Tag: broadcast-history
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Around the time of writing this post, 50 kilowatt Class I-A “Clear Channel” Radio Station WCCO-AM is celebrating it’s 100th Anniversary.
The call letters WCCO-AM stand for the Washburn-Crosby Company, which had put the Station on the air in October, 1924.
The Washburn-Crosby Company would eventually be absorbed into General Mills.
In 1932, CBS had purchased WCCO-AM from General Mills.
In 1939, WCCO-AM had put the Experimental APEX Station W9XHW on the air.
In 1952, CBS had sold majority control of WCCO-AM and FM to Midwest Communications, a company founded by the McNeil and McNally families; and was a joint venture between the McNeil and McNally families, CBS, the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, and the Minneapolis Tribune Company.
CBS’s reason for selling a majority control of WCCO-AM and FM is because CBS did not want to accede the amount of Radio and Television Stations that they owned and operated beyond the limit imposed by the FCC as of this time, where an individual or a business couldn’t own more than a maximum of 7 AM/Mediumwave Radio Stations, 7 FM Radio Stations, and 5 Television Stations; and they chose to sell a majority control of the WCCO Radio Stations in exchange for purchasing the KMOX Stations in St. Louis, Missouri; in order to remain within the quota set forth by the FCC.
With the quota set forth by the FCC as to how many AM/Mediumwave, FM, and Television Stations that an individual or a business could own having been enlarged by the early 1990’s; Midwest Communications had filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in 1992, and CBS had not only repurchased the WCCO Radio Stations, but they had also purchased WCCO-TV (originally WTCN-TV, and originally the offshoot of WTCN-AM; as Midwest Communications had owned and operated WTCN-AM as of the time what is now WCCO-TV was put on the air in July, 1949; before Midwest Communications had to sell the WTCN Radio Stations in exchange for acquiring majority control of the WCCO Radio Stations, and had changed the call letters of the Television Station to WCCO-TV in 1952).
As of the time of writing this post, what is now WCCO-TV remains under the ownership of CBS (itself under the ownership of the original CBS’s Television Film Sales and Home Video business arm that was founded in 1952, prior to spinning off this business arm in 1971; due to the FCC enacting a rule that would later be repealed (known as the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, also abbreviated as the Fin-Syn Rules) where at the time, the Big Three Television Networks could not own any Television Syndication or Home Video business arms in an effort to keep the Big Three Networks from potentially monopolizing the entire Television Broadcasting and Home Video industries; Viacom.
Like the rest of CBS’s heritage owned and operated Radio Stations: WCBS-AM-FM, WBBM-AM-FM, WPHT-AM (nee WCAU-AM), WOGL-FM (nee WCAU-FM), KMOX-AM, KNX-AM, KCBS-FM (nee KNX-FM), KCBS-AM in San Francisco; and KLLC-FM (which at one time, held the KCBS-FM call letters; as CBS was late to the game, so to speak, on building or acquiring an already existing FM sibling of KCBS-AM); CBS had sought to divest itself of its owned and operated Radio Stations in 2016, in 2017; CBS had sold all of its owned and operated Radio Stations to Entercom as part of a Tax-free transaction known as a Reverse Morris Trust, and Entercom had changed its name to Audacy in 2021.
CBS, having merged with Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W in 1995; as part of yet another effort to not accede the amount of Radio Stations that they own and operate; had sold off KLOU-FM (nee KMOX-FM) to Entercom (long before Entercom, later Audacy would acquire all of CBS’s owned and operated Radio Stations) in 1995. Entercom, in turn; would sell KLOU-FM (nee KMOX-FM) to Clear Channel Communications/IHeart Media in 1999. As of the time of writing this post, IHeart Media continues to own and operate KLOU-FM.
Photos that fellow Broadcasting enthusiast Scott Fybush had put on his own, personal website of the WCCO-AM 50 kilowatt and 5 kilowatt Transmitter Sites during his visits to the WCCO-AM and FM Studios and the WCCO-AM Transmitter Site in 2005, and later, again in 2014:
https://www.fybush.com/sites/2006/site-060303.html
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If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know I am passionate about the Commercial Broadcast Radio and Television Industry, and Broadcast History.
I am just as finicky over a Television Station’s News Department and Newscasts, and a Television Network’s News Department and News Programs as I am over an individual Television Station’s history, and a Television Network’s history.
In this earlier post I Am Worried About My Parents Potentially Choosing To Stay Put In The House That We’ve Tried Many Times To Move Out Of For So Many Years Prior, That My Parents Could Rekindle Their Relationships With My Mother’s Family, That I Could Wind Up Living With My Sister And Her Husband, And That My Parents May Acquire Any More Minivans, I’ve stated my intolerance towards my parents watching WDIV-TV’s Newscasts and WJBK-TV’s Newscasts as a FOX affiliate during the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s, and my parents having thought that a “Television Newscast, is a Television Newscast, is a Television Newscast” at that time. I also didn’t have any tolerance for my parents watching WKBD-TV’s Newscasts at that time.
