KSJN
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| KSJN | |
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| City of license | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
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| Broadcast area | Minneapolis-St. Paul |
| Branding | Minnesota Public Radio |
| Frequency | 99.5 FM (MHz) (Also on HD Radio) 99.5-2 FM Jazz 99.5-3 Simulcast of KNOW-FM (HD Radio) |
| First air date | 1939 (AM), 1945 (FM) |
| Format | Public; Classical music |
| Power | 100,000 watts |
| Class | C |
| Callsign meaning | Variation of sister station KSJR in St. Cloud |
| Former callsigns | WMIN-FM (1945-56), WLOL-FM (1956-91) |
| Affiliations | MPR, NPR |
| Owner | Minnesota Public Radio |
| Sister stations | KCMP, KNOW |
| Webcast | Listen Live! |
| Website | http://www.mpr.org/ |
- See also: Minnesota Public Radio
KSJN (99.5 FM) is the flagship station of Minnesota Public Radio's classical music network, serving the Twin Cities region. Throughout the 1980s, 99.5 was best known as WLOL, a top-rated CHR station.
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[edit] History
Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota built and began operating the first station in the network, KSJR (90.1 FM), in January 1967. In April the same year, KSJN went on the air in the Twin Cities area at 91.1 FM. The fledgling organization was initially known as Saint John's University Broadcasting, then as Minnesota Educational Radio, and finally as Minnesota Public Radio.[1]
In 1969 and 1970, MPR assisted in the formation of National Public Radio and was a founding member of the organization. Four years later, in 1974, the network began live broadcasting of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, one of the best-known programs on public radio.
MPR established a dedicated news/talk service in 1980, when it purchased WLOL (1330 AM) and established KSJN's AM signal. The station soon picked up the KNOW call letters.
[edit] History of 99.5 FM
- See also: WLOL (FM)
The 99.5 frequency dates to 1945 when AM station WMIN started broadcasting on the new FM band. WMIN-FM was sold in 1956 to the owners of WLOL, becoming WLOL-FM, which remained until being sold to MPR in 1991.
The history of the WLOL call letters is intertwined with many other area stations. WLOL was first used in 1939 by 1330 AM and was a part of the Mutual Broadcasting System.
For many years, WLOL-FM had a variety of formats. The original classical music format gave way to easy listening in 1975, then later soft rock as "FM100". The AM station was sold to MPR in 1980. The owner held on to WLOL-FM, and in 1981, the station dumped soft rock and became "Musicradio 99½ WLOL", the only Twin Cities FM station at the time playing Top 40 music. The new WLOL became a massive success, eventually achieving a 10-share in the Arbitron ratings.
The station was purchased by Emmis Broadcasting in 1983. New competition arrived later that year when longtime AM top 40 station KDWB returned to their co-owned FM frequency after several years playing album oriented rock. WLOL and KDWB would go on to have a bitter rivalry throughout the 1980s, with WLOL dominating the format in the Twin Cities for the next five years.
By the late 1980s, the tables were turned. Some listeners felt WLOL had grown stale, while KDWB suddenly became the hip new CHR station. From that point on, KDWB jumped ahead of a slumping WLOL, and would, from that point on, be the dominant CHR station in the market. Playing catch-up, WLOL started tweaking the programming and airstaff, shook up its longtime morning show, and finally, in May 1990 teased a format change. Suddenly, WLOL became a rhythmic top 40 station. Labeling themselves as "Today's Best Music", the new "99.5 WLOL" hired a new airstaff and rejuvenated themselves in the minds of many local listeners.
[edit] The relocation of KSJN and KNOW
By 1990, Emmis Broadcasting fell on financially tough times due to their purchase of baseball's Seattle Mariners. They started selling off some of their most successful stations, including WFAN in New York and KXXX in San Francisco.
In 1991, Emmis found a buyer for WLOL. The shocking news was that the buyer was MPR, who desired to use it as the new location for KSJN (while moving their news/talk station KNOW from 1330 AM. After years of trying to purchase another FM station in the market, MPR agreed to buy the station for $12.5 million. This meant that WLOL would be no more. Pop music fans in the Twin Cities were furious as WLOL slowly counted down to their last day, February 26, 1991. WLOL signed off just after 6PM, and the next morning, 99.5 became the new home of KSJN, and 91.1 was now KNOW-FM.
The previous purchase of 1330 AM was a fallback for MPR, which had tried to buy KBEM 88.5 a year earlier to allow a split into two separate talk and classical music networks. 1330 became known as KSJN to correspond with the 91.1 FM signal the organization had at the time. In 1989, it became known as KNOW, a call sign previously used by the University of Texas at Austin for 50 years.
[edit] Technical aspects of 99.5
In 1971, while it was WLOL-FM, the station participated in "quadcast" (quadraphonic stereo) experiments with an earlier incarnation of itself, when the KSJN call sign was used for 91.1 FM in the Twin Cities. In June 2005, KSJN became the first MPR station to broadcast regularly with the digital HD Radio system, and likely the fifth station in the state to use it. The station's main transmitter is located on the KMSP Tower in Shoreview, Minnesota, with backup facilities atop the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis.
[edit] See also
- KNOW, MPR's talk radio flagship
- KCMP, the network's eclectic music station
- WLOL, now back on 1330 AM
- WLOL (FM), the former occupant of the 99.5 FM frequency
[edit] External links
- Minnesota Public Radio
- 99½ WLOL Minneapolis/St. Paul tribute page
- A recollection by Jim Stokes, a former announcer during WLOL-FM's classical music phase
- Query the FCC's FM station database for KSJN
- Radio Locator information on KSJN
[edit] References
- Mark Durenberger (1999). Early quad-casts and other fun. The Broadcast Archive: War Stories.
- Julio Ojeda-Zapata (June 16, 2005). Digital revolution spreads to radio. Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
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