KDWB-FM

KDWB's origins on the AM dial date back to 1951, at 1590 kHz. The station began as a collaboration between three brothers who named it WCOW, and it played country western and old-time music. In the early days, WCOW, which was licensed to South St. Paul (its original city of license), signed on with a cowbell. The studios, transmitter, broadcast towers and offices were located at 255 Radio Drive South in Woodbury. In 1949, the three brothers, Al, Vic, and Nick Tedesco applied to the Federal Communications Commission for the purchase of WSHB in Stillwater. The application was approved, and on March 15, 1949, WAVN in Stillwater signed on the air as a 5,000 watt non-directional day-timer with 500-watt pre-sunrise authority. The Tedesco brothers attempted to get into television on channel 17 the next year, but financial backing fell through. (The channel 17 allocation was taken by Twin Cities Public Television in 1965.) Since the initial purchase of WAVN in 1949, the Tedesco brothers acquired and/or sold several other radio stations, spanning over 50 years, sometimes with partners. On April 18, 1994, after 36 years, the 630 kHz frequency went dark. The owners, Midcontinent Media, sold the property, and the state of the art facilities were dismantled, salvaged and/or destroyed to make room for the construction of the-then State Farm Insurance Companies regional headquarters.

WCOW was not very successful, so the station transitioned to being a female-oriented station including commercials aimed at its target audience, with a heavy saturation long term ad contract, with the call letters changing to WISK in 1957, and switched its frequency to 630 kHz the next year. Again, the format was not popular, and the station was soon sold the following year to Crowell-Collier Broadcasting Company, owners of KFWB in Los Angeles and KEWB in San Francisco. The top 40 format of those stations, with strong California/West Coast style influence, was brought to Minnesota, and the call letters changed to KDWB in 1959. "Channel 63, KDWB" then began its long uninterrupted run as a pop music station, and quickly became a major competitor to the established WDGY, which had been playing a pop music format for three years by that point. KDWB and WDGY were fierce rivals throughout the 1960s and 1970s; during that time, both stations gained more competition, as "Request Radio" AM 950 and FM 104.1 KRSI (1968), KSTP (1972), and WYOO (1974) picked up the format.

KDWB also held the distinction of the first radio station ever to be fined by the Federal Communications Commission. In March 1961, six months after a revision to the Communications Act of 1934 granted it such power, the agency assessed a $10,000 penalty to the station because of repeated willful violations of nighttime broadcast power restrictions on the AM band.[1]

During the 1960s and 1970s, Program Director Chuck Blore referred to the seven air-shifts in 24 hours as "The 7 Swinging Gentlemen". They included:

• "True" Don Bleu
• Bob Shannon
• Lou Reigert (Lou Waters)

Syndicated and/or non-local originating broadcasts included American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, which aired Sunday evenings, and for over ten years, it was the highest rated program in the Twin Cities market. Additional syndicated programming included "Jim Ladd's Innerview."

Program Directors included Chuck Blore and Bob Shannon.

101.3 FM began broadcasting July 18, 1960,[2] as WPBC-FM, simulcasting daytime-only WPBC (980 AM) and broadcasting at night.[3] Four years later, the Stewarts were approved to move both stations from Minneapolis to Richfield, increase the AM's power to 5 kW, and begin broadcasting at night.[4] In 1969, the AM and FM stopped simulcasting; the FM retained the "good music" format, while the AM shifted even further to middle-of-the-road.[5] The studios, transmitters (both AM and FM), towers and offices were located at the intersection of Cliff Road and Cedar Avenue (presently "Nichols Road"), in Eagan.

The Stewarts, citing increased competition from larger companies, sold WPBC-AM-FM in 1972 to Fairchild Industries for $1.5 million. Fairchild subsequently dismissed the entire staff and overhauled both stations. On November 3, 1972, WPBC became WYOO, airing an oldies format, while WPBC-FM went off the air for technical adjustments, to emerge as album-oriented rock station WRAH[6] on January 23, 1973.[7]

After debuting to middling ratings that then continually declined, WYOO went in a new direction in April 1974, spearheaded by new general manager Mike Sigelman, the former sales manager of KDWB.[8] A shift to adult contemporary was met with even lower ratings; with management seeing a gap for a Top 40 station on FM, both stations flipped[9] on August 26, 1974, during a remote broadcast from the Minnesota State Fair.[10] The new "U100"—intended to be "Y100", only for WHYI in Miami to order them to cease and desist—quickly became a competitive station in the market.

