge to match them up.  The names of the shows were pretty ambiguous:

• Knights of the Road
• 8 Steps Down
• Cloud Club
• Night Owls
• The Voice
• New Sounds For You
• Club Ten
• Club 1280
• Dancing Party

In most cases programs were identified by the names of the DJs:

• Jack Thayer was on three different times during the day
• Al Paulson
• Sev Widman
• Larry Fischer
• Don Doty
• Russ Kruse
• Frank Beutel – with a show called “Just Easy”
• Harry Zimmerman
• Jim Boysen
• John W. Vandercook

Personalities selling time in this 1953 broadcasting magazine were

• Jim Boysen
• Sev Widman
• Jimmy Delmont
• Jack Thayer

January 19, 1953 ad Courtesy mnkidvid.com

In 1956 the station was sold to the Crowell-Collier publishing firm.

Broadcasting magazine, March 1960. Not sure what this is announcing.

In August 1962 the station was identifying itself as Time-Life Broadcasting Inc.  At that time an ad appeared with the following text:

Now Coming in STRONG & CLEAR

What happened to wtcn 1280?  Suddenly the voice of Metropolitan Radio is clear as a bell on the dial.  Stronger, clearer than ever before.  What happened makes a big diferencce to those who know and like good radio.  Metropolitan Radio moved to a new site, and built a new and modern transmission facility (4-tower complex west of Highway 100 in St. Louis Park) – a broadcast service that brings it within clear signal range of thousands who could nevr before enjoy wtcn 1280 as easily as they wished.  Try it yourself.  Tune to the wtcn 1280 signal.  When you hear it, you’ll find you’ve been missing enjoyable listening – Music, mature and distinguished, in distinctive settings and performance . . . Total information News, in-depth, authoritative, 1280’s programming for metropolitan listeners has long been one of radio’s finest.  With the new sound of Metropolitan Radio coming in strong and clear, you’ll discover – perhaps for the first time – why so many  more people are now enjoying wtcn 1280’s outstanding programs in the Twin Cities.  Tune in, now . . . . Metropolitan Radio.

The station dropped its ABC affiliation on December 31, 1962 and began a format of light classical and easy listening, “The Sound of Beautiful Music” in March 1963.

The call letters of WTCN radio were changed to WWTC on October 2, 1964, after Time Life sold the station to Buckley-Jaeger Broadcasting.  Because WTCN-TV was sold to a different company (Chris Craft Broadcast, Inc.), the two stations had to have different names.  The TV station kept WTCN.