WLOL (AM) - History

History

WLOL, named for the "Land Of Lakes", is one of the area's most legendary set of call letters. WLOL's history is intertwined with many other local frequencies over the years. The first incarnation of WLOL signed on at 1300 AM on June 16, 1940 and was a part of the Mutual Broadcasting System, a national radio network in the United States. Studios were at 1730 Hennepin Avenue, at Oak Grove Street across from Loring Park, approximately in the current-day airspace over the westbound lanes of I-94 exiting the Lowry Hill Tunnel. The transmitter was in St. Paul's Midway district. WLOL moved to 1330 AM on March 29, 1941 as required by the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) under which most American, Canadian and Mexican AM radio stations changed frequencies. An FM broadcast began in 1956 when the owners of WLOL purchased WMIN-FM, which had been broadcasting at 99.5 MHz since 1945.

The AM station aired a variety of formats over the years, including Top 40 in the 1950s, country music, and a brief return to Top 40 in 1979 as WRRD, "13 Rock", which prided itself as an anti-disco station. Studio locations after the original Hennepin Avenue address include four downtown Minneapolis locations at 1021 LaSalle Avenue, the Northwestern National Bank Building at S. 6th Street & Marquette Avenue, 801 Nicollet Avenue and 76 S. 8th Street, plus 1370 Davern Avenue in St. Paul (co-located with the station's three antennae), MPR's facilities in downtown St. Paul and 331 S. 11th Street in Minneapolis.

WLOL carried University of Minnesota sports for many years. Ray Christensen announced Gopher football until the mid-1960s, when he moved to WCCO-AM and continued as the Gophers' announcer. Frank Buetel announced Gopher football and basketball games in the 1970s. From 1972 to 1976, WLOL aired games of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association, with Buetel announcing.

Minneapolis native James Aurness worked at WLOL as a part-time announcer for less than a year in 1945. He moved to Los Angeles in 1946 and later gained fame as a film and TV actor under the name James Arness, best known as Marshal Matt Dillon in TV's Gunsmoke. Steve Cannon, while best known for his 26 years at WCCO-AM, first worked at WLOL in the mid-late 1950s. Leigh Kamman, noted jazz historian and broadcaster, was at WLOL for two stints; first in the mid-late 1940s and again in the mid-late 1950s.

WLOL almost expanded into TV. In 1954 it applied, as did competitors WDGY and KEYD, for channel 9 in the Twin Cities. However, WLOL and WDGY withdrew their applications at the last minute. The new station was awarded to KEYD and went on-air in January 1955. It is known today as KMSP-TV.

WLOL-FM was the first commercial classical music station in Minneapolis-St. Paul and was co-located with its AM sister. Jim Stokes, a WLOL announcer during that time (1330 AM had a talk format during his tenure), documented some of the period at the Davern location, 1972–75, in this commentary. WLOL-FM dropped classical and changed to "beautiful music" in mid-1973.

The station was purchased in January 1980 by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), while WLOL-FM transitioned to a pop music format before eventually being sold off to another company. The purchase of the AM station was a fallback plan for MPR, which wanted to acquire a second FM station to split its Twin Cities station KSJN-FM into separate talk and classical music stations; MPR had tried to buy KBEM-FM 88.5 a year earlier in that quest. 1330 became known as KSJN to correspond with MPR's 91.1 FM signal. On October 9, 1989, the call letters were changed to KNOW and it became the flagship for MPR's new news and information network.

WLOL-FM kept its call sign as it was sold off, and found another owner when it was purchased by Emmis Broadcasting in 1983. The call letters enjoyed their biggest success airing a Top 40 format, from 1981 to 1991. The station remained popular until Emmis ran into financial problems in the early 1990s as a result of its purchase of baseball's Seattle Mariners. Many of Emmis' radio properties were sold off, and in 1991, 99.5 found a buyer in MPR, which turned it into the flagship of the organization's new classical music network, drawing howls from WLOL's pop music fans. The MPR call signs were shuffled, with 91.1 FM becoming KNOW-FM and 99.5 FM taking on 91.1's KSJN.

With two FM frequencies in the Twin Cities, MPR pondered other uses for 1330 AM. After six years simulcasting KNOW-FM it became WMNN in September 1995, the flagship of the commercial Minnesota News Network. The profits of the station were fed back to MPR to help stabilize funding by donations from the public. WMNN was sold in 2004 to Starboard Broadcasting, which turned it into "Relevant Radio," a Catholic religious format and soon restored the original WLOL call sign.

Between 1991 and 2004, the WLOL name was used by several other stations, including 1470 (now KMNQ), 100.3 (KTLK-FM), and 105.3 (WNSH). The call sign returned to the original 1330 AM frequency in 2004 (this time, however, it supposedly stands for "Lady of Lourdes", reflecting Relevant Radio's Catholic mission).