Does anyone on this board remember KQQL's predecessor, KTWN (K-Twin)?
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KTWN Radio
- Thread starter spiritof67
- Start date
I remember KTWN was a jazz station for a long time, then switched to some soft oldies format (B108, with no call letter change). Then "Magic 108" (KMGK), then "Kool 108" in 1988. Up until the mid-80's, they superserved the northern suburbs around Anoka. Then they upgraded to 100Kw and went to the Shoreview towers.
I put some stuff on the Wikipedia article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KQQL
If anyone here remembers what they did before or during the KTWN jazz years, by all means put it in the article.
I put some stuff on the Wikipedia article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KQQL
If anyone here remembers what they did before or during the KTWN jazz years, by all means put it in the article.
M
MN Maniac
Guest
FightingIrish said:
Close. 107.9 has never transmitted from Shoreview. The reason is because of the 10.8Mhz IF issue with 97.1 (which is located at Shoreview.)
KQQL transmits from it's own stick near Nowthen, MN. North of the Twin Cities metro. It's a full Class C signal with great coverage. Not quite as strong on the south side vs the Shoreview sticks, but still more than adequate.
MN Maniac said:
Oops. My error.
pbf1 said:
I had thought that B108 had it's own appropriate call letters (with a 'B' in 'em), but found no evidence of it on the FCC's site. Then again, all the databases I've checked only go back to late '84. I know B108 was short-lived ('83-'84).
I do have an aircheck of B108, but I assume it was from just after the switch from jazz. They ID'ed as KTWN.
Here's the recent call history:
KQQL from 09/30/1988
KMGK from 04/15/1986
KMGW from 11/01/1984
KGBB in '83 or '84 (whenever the calls were approved)
KTWN before that
Oh, and do any of you remember the K-Twin Jazz Channel on cable TV from around 1984?
Hello those interested in KTWN history.
I worked there in the early '70's. Evening announcer and chief engineer.
I enjoyed the beautiful music of WAYL at 93.7. Some personnel from WAYL started/worked at KTWN. I applied for a job, but was told to spend a season at Brown Institute before I was hired there.
In the early 70's, KTWN was a beautiful music station, like WAYL, KEEY, that excelled in excellent stereo separation. Much music was the ping-pong selections from Phase 4, etc.
The separation was used to provide music and commercials to the fledgling CUB (Consumers United for Buying) stores. Spots often included Festal Peas, etc.
Our station ID's, news and weather were on only one channel, the stores received the other channel for background music and store ads. This radical separation was used by many service shops to align stereo tuners and receivers.
We were typically live in the evening, maybe 7 - 9 pm, with "music for the '70's" that featured the latest stereo selections. Most dayparts were automated using a series of Magnacord / Viking reel machines. Signoff at midnight. Signon at 6AM.
We dabbled in the SQ and QS quad systems.
About 1973, we were purchased by Tom Holter out of Madison, WI. He turned the format to classical with Ray Ose as station manager. To fulfill the background music service, the beautiful music and spots were put on SCA. The classical format lasted approximately a year. I was gone.
Then they turned to jazz.
By this time I moved on, and have little details of subsequent formats or call letter changes.
I worked there in the early '70's. Evening announcer and chief engineer.
I enjoyed the beautiful music of WAYL at 93.7. Some personnel from WAYL started/worked at KTWN. I applied for a job, but was told to spend a season at Brown Institute before I was hired there.
In the early 70's, KTWN was a beautiful music station, like WAYL, KEEY, that excelled in excellent stereo separation. Much music was the ping-pong selections from Phase 4, etc.
The separation was used to provide music and commercials to the fledgling CUB (Consumers United for Buying) stores. Spots often included Festal Peas, etc.
Our station ID's, news and weather were on only one channel, the stores received the other channel for background music and store ads. This radical separation was used by many service shops to align stereo tuners and receivers.
We were typically live in the evening, maybe 7 - 9 pm, with "music for the '70's" that featured the latest stereo selections. Most dayparts were automated using a series of Magnacord / Viking reel machines. Signoff at midnight. Signon at 6AM.
