Radio K

KUOM
Radio K (KUOM) logo
City Minneapolis, Minnesota
Broadcast area Twin Cities
Branding Radio K
Slogan Real College Radio
Frequency 770 AM, 100.7 FM, 104.5 FM, 106.5 FM (part-time)
First air date January 13, 1922 (experimental 1912-1922)
Power 5,000 watts day 770 AM
ERP 99 watts 100.7 FM
99 watts 104.5 FM
6 watts 106.5 FM
Class D (AM), D (all FMs)
Facility ID 69337
Callsign meaning University of Minnesota[1]
Former callsigns WLB (1922-1945)
Owner University of Minnesota
Webcast Listen Now - 256k
Website RadioK.org

KUOM, known as Radio K, is a college radio station operated by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Dating to 1912, is the oldest station in Minnesota and the oldest licensed non-commercial radio station in the United States.[2] Prior to the transition to a student-run station in 1993, KUOM was known as University of Minnesota Public Radio (independent of Minnesota Public Radio) and broadcast public affairs, arts, classical music, and a variety of other programming.

The student-run station is a champion of the local music scene[3][4][5] and is known for its award-winning local show Off The Record.[6][7] Radio K gives airplay to a wide range of Independent and Alternative music and features specialty shows that are dedicated to Ambient, Post-Rock, Metal, Hip Hop, Vaporwave, Jazz, R&B, Electronic, Ska, Reggae, Punk, and World Music.

Radio K is broadcast on four frequencies in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area; on the Internet via streaming audio; and via iOS and Android mobile applications.

Broadcast Frequencies

Radio K broadcasts on 770 AM during daytime hours but is subject to clear-channel restrictions, requiring the signal to go off the air at sundown to protect New York City's WABC and KKOB in Albuquerque.

In addition to the main station, KUOM is relayed by three frequencies to widen its broadcast area.[8][9]

Call sign Frequency
(MHz) 		City of license ERP
W 		Class FCC info
W264BR 100.7 Falcon Heights, Minnesota 99 D FCC
K283BG 104.5 Minneapolis, Minnesota 99 D FCC
KUOM-FM 106.5 St. Louis Park 8 D KUOM-FM FCC

History

Radio broadcasting at the University of Minnesota began as an experiment in 1912. Activities were suspended during World War I, but electrical engineering professor C. M. Jansky, Jr. (the older brother of Karl Jansky) resumed broadcasting by 1920.

The University received the first AM license in the state on January 13, 1922 for the call sign WLB and programming was extended to include lectures, concerts, and football games. In February 1922, when a heavy snowstorm knocked out newswire services into the region, personnel at the Minneapolis Tribune convinced operators to help them retrieve the day's news through a roundabout series of amateur radio relays.[10]

Focus on education

In the 1930s and 1940s, the station broadcast a considerable amount of educational material and was used for distance learning—a practice that continued into the 1990s. The station had a paid staff, unlike the smaller WMMR that emerged later. The call sign was changed to KUOM on June 1, 1945.[11]

A polio epidemic in 1946 that resulted in temporary school closings and the cancellation of the Minnesota State Fair led the station to create programming for children who were homebound. Those programs, along with others broadcast in the 1940s, were recognized for their importance and led to several awards being given to the station.

For nearly 70 years, WLB and later KUOM time-shared the daytime-restricted 770 kHz frequency with WCAL of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. In 1991, The University of Minnesota made an agreement with St. Olaf in which WCAL was provided land for an improved FM tower near Rosemount, Minnesota in exchange for full use of the AM frequency.

Campus radio

Another station, WMMR (for "Women's and Men's Minnesota Radio"), was created on campus in 1948, with studios in Coffman Memorial Union. Focused on providing a service for the student body, it originally broadcast via carrier current on campus, using the frequency 730 AM (hence the oft-used tag-line "Radio 73"). Eventually the station added an FM signal to the Minneapolis cable television system.

