WDGY
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| City | Hudson, Wisconsin |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Minneapolis-St. Paul |
| Branding | 74 WDGY |
| Slogan | Wee-Gee |
| Frequency | 740 kHz C-QUAM AM stereo |
| Translator(s) | 92.1 W221BS (St. Paul) 103.7 W279DD (Hudson) |
| Repeater(s) | 107.1-2 KTMY-HD2 |
| First air date | December 14, 1983 (as WRPX) |
| Format | Oldies |
| Power | 5,000 watts (day) |
| Class | D |
| Facility ID | 6440 |
| Former callsigns | WAOZ (1982-1983, CP) WRPX (1983-1993) WMIN (1993-2008) |
| Owner | Borgen Broadcasting |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wdgyradio.com |
WDGY (740 AM, "Wee-Gee") is a daytime-only oldies radio station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota. It is licensed to and transmits from Hudson, Wisconsin, three miles east of its studios in Lakeland, Minnesota.
WDGY was founded in 1923 by Dr. George Young, an optometrist who dabbled in radio as a hobby. It was one of the first radio stations in the Twin Cities area. The original call letters were KFMT, located at 1300 kHz. The following year, the station moved to 1140 kHz. After several call letter changes, including WHAT and WGWY, Young settled on WDGY, which was based on his initials. The WDGY call letters remained on the station from 1925 until 1991, first at 1140 kHz, then to its longtime home at 1130 kHz in 1941. Following his death in 1945, Young's estate sold the station.
The station went through several ownership changes until 1956, when they were purchased by Todd Storz' Mid-Continent Broadcasting, an Omaha-based owner of a five-to-seven-station group (the maximum number allowed in those days). Storz quickly changed the format to Top 40, taking advantage of the early rise of rock and roll music. The station was often nicknamed "WeeGee," and dominated the local ratings for many years.
In 1959, WDGY gained a formidable challenger when KDWB arrived on the scene. From KDWB's sly introduction to Twin Cities radio by way of a teaser ad campaign in newspapers and on other Twin Cities radio stations as "Formula 63" (for 630), WDGY and KDWB seesawed back and forth in ratings supremacy for area teen and young adult audiences throughout the raucous 60s and 70s. The competition, sometimes friendly, sometimes not at all, resulted in some of the best merchandising promotions and concerts ever sponsored by local radio stations.
Generally, WDGY came in a regular second in overall audience ratings (everyone came in second to market-dominant, clear-channel WCCO-AM back then). WDGY seemed to appeal to slightly older teens and the 18- to 35-year-olds while KDWB held a fair share of the teen audiences - considered hot properties during this period.
WDGY's longtime Top 40 format came to an end in 1977 when, faced with much stronger competition on the FM dial, they adopted a country music format, which they continued well into the 1980s, prior to a flip to a news/talk format and finally, the adoption of sports talk as KFAN in 1991. Ironically, the abandoned WDGY call letters were quickly picked up by their former rival at 630 kHz.
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