We dabbled in the SQ and QS quad systems.
About 1973, we were purchased by Tom Holter out of Madison, WI. He turned the format to classical with Ray Ose as station manager. To fulfill the background music service, the beautiful music and spots were put on SCA. The classical format lasted approximately a year. I was gone.
Then they turned to jazz.
By this time I moved on, and have little details of subsequent formats or call letter changes.
C
Charlie Heinz
Guest
Ah yes! I did mornings at KTWN, the Twin Cities Voice of Classical Music with studios in Anoka at 108 on the FM dial. HA! Ray Ose hired me away from trying to be a printing salesman. I was about to lose the job and so I segued to KTWN. Ray and I had closed down WLOL-FM, the very first commercial classical station in the TCs. Note I said "commercial" classical. Indeed, there were other noncommercial stations at the time. KUOM and WCAL Northfield were both spinning that long haired music. Bless their souls! Nowadays, the amateurs took over KUOM as Radio K. And oy vay gevalt! WCAL is one of Minnesota Public Radio's l0000ng tentacles. Oh yeah, we do know that my old WLOL-FM 99.5 is MN Public Radio's mama station KSJN. Heck folks, I recall when it started as KSJR in Collegeville at St Johns University. Alas, my old buddy Art Hoehn who did the last great overnight shift on MPR passed away. He was at the Bill Kling's empire from when it was just a weak spot on the dial.
But yes back to KTWN! I took over the sign on shift till 10am, then did production VOs. We had a subcarrier as an engineer previously posted. Had short spots for weird products at grocery stores. We ran those same spots on KTWN. Stuff like rat poison. I had a lot of fun with that one. "Rats eat it and they diiiiiiiEEEE!." Seems like Tom Holter kept us going for two years.
I fondly recall signing on with Mr. Rogers "Good Morning" theme from an LP he made when he worked in Philly where his show started. "Good morning. Good morning. The reason that it's morning is that night-time's though. Hope your day is happy. Wake up! You're feeling snappy..." Something like that. I got requests to play it during the show.
We had the 10 1/2 reel Magnecords to play Parkway classical music taped shows. Recall Martin Bookspan was one DJ. And a Terry (somebody) whom I later met at Voice of America. He also was a newscaster when Larry King was on Mutual.
It was a constant struggle to get advertisers, as you can imagine. Scott O'Malley was sales manager. He moved on. He came over from WCCO-FM. Were two pretty gals who sold ads.
I recall that I had to be on the road to the studio/xmtr NLT than 5:25am to allow time for the tranny to warm up b4 hitting the plate. ERP 57,000 watts as I recall. We were somewhat picket fence because of that.
At first I did my morning show till 10 then did production. Then I went back to my other day job at my own AV business. Toward the last, I also sold for KANO-AM, the sister station.
Does anyone recall where Ray Ose is nowadays???
But yes back to KTWN! I took over the sign on shift till 10am, then did production VOs. We had a subcarrier as an engineer previously posted. Had short spots for weird products at grocery stores. We ran those same spots on KTWN. Stuff like rat poison. I had a lot of fun with that one. "Rats eat it and they diiiiiiiEEEE!." Seems like Tom Holter kept us going for two years.
I fondly recall signing on with Mr. Rogers "Good Morning" theme from an LP he made when he worked in Philly where his show started. "Good morning. Good morning. The reason that it's morning is that night-time's though. Hope your day is happy. Wake up! You're feeling snappy..." Something like that. I got requests to play it during the show.
We had the 10 1/2 reel Magnecords to play Parkway classical music taped shows. Recall Martin Bookspan was one DJ. And a Terry (somebody) whom I later met at Voice of America. He also was a newscaster when Larry King was on Mutual.
It was a constant struggle to get advertisers, as you can imagine. Scott O'Malley was sales manager. He moved on. He came over from WCCO-FM. Were two pretty gals who sold ads.
I recall that I had to be on the road to the studio/xmtr NLT than 5:25am to allow time for the tranny to warm up b4 hitting the plate. ERP 57,000 watts as I recall. We were somewhat picket fence because of that.