U100 was not to last forever. The AM dial in the Twin Cities was crowded with top 40 stations, with U100, KDWB, WDGY and KSTP all fighting for the same audience. AM music stations also desired to transition to the increasingly popular FM dial. In early 1976, Fairchild Industries decided to put both stations on the market. Entertainment Communications, Inc., the owner of easy listening station WAYL (93.7 FM), was interested in the AM station to simulcast WAYL's signal, but it could not buy a second FM station in the market under the rules of the time. This meant that Fairchild Industries needed to find a buyer for the FM station; the company sought out the owners of various AM stations in the area. Doubleday Broadcasting, owner of KDWB, was not actively seeking an FM station at the time, but offered to buy 101.3 FM in February 1976 after it was offered a rather generous deal that included WYOO-FM and the building in Eagan that housed both stations for $850,000.[11] KDWB's general manager at the time, Gary Stevens, said that it did not buy WYOO-FM to shut down a competitor, but rather to take advantage of what it saw as a good deal.[10] The AM station was then sold to WAYL for $625,000.[12]

U100 signed off for the last time at midnight on September 15, 1976,[13] and KDWB program director and morning personality Dave Thompson launched the KDWB AM/FM simulcast the following morning at 6:00 with "Bad Blood" by Neil Sedaka as the first song played following the pre-recorded piece announcing the change. Continuous AM and FM simulcasts in large markets (stations licensed to cities with populations over 100,000) were not allowed by the FCC since 1965. However, KDWB's simulcast was permitted under the terms, conditions and FCC rules of the time via a conditional waiver and a technicality: while the AM was licensed to St. Paul (a community of over 100,000), the FM's city of license (Richfield) did not have that large of a population. The FCC deemed the request to be in the public interest; however, KDWB was required by the FCC to broadcast eight hours of separate FM non-simulcast public affairs programming per week, with a portion focused on Richfield. The public affairs programs were broadcast from the former WYOO studio B news room and master control board in Eagan.

Helped by the stereo simulcast on 101.3 FM and the removal of one of its competitors, KDWB quickly regained its position as the dominant Top 40 station in the Twin Cities. After a brief stint with a CHR/AOR hybrid as "Y-11", WDGY switched to a country format on September 2, 1977. KSTP began to lean Adult Top 40 during the late 1970s and evolved into a talk station by the early 1980s (as its music focus shifted to FM sister, KS95). By the end of the decade, KDWB was the only ongoing Top 40 station in town.

With the active competition gone, KDWB-FM split apart from the AM station's Top 40 simulcast in September 1979 and became a Rock 40 station as "Twin Cities' K101, The All New KDWB-FM" with a new separate air-staff. K101 was met with mixed reviews and less than hoped for ratings in the Fall 1979 Arbitron ratings, then the management of KDWB-FM are opted for a change, between the last week of December 1979 and New Year's 1980 by replacing their Program Director. And the station wnet officially immediately morphed into "KDWB The New Stereo 101, The Twin Cities' Rockin' Best!" after that came "KDWB Twin Cities' 101 FM, The Home Of Rock 'N' Roll!" and then after this was done comes "Real Rock 101 KDWB", as KDWB-FM went to an AOR station designed to go up against KQ92 which had recently dumped its Freeform Rock presentation and adopted a stricter playlist in reaction to a drop in ratings. KDWB-FM would be successful during their four year run as "Stereo 101", "Twin Cities' 101", and "Real Rock 101", topping KQRS in the Arbitron ratings many times but KQRS endured and prevailed. So by the summer of 1983 KDWB-FM began to move from AOR and go back to their Rock 40 form once again, while KDWB-AM signal continued with the Top 40 format during this time although it softened to adult contemporary in 1984.