To this day, I will not allow my parents to watch WDIV-TV’s Newscasts, WJBK-TV’s Newscasts as a FOX affiliate, and the current WWJ-TV (nee WGPR-TV)’s Newscasts.
Besides the facts that I’ve never wanted them in the family, and I’ve never had any tolerance for them being in the family, and them being in the company of my parents and I, in part and parcel; I’ve also never had any tolerance for my mother’s entire family watching WDIV-TV’s Newscasts, WJBK-TV’s Newscasts as a FOX affiliate, and WKBD-TV’s Newscasts.
I’ve always preferred if dissolute Warren Consolidated Schools employees Julie Belz-Stanaway, a Teacher; fellow Warren Consolidated Schools Teachers Carolyn Armbruster, Terri Dworkin, Patricia Venaleck, Carolyn Ann Tuzzo, Celia Socha, Ann Kolinski, Gilka Calazans-Paxton, Julie Dean, Darlene Zimmerman, and husband and wife Steve and Carole Gerling; Warren Consolidated Schools Special Education employees Mary Ellen Green and James “Jim” Devereaux; Counselor Julie Stegman, and School Bus Drivers Candace Imburnone-Barr, Kim “Froggie” Proch, Pam Mott, Penny Orban, Anita Jacob (nee Ginotti), Mary Behr, Cheryl “Sherry” Misiak (nee Baccarella), Sandra “Sandy” Rivera-Blaskay, and Sheila “Shelly” Marie Trendel-Bender-Griswold never watched WDIV-TV’s Newscasts, WJBK-TV’s Newscasts as a FOX affiliate, WKBD-TV’s Newscasts, and the current WWJ-TV’s (nee WGPR-TV) Newscasts; and that they only watch WXYZ-TV’s Newscasts. This is due to the fact that like with personal vehicles and with School Buses, they don’t know what a good Television Station is, and nor do they know what a good Television Newscast is.
Aside from the fact that a person that is near and dear to me, Children’s Entertainer, Puppeteer, and Ventriloquist Shari Lewis; and her early shows that were locally produced on WNBC-TV/WRCA-TV, a little bit later; were networked nationally on the NBC Television Network, and were even one of the NBC Television Network’s early Color Television Programs; Shari and my paternal grandmother were literally kindred spirits. Shari’s daughter, Mallory Tarcher-Lewis isn’t anything like her mother, and she is just as much of a contemptible person as Warren Consolidated Schools Teacher Julie Belz-Stanaway.
Besides the fact that God likely has arranged for a special place for all of the children from my mother’s entire family, modern NASCAR Drivers Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Elliott Sadler, Casey Mears, Brian Vickers, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, and Matt Kenseth and his son Ross; and modern Formula One Drivers Nick Heidfeld and Jenson Button to all wind up in together after their eventual deaths (see these earlier posts for more information regarding this scenario: The Things That Two Or More Of The Relatives That I Have Never, Ever Meant; And Never, Ever Want To Have Anything To Do With Have In Common With Modern Formula 1 Driver Nick Heidfeld, And Modern NASCAR Drivers Kevin Harvick And Matt Kenseth, The Things That Two Or More Of The Relatives That I Have Never, Ever Meant; And Never, Ever Want To Have Anything To Do With Have In Common With Modern NASCAR Driver Elliott Sadler, The Things That Two Or More Of The Relatives That I Have Never, Ever Meant; And Never, Ever Want To Have Anything To Do With Have In Common With Modern NASCAR Driver Kasey Kahne, And Modern Formula 1 Driver Jenson Button, The Things That Two Or More Of The Relatives That I Have Never, Ever Meant; And Never, Ever Want To Have Anything To Do With Have In Common With Modern NASCAR Driver Denny Hamlin, and The Things That Two Or More Of The Relatives That I Have Never, Ever Meant; And Never, Ever Want To Have Anything To Do With Have In Common With Modern NASCAR Driver Casey Mears); Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Elliott Sadler, Casey Mears, Brian Vickers, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and his son Ross, Nick Heidfeld, and Jenson Button should all be barred from watching WDIV-TV’s Newscasts, WJBK-TV’s Newscasts as a FOX affiliate, and the current WWJ-TV’s (nee WGPR-TV) Newscasts; and that they only watch WXYZ-TV’s Newscasts if and whenever they travel both nationally and internationally to the Detroit area in Michigan, United States of America.
Matthew Parij 