KTLK (1130 kHz) – branded ''News/Talk AM 1130 and FM 103.5'' – is a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed to

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. It broadcasts a conservative talk

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

to the Twin Cities radio market and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios are on Utica Avenue South in St. Louis Park. By day, KTLK is powered at the maximum for AM stations, 50,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s, and uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

at all times. At night, to avoid interference with other stations on 1130 AM, it reduces power to 25,000 watts and uses a nine- tower array. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Flag Trail at Prairie Hills Lane in Prior Lake. Programming is also heard on 175-watt

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

K278BP at 103.5

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

in Cottage Grove. It is also simulcast over an HD Radio subchannel of 100.3 KFXN-FM.

History

Early years

KTLK is the second-oldest continuously operating station in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. It signed on the air on . Dr. George W. Young was the founder of the station, first using the sequentially assigned

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

KFMT. ( KUOM, Minnesota's oldest station, began operation in 1922.) Dr. Young first operated the station from his house in Minneapolis at 2219 Bryant Ave. North, cycling through other call signs WHAT, WGWY ("W-George W. Young"), and finally WDGY ("W-Dr. George Young") in the next two years until being chastised by the government for changing too frequently. The station kept the WDGY call letters until 1991. WDGY operated on eight frequencies over its early years. In the 1930s, it was heard on 1180 AM, transmitting with 5,000

s by day and 1,000 watts at night. The station shared time with at least four local stations, including WRHM and WCAL during its early years. After moving the station out of his home, Young located the studios at several locations: his storefront a
909 West Broadway in Minneapolis
the West Hotel on Hennepin at 5th Street and 609 South Second Avenue. Minnesota native George Putnam began his broadcasting career at WDGY in 1934. Putnam later gained fame as a Los Angeles television news anchor and talk show host. In 1938, WDGY relocated its studios to the Nicollet Hotel at Washington Avenue and Nicollet Avenue after WCCO had vacated the facility for new studios at Second Avenue South and Seventh Street.

Move to 1130 AM

WDGY made its final frequency move, to 1130 AM, in 1941 as required by the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), under which most American, Canadian and Mexican AM radio stations changed frequencies. Transmitter sites are known to have been at Young's house, at the Broadway address, and from 1927 to 1949 at Superior Boulevard (aka Wayzata Boulevard, Highway 12) and Falvey Cross Road in St. Louis Park on the grounds of a fox farm. Dr. Young died on April 27, 1945. Later studio locations included Bloomington (two locations), 611 Frontenac Place in St. Paul and, in 2004 at the Clear Channel Communications consolidated offices in St. Louis Park at 1600 Utica Avenue. The transmitter site moved in 1949 to Bloomington, at a site that would within a decade overlook I-35W, using a nine- tower array covering several acres.

TV experiments

In 1933, Dr. Young was granted a license for W9XAT, an experimental mechanical television station that is credited with the first telecast in Minnesota. It is believed that the first transmission of the 45-line system occurred on August 4 of that year, featuring a handshake between WDGY station personality Clellan Card and Minneapolis mayor William Kunze. Later on, 120- or 125-line tests were done on the VHF band. The station pushed the technological limits of mechanical scanning and provided a lot of interesting exercises for WDGY engineers, but Dr. Young never got into regular broadcasts, as he did not want attention from radio hobbyists. The license for W9XAT expired in 1938, partly because mechanical television development was discouraged by that point. After 64 years of dormancy, an

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...

group in the area acquired the W9XAT call sign in 2002 with the intention of using it for mechanical and narrow-bandwidth TV experiments. Nine years after the 1945 death of Dr. Young, WDGY in 1954 flirted with modern TV, applying for Channel 9 in the Twin Cities. Also applying were competing radio stations WLOL and KEYD. WDGY and WLOL withdrew their applications at the last minute and the new station was awarded to KEYD, going on the air in January 1955, today’s KMSP-TV.

Top 40

The station was one of the first stations in the country to program

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

music full-time, starting a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

format in 1956. It was then owned by Todd Storz, one of the pioneers in programming to the baby boom generation with some of its music rarely heard on "white" radio stations. Storz's stations were heavy on promotion, headline-grabbing contests, and high-profile

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

s, using echo-chamber voice processing. Other Twin Cities station owners resented the attention WDGY received, but several jumped on the Top 40 bandwagon. Storz is credited with energizing radio at a time when network programming was moving to television. WDGY gained the nickname ''Weegee'' after a time, a sounding out of the call letters. By the 1960s, the station didn't use the name itself, but the name stuck among people in the radio industry. From about 1955 to 1977, WDGY competed for youthful listeners with AM stations KSTP and KDWB, though WCCO remained the top station in the Twin Cities, with a mixture of middle of the road music (MOR), talk, news, sports and farm reports.

