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founded in 1952, prior to spinning off this business arm in 1971; due to the FCC enacting a rule that would later be repealed (known as the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, also abbreviated as the Fin-Syn Rules) where at the time, the Big Three Television Networks could not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
Matthew Parij 