WMMR was a student-run operation and relied solely on volunteers. By the mid-'60s through the end of its life, WMMR tried to emulate the management structure of a typical AM rocker of the day, with an appointed General Manager, Program Director, Music Director, and other management positions. A news and sports operation broadcast daily reports, and the basketball, football and hockey programs were usually broadcast with live play-by-play. A number of live broadcasts from the Whole Music Club and the Great Hall also took place and the station served to promote other campus events such as the 'Campus Carny' held annually in the old field house.

Garrison Keillor, the well-known host of Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion, began his radio career broadcasting classical music on WMMR as a student in the early 1960s. He then worked at KUOM from 1963 to 1968.

Radio K

In the early 1990s, after a great deal of lobbying by WMMR General Manager Jim Musil — the university began to examine the idea of merging WMMR and KUOM. The university explained the transition to a music format by saying that most of the educational value of KUOM had been superseded by other media outlets by this time. To avoid the lack of direction found at some college music stations, the new "Radio K" had a small full-time staff to oversee operations and provide a certain level of continuity, while students would provide much of the on-air talent while going through their radio studies. The transition finally took place in 1993, and the station started broadcasting as "Radio K" on October 1 that year.

Radio K has received accolades from local newspapers and magazines, especially the weekly City Pages which has consistently ranked the station among the best for music in the region. Pitchfork Media founder Ryan Schreiber also commonly cites the station's influence as having been an integral factor in his decision to start an online publication dedicated to the coverage of independent music.

Programming

The station receives about 120 new recordings each month which are filtered through a large group of reviewers and disc jockeys. Recordings that pass muster are added to a large playlist that is constantly updated, and on-air DJs use the list for about 60% of the music played while choosing the rest on their own.

One notable program in the first decade of Radio K was Cosmic Slop. The show, which first went on the air in the waning days of WMMR, searched through the station's considerable library of 1970s pop music, playing both the best and worst from that decade (with occasional forays into the recordings from the rest of the 20th century). The hosts of the program finally ended the show at the end of 2004, saying that their itch had been scratched.[12]

A news program called Access Minnesota began in 2004 and is carried on several dozen radio stations across the state.[13] Focusing on politics and the media, the program is produced by Radio K and the Minnesota Broadcasters Association.[14]

In 2008, the Radio K Sports Desk aired a series of stories about the Minnesota football team (by sports reporter Marco LaNave) which received a national finalist honor in the 2008 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards,[15] and two regional honors.[16] Sports reporter Bobby Baumann made appearances as an analyst on Jayhawk Sports Talk on KUJH-TV in December 2008, and on the Sports Uncut podcast with Daymon Johnson in July 2009.[17]

Studio and transmitters

The Rarig Center on the West Bank of the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota

Initial broadcasts originated in the electrical engineering building on the Minneapolis campus, where a transmitter was mounted on the roof. The facilities were moved to Eddy Hall in 1936. Four decades later in 1974, the studios were moved again, this time to Rarig Center just across the Mississippi River.

The station's main AM non-directional signal operates at 5,000 watts. Like most 5,000-watt AM stations in the Midwest, it has comparable range to a full-power FM station due to the area's flat land and excellent soil conductivity. It can picked up across the Twin Cities region, with grade B coverage in St. Cloud and Mankato. It is broadcast in daylight hours from U of M's St. Paul/Falcon Heights campus, though it is licensed to Minneapolis. It shuts off at sundown to protect WABC in New York City and KKOB in Albuquerque. The exact time that the station goes off the air varies from month to month, ranging from 4:30 p.m. in the winter to 9:00 p.m. in the summer.