At first I did my morning show till 10 then did production. Then I went back to my other day job at my own AV business. Toward the last, I also sold for KANO-AM, the sister station.
Does anyone recall where Ray Ose is nowadays???
I lived in the Twin Cities from the mid 60s to about 1973, and I'm glad to see there are some people who remember KTWN's early days. As I recall, they first signed on in late '68 with "The Young Sound", CBS' effort at an uptempo easy format that they'd put on their O&O FMs. That apparently evolved, within a year or so, into the easy format I remember. That includes the commercials aimed at supermarket shoppers, a format I remember first hearing on WAYL during their daytime hours. I also remember "Music for the 70s". I left the TC in early '73, before the switch to classical, and later, jazz. Always thought KTWN was a great set of calls for a TC station. I never would have let them go--I see another station now has them.
C
Charlie Heinz
Guest
As a former DJ who worked at WWTC said to me as he was about to pass away, "Radio is a great way to make a 'starving'." HA! And to that I'll add, "Not much money. Oh, but honey, ain't we got fun?" per an old song lyric. Indeed, I had a grand total of around 10 years playing classical music, at both non-commercial and commercial stations. While working for the two Twin Cities commercial classical stations, I had another income with my own voiceover, photography and writing business. Had to work long hours to make a living at the combined work. But I survived where many of my former DJ friends have either passed away or had heart attacks. My Teutonic genes have kept me alive. That and the benign stress of that kind of work. Let's face it. Normal people do not seek the entertainment, arts or otherwise creative work/lifestyle. Ya gotta love it. 
Tony Fly or Tone E. Fly or whatever has left the station. Morning co-host Erick Perkins has a new job at KARE-11, so could we be seeing a major re-launch?
(Please?)
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/108686/tony-fly-exits-mornings-at-ktwn
(Please?)
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/108686/tony-fly-exits-mornings-at-ktwn
From Star Tribune today (8-2-12): Odds are strong that KTWN, the FM radio station the Pohlad family bought for $28 million in 2007 and has been trying to sell, will carry Twins broadcasts next year and beyond. The word at Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of KSTP, is that it is unlikely 1500-AM will carry Twins broadcasts beyond this season.
K-Twin as we know it is dead. I like it, minus the awkwardly placed 80s tracks in between Grouplove and Maroon 5, but there's already two other stations playing much of what they play. What format do you see next at KTWN? AC? Alternative? Sports?Wright County Guy said:
Wright County Guy said:
And an announcement is expected on Wednesday:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/166061596.html
For those of you who go directly to the boards without stopping at the Radio-Info news ...
Baseball moves to FM in Minneapolis
Do baseball and Top 40 mix? The Minnesota Twins are willing to give it a try, as the Pohlad family—which owns both the team and CHR KTWN-FM, serving Minneapolis-St. Paul—will announce the long-predicted move of the baseball franchise from Hubbard's all-sports KSTP (1500) to KTWN (96.3). KSTP has had the games for the past six seasons. Read all about it in The Star Tribune
Baseball moves to FM in Minneapolis
Do baseball and Top 40 mix? The Minnesota Twins are willing to give it a try, as the Pohlad family—which owns both the team and CHR KTWN-FM, serving Minneapolis-St. Paul—will announce the long-predicted move of the baseball franchise from Hubbard's all-sports KSTP (1500) to KTWN (96.3). KSTP has had the games for the past six seasons. Read all about it in The Star Tribune
]]DToTheJ said:
True, but six hours/week for less than half a year isn't THAT much time in a year's worth of progrmming.
And, with all due respect to R-I haven't seen anyone say 96.3 will be music and baseball. A third sports station isn't that unbelievable; plus, you can run in mono and push the signal out a bit farther.
Oops. My bad.
The Twins move to KTWN-FM, but will retain a music format Wow.
http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_21317501/minnesota-twins-radio-move-ktwn-fm-becomes-official
The Twins move to KTWN-FM, but will retain a music format Wow.
http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_21317501/minnesota-twins-radio-move-ktwn-fm-becomes-official
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