Country music

As the 1970s ended, young listeners began switching to the FM band to hear contemporary music. That prompted WDGY to change to a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

format on September 2, 1977. The only other stations playing country in Minneapolis were KTCR AM and FM (now KFXN and KTCZ). The AM was a daytimer powered at only 500 watts, while the FM's tower was only 150 feet tall, limiting both stations in coverage area. In 1982, WDGY's sister FM station, KEEY, flipped to a country format as well. The AM station specialized in personality and several decades of country music, while the FM kept chatter to a minimum and played mostly contemporary country hits. In 1984, WDGY and KEEY were acquired by the Malrite Communications Group.

Talk and sports

The country format continued until April 16, 1990, when the station became "News Talk 1130, WDGY." Just prior to this, WDGY became the inaugural

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

station for the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves NBA team. The talk format gradually added more sports programming until the station switched to full-time

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

on August 1, 1991. With the switch, the station adopted the KFAN call letters. Following this change, the WDGY call letters were moved to the 630 kHz frequency, which was formerly KDWB (now WREY). In 2000, KFAN and KEEY were acquired by Clear Channel Communications, the forerunner to current owner iHeartMedia. KFAN logo

KFAN experienced severe storm damage in April 2004 at its transmission site, when four of the nine towers at its directional array in Credit River Township (near Prior Lake, Minnesota) fell down.

Translator station

On August 22, 2010, KFAN's programming began simulcasting on 103.7 FM using translator station K279AZ. The translator broadcast from a tower atop the IDS Center. It previously was owned by the Educational Media Foundation, which used the signal to broadcast its K-LOVE Christian contemporary network prior to the translator's move from Cottage Grove. Within weeks of the upgrade, however, complaints were filed with the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) by listeners of KLZZ ("the Loon") in St. Cloud, also at 103.7 FM. Because translators are a secondary service, a translator's owner must either immediately fix the problem or shut the translator down. As a result of the interference complaints, on September 24, K279AZ's power was significantly reduced and the translator moved to 103.5 under Special Temporary Authority (STA) from the FCC, and would change call letters to K278BP.

Frequency switch

On August 8, 2011, Clear Channel Communications announced a two-way frequency swap flipping KFAN and KTLK-FM, effective August 15: KTLK-FM's talk format moved to AM 1130, while KFAN's sports programming moved to KTLK-FM's former frequency, 100.3 FM. FM listeners in Minneapolis, St. Paul and adjacent communities would be able to hear KTLK on FM, by listening to the translator station on 102.5 MHz (though this would later change to the aforementioned K279AZ).

KTLK-FM

In 2006, Clear Channel Communications decided to launch a

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

station in the Twin Cities, in order to take advantage of its Premiere Radio Networks syndication arm and the company's recent launch of Fox News Radio. Clear Channel informed AM 1500 KSTP that it would not renew its contract to carry The Rush Limbaugh Show and it eventually did the same with KSTP's carriage of

Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American conservative television presenter, broadcaster and writer. He hosts ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a radio syndication, nationally syndicated talk radio show, has hosted a Hannity, sel ...

. (After losing Limbaugh and Hannity, KSTP shortly switched to a

Sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

format.) Clear Channel decided to put a talk format using these and other Premiere Network hosts on one of its Twin Cities FM signals, choosing to discontinue smooth jazz on 100.3 FM. KTLK TwinCities1130 logo

On January 2, 2006, the company switched KJZI to talk, becoming the second commercial FM talk station in the area after female-oriented talk station WFMP. The new call letters on 100.3 were KTLK-FM. When KFAN and KTLK swapped formats and frequencies in August 2011, the KTLK call sign, however, did not move to 1130 because the KTLK call letters were already on a sister station in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Clear Channel instead chose the call sign KTCN for 1130. In early 2014, the Los Angeles station switched to the call letters

KEIB KEIB (1150 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station brands itself as ''The Patriot'', and broadcasts a Conservative talk radio, conservative t ...

, with 1130 adopting the KTLK calls on January 8, 2014.

Programming

KTLK has one local show on weekdays hosted by Jon Justice, who interviews local lawmakers and offers news, weather and traffic updates. The rest of the weekday schedule comes from nationally syndicated shows, mostly from co-owned Premiere Networks: '' The Glenn Beck Radio Program'', '' The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show'', '' The Sean Hannity Show'', '' The Joe Pags Show'' (from sister station WOAI

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

), '' The Jesse Kelly Show'', '' Coast to Coast AM with George Noory'' and '' This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal'' (via Compass Media Networks). Weekends feature shows on money, health, home repair, real estate, law, the military and technology, some of which are paid brokered programming. Weekend syndicated programs include '' Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham, The Kim Komando Show, At Home with Gary Sullivan, The Ben Ferguson Show'' and '' Bill Handel on the Law''. KTLK carries Golden Gophers Hockey games from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. National news comes from Fox News Radio and NBC News Radio. Jon Justice and Andrew Lee hosted the weekday morning program, ''Justice and Drew'', until Andrew's sudden death on June 25, 2022. Jon Justice continues hosting the program solo.

References

External links

News/Talk 1130 website

FCC History Cards for KTLK
* * {{IHeartMedia Conservative talk radio Radio stations in Minneapolis–Saint Paul Talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1923 IHeartMedia radio stations News and talk radio stations in the United States