WCCO (AM)
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| City | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Minneapolis-St. Paul |
| Branding | Newsradio 830 WCCO |
| Slogan | "The Good Neighbor" "News Radio 830 WCCO" |
| Frequency | 830 kHz AM (also on HD Radio) simulcasted on KMNB-HD2 102.9-2 (HD Radio) |
| First air date | 1922 |
| Format | Commercial; News/Talk |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Class | A (Clear channel) |
| Facility ID | 9642 |
| Transmitter coordinates |
45°10′44″N 93°20′59″W / 45.17889°N 93.34972°W (main antenna) 45°13′30″N 93°24′0″W / 45.22500°N 93.40000°W (auxiliary antenna) |
| Callsign meaning | Washburn Crosby COmpany (previous owner) |
| Former callsigns | WLAG (1922-24) |
| Affiliations |
CBS Radio News Westwood One News |
| Owner |
CBS Radio (sale to Entercom pending) (CBS Radio Media Corporation) |
| Sister stations | KMNB, KZJK, WCCO-TV |
| Webcast | Listen Live! |
| Website | minnesota |
WCCO (830 kHz) is a Class A clear-channel radio station located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States and owned by CBS Radio. Its studios are located in the CBS Radio Building at 625 Second Avenue South in downtown Minneapolis. Its transmitter is located in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. WCCO features talk radio and news programming, with local hosts most hours of the day and night. With 50,000 watts of power, and a non-directional signal, WCCO reaches a wide area of North America at night.
From 1947 to 1996, WCCO radio and WCCO-TV (channel 4) won twelve George Foster Peabody Awards, more than any other Twin Cities broadcast outlet.
WCCO began broadcasting in the region on September 4, 1922 as WLAG, known as "the Call of the North", from a hotel near Loring Park in Minneapolis. However, the station soon landed in financial trouble and closed down in 1924. Washburn Crosby Company, forerunner of General Mills, took over the station and renamed it WCCO for the company's initials. Broadcasts resumed less than two months later on October 2, 1924 from its current transmitter site in Coon Rapids.
In 1927, WCCO was one of the original 21 stations of the NBC Red Network.
In the early days of radio, WCCO was a powerful force in the development of better and more powerful transmitters. On November 11, 1928, with the implementation of the Federal Radio Commission's General Order 40, WCCO changed its frequency to 810 kHz and was granted clear-channel status. It signed on with 50,000 watts for the first time in September 1932. In the 1930s, two additional 300-foot towers were added to increase the range of the station's signal. Later in 1932, CBS bought WCCO from General Mills, and switched affiliations to the CBS Radio Network, which it remains affiliated with to this day. In 1952, CBS sold majority control of WCCO to the Murphy and McNally families, who formed Midwest Radio and Television as a holding company for WCCO radio and its new television sister. CBS was forced to sell off its stake in the WCCO stations in 1954 due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership limits in effect at the time. CBS reacquired the WCCO stations outright in 1992 when Midwest Radio and Television merged with the network.
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