In December 1981, a serious new Top 40 competitor arrived in the Twin Cities, when WLOL dropped its soft rock format and turned itself into a high-profile hit music station (heavy with power pop and new wave), immediately shooting to the top of the ratings. At the other end of the spectrum, KS95 was competing somewhat with its older-leaning soft rock format. Around this time, WCCO-FM also briefly switched to Top 40. Meanwhile, 63 KDWB faded quickly in the ratings, as AM music stations were slowly becoming a thing of the past. To protect its heritage, take a chunk of WLOL's stellar ratings, and finally make the move of its legendary station to the FM dial, in early 1984, KDWB-FM reverted to the Top 40 simulcast as "The New KDWB FM 101", and then as "All Hit 101". Even though the AM station was running its own programming at times, in a role reversal, the FM signal was now deemed the priority, as 630 AM attained secondary status. The AM station aired a CHR format identical to its FM counterpart from late 1984 to early 1986, before it flipped to a separate Oldies format as "K63" in May 1986. In August 1991, 630 AM took on the WDGY call letters of their former Top 40 rival on 1130 AM.

KDWB FM struggled for years against upstart market leader WLOL, which featured a fresher music selection, more popular DJs, and a highly rated morning show. KDWB was viewed by many as stuffy, stale, boring and misguided, and it went through several unsuccessful morning shows. It was argued by many that its promotions, music selection and on-air presentation paled in comparison to WLOL.

In 1988, newly hired program director Brian Phillips cleaned house, as he dismissed many of the on-air personalities, overhauled the music and brought in Steve Cochran to host The KDWB Morning Zoo. He also hired a new air staff, introduced 12-song commercial-free music sweeps, changed the overall on-air presentation, and created a new logo, which is still in use today. As the rechristened "101.3 KDWB", its fortunes changed, with KDWB quickly becoming the dominant Top 40/CHR station in the market. Now, WLOL was playing catch-up, as it tried various minor overhauls and tweaks before moving in a Rhythmic-oriented direction in 1990.[14]

KDWB also gained national attention in 1989 for helping to break "The Look" by Roxette, the first of four US number-one songs for the Swedish duo. In February 1991, WLOL came to a sudden and premature end, as owner Emmis Broadcasting experienced financial problems and began to divest of many of its properties. Minnesota Public Radio purchased WLOL and turned it into the flagship for their classical music service. Throughout the rest of the 1990s, KDWB had virtually no CHR competition.

In 2000, KDWB got a new rival of sorts when upstart KTTB ("B96") went on the air with a rhythmic Top 40 format, heavy with hip-hop and urban contemporary music. While B96 was not a major ratings threat, partly due to its rimshot broadcast signal and smaller promotional presence, it did give KDWB the most formidable competition it had in recent years. Today, the competition for the rhythmic/urban audience comes from KZGO, sister station to the former B96.

At the other end of the spectrum, KS95 also competes somewhat with its older-leaning Hot AC format (which has since transitioned to a more younger-leaning direction), as does KDWB's own sister station KTCZ, with its own pop/rock-leaning Hot AC presentation. In 2010, KTTB rebranded as KHTC, leaning more towards KDWB's format, and relocated their transmitter to the heart of the metro area. The battle between KDWB and KHTC lasted until New Year's Day 2012, when KHTC flipped to Modern AC to fill the void left open by WLTE's flip to Country, thus leaving KDWB as the market's only mainstream Top 40 outlet again.

Former morning show staff include:

• Lee Valsvik: (1993–2000) — now at sister station Kool 108 in Minneapolis/St. Paul
• Angi Taylor: (1998–2003)- now at sister station 103.5 KISS FM in Chicago
• Corey Foley: (2003–2007)
• Lena Svenson (2007–2011) — formerly on the Elvis Duran & the Morning Show in New York (2012-2018), using her real name, Bethany Watson. Filled in for Falen while she was on maternity leave.
• Intern John (2007–2011) — now host of "Your Morning Show" on WIHT (HOT 99.5) in Washington DC
• Crisco (2002–2012) — now mornings at KSTP-FM in Minneapolis/St. Paul
• Pat Ebertz (Producer/Man in Charge) - now in sales for 92 KQRS-FM
• Jackson
• Jamie Guse ("Xtreme" Jamie)[17]
• Kelly Doherty (Imaging)- now VP of Imaging for iHeartMedia
• Steve "Steve-O" LaTart — Laid off in a wave of layoffs across iHeartMedia in 2020[18]