At night, on weekends, and during the summer, Radio K also broadcasts on the 8-watt KUOM-FM 106.5. This frequency is shared with KDXL, a station at St. Louis Park High School in St. Louis Park, which began broadcasts around 1978 (originally at 91.7 FM). While class is in session at the school, the transmitter is used for KDXL and at all other times KUOM-FM is on. Setting up KUOM-FM took several years of negotiations with the Federal Communications Commission. In 2004, the transmitter was moved from the high school to a location in southwest Minneapolis near Lake Calhoun, near the St. Louis Park city limits, and raised to a greater height on a high rise residential building, expanding the range of both KUOM-FM and KDXL. Even with the increased height, the station operates at such low power that it can only be heard clearly in Minneapolis itself. It has fringe coverage at best in St. Paul (subject to occasional interference from a 197-watt translator of CCM outlet "The Refuge" in the southern suburb of Elko New Market), and cannot be heard at all even in most of the inner-ring Twin Cities suburbs.

Radio K also transmits via a 99-watt translator W264BR 100.7 FM which is co-located with the main AM transmitter. When it went on-air in late July 2005 the original 10-watt transmitter limited the covered area to only the U of M's St. Paul and Minneapolis campuses with spotty coverage even within the inner-ring suburbs. In early July 2011 the transmitter was upgraded to 99 watts. This significantly expanded the covered area to include almost all inner ring suburbs and many outer ring suburbs with the potential for reception as far away as Hastings, MN or Hudson, WI under favorable conditions.

Radio K operates another 99-watt translator K283BG at 104.5 FM whose transmitter is located near Radio-K's studios in Rarig Center on the West Bank campus of the University of Minnesota. Before W264BR's transmitter was upgraded K283BG was important for offering at least secondary coverage to most of the inner-ring suburbs. Through these two translators KUOM is able to broadcast 24/7 all year. This substantially improves KUOM's ability to serve the entire metro area, especially between sunset and sunrise when the station's AM signal must sign off.

Funding

Radio K is a non-commercial educational radio station. Approximately 40% of the station's funding comes from listener support, while the rest is provided by the state and federal governments, along with the University of Minnesota.

KUOM is a member of Ampers, the Association of Minnesota Public/Educational Radio Station.[18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Call Letter Origins". Radio History on the Web.
  2. ↑ "Radio K : History". Retrieved 2012-11-15.
  3. ↑ "Radio K (104.5 FM, 100.7 FM, 106.5 FM, 770 AM) | Best of the Twin Cities® 2010: Your Key to the City". City Pages. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  4. ↑ "Radio K | Best of the Twin Cities® 2013: Your Key to the City". City Pages. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  5. ↑ "Radio K | Best of the Twin Cities® 2015: Your Key to the City". City Pages. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  6. ↑ "Radio K's Off the Record | Best of the Twin Cities® 2011: Your Key to the City". City Pages. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  7. ↑ "Radio K's Off the Record | Best of the Twin Cities® 2012: Your Key to the City". City Pages. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  8. ↑ "Upper Midwest Broadcasting". NorthPine.com. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
  9. ↑ "Twin Cities Class D FM Stations". NorthPine.com. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
  10. ↑ "The Book of Radio--Amateur extract (1922)". earlyradiohistory.us. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  11. ↑ Three-Letter Roll Call
  12. ↑ "Cosmic Slop Home Page!". www.stitzel.com. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  13. ↑ "Access Minnesota". www.accessminnesotaonline.com. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  14. ↑ "Welcome". Minnesota Broadcasters Association. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  15. ↑ Society of Professional Journalists News: SPJ Announces 2008 Mark of Excellence Awards National Winners
  16. ↑ Society of Professional Journalists News: Announcing 2008 Region 6 Mark of Excellence Awards Winners
  17. ↑ "Sports Uncut - No BS Sports Talk - Episode BTR014". BlogTalkRadio. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  18. ↑ "stations & coverage map | ampers". www.ampers.org. Retrieved 2016-04-25.

External links

Coordinates: 44°59′54″N 93°11′18″W / 44.99833°N 93.18833°W / 44.99833; -93.18833

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