
KDIZ (1570
kHz "Freedom 1570") is a
commercial AM 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
Golden Valley, Minnesota
Golden Valley is a western and first-ring suburb of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 22,552 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is mostly residential an ...
, and serving the
Twin Cities radio market. It is owned by the
Salem Media Group
Salem Media Group, Inc. (formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in Irving, Texas, targeting audiences interested in Christian values and wh ...
and it airs 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, ...
. KDIZ's
radio studio
A recording studio is a specialized facility for recording and mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enough to record a single sin ...
s are on Cliff Road near
Minnesota State Highway 77 and
Interstate 35E in
Eagan.
By day, KDIZ transmits 4,000
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, but because
1570 AM is a Mexican
clear channel frequency, KDIZ reduces power at night to 220 watts to avoid interference. The signal is
non-directional at all times. 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 Lilac Drive North in Golden Valley, near
Minnesota State Highway 100.
Programming
Salem Media owns two talk stations in the Twin Cities:
WWTC
WWTC (1280 AM broadcasting, AM, "The Patriot") is a commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Twin Cities region. It is owned by Salem Media Group and broadcasts a conse ...
1280 AM carries mostly programs from the co-owned
Salem Radio Network. Meanwhile, KDIZ carries
nationally syndicated hosts from
Westwood One (Vince Coglianese,
Red Eye Radio and
Mark Levin) and
CBS Radio (
Dana Loesch
Dana Lynn Loesch ( ; ; born September 28, 1978) is an American radio and television host, TV host. She is a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association and a former writer and editor for ''Breitbart News''. Loesch was the television ho ...
) as well as some Salem hosts (
Charlie Kirk,
Chris Stigall,
Jay Sekulow and
Eric Metaxas).
In the fall, KDIZ airs
St. John's University college football
College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
games. Weekends feature shows on health, money, guns, veterans, golf, technology and cars, some of which are paid
brokered programming. Most hours begin with
Townhall News, similar to WWTC.
History
KUXL
The station
signed on the air on . The original
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 ...
was KUXL and it had a long history of being a
Christian radio station. In the 1960s and 1970s, KUXL played
urban gospel and
R&B music, among other programming, prior to becoming a full-time religious station.
For much of its history, the station was a
daytimer, required to go off the air at night because it broadcast on a Mexican
clear channel frequency. Its studios and offices were originally located at 4820 Olson Highway in Golden Valley. The operations later moved to Duluth Street. The transmitter and antenna were first co-located with
KQRS 1440 AM on Highway 100 and later on the station's own tower, a block away from the Duluth Street studios, next to Highway 100.
In the mid-1960s, the station was operated by Marvin Kosofsky. Kosofsky hired Bob Smith (a.k.a.
Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938July 1, 1995), known as Wolfman Jack, was an American disc jockey active for over three decades. He was famous for his gravelly voice, and credited it with his success, saying, "It's kept meat and potatoes on ...
), who relocated from
Del Rio, Texas
Del Rio (in Spanish language, Spanish, ''Del Río'', "from the river") is a city in and the county seat of Val Verde County, Texas, Val Verde County in southwestern Texas, United States. As of 2020 United States census, 2020, Del Rio had a popul ...
, to run the station with a mostly
R&B format. Also at KUXL at this time were Art Hoehn (a.k.a. Fat Daddy Washington) and former
KDWB personality Ralph Hull (a.k.a. Preacher Paul Anthony and The Nazz). It was this trio of broadcasters who took control of "border blaster" station
XERB 1090, in
Baja California
Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...
, in 1965. They operated the "Big X" from
Minneapolis
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 ...
initially, then relocated to Southern
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
in 1966.
KUXL sponsored numerous concerts by such artists as
Ike and Tina Turner, the
Four Tops
The Four Tops are an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1953 as the Four Aims. They were one of the most commercially successful American pop music groups of the 1960s and helped propel Motown Records to international fame. The ...
,
B. B. King,
Solomon Burke,
the Temptations,
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with a wide variety of audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), "Baby Wha ...
,
Jr. Walker
Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr. (June 14, 1931 – November 23, 1995), known professionally as Junior Walker, was an American multi-instrumentalist (primarily saxophonist) and vocalist who recorded for Motown during the 1960s. He also performed as a sess ...
,
the Impressions and
Fats Domino
Antoine Caliste Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orl ...
.
KUXL was a ratings success in the early 1970s. Some of the on-the-air talent from that era included Maury Bernstein, a noted musicologist/folklorist who later hosted for
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
. Bernstein was the major authority on Scandinavian music in the U.S. Bob Allard was famed Twin Cities talk show host and television (
KMSP) newscaster. Allard was one of the best-known voices in Twin Cities broadcasting history. Allard was known for portraying the character "Cactus Jim" on both radio and television on WOC Television in Davenport, Iowa in the 1950s. Chris Robbins, also known as John Ryan, also worked for
WTCN-TV. Brian Tolzmann was the youngest major market news director in the country at the time. He later hosted a nationally syndicated radio show, and worked with former KUXL manager
Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938July 1, 1995), known as Wolfman Jack, was an American disc jockey active for over three decades. He was famous for his gravelly voice, and credited it with his success, saying, "It's kept meat and potatoes on ...
on several national concert shows. Brian Tolzmann is also the broadcaster who first broke the news of
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
's resignation, in August 1974 Steve Blitz and talk show hosts Joe Barbeau and Jim King were also part of the staff in the early 1970s.
KYCR
The call letters changed to KYCR in May 1988.
KYCR was in 1994 purchased by Children's Broadcasting Corporation, parent of the
Radio Aahs children's format, becoming a sister to Aahs flagship station
WWTC
WWTC (1280 AM broadcasting, AM, "The Patriot") is a commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Twin Cities region. It is owned by Salem Media Group and broadcasts a conse ...
(1280 AM). KYCR retained its religious format as studios were co-located with WWTC at Excelsior Boulevard and Highway 100 in St. Louis Park. In 1995, the transmitter was moved a few miles south of its longtime tower to WWTC's 4-tower transmission facility in St. Louis Park, west of Highway 100 and south of I-394.
KYCR was acquired by religious and conservative broadcast company
Salem Communications in 1998. Two years later, they bought WWTC, and both stations moved to the facility of Salem's
KKMS in Eagan (transmission continued from the WWTC/KYCR site in St. Louis Park). From 2002 until 2007, KYCR was a time-shifted version of WWTC "The Patriot" as "The Patriot II". The format was then changed to a general talk format with its own identity, simply known as "AM 1570: The New Talk of the Twin Cities". In April 2007, KYCR lost syndicated talk-show host
Don Imus from the lineup after the network cancelled the show. After two months of a "Dr. Laura" replay in the slot, the show was replaced by
The War Room with
Quinn and Rose from
WPGB in Pittsburgh, becoming the first affiliate for the show in the midwest. Until April 2009, other programming included
Dennis Miller,
The Radio Factor,
Laura Schlessinger,
Lars Larson,
Janet Parshall, and
Mark Levin.
On August 13, 2008,
North Dakota State University announced that KYCR would become the home of
NDSU Bison football broadcasts for the 2008 season. This makes the station the first affiliate in the Twin Cities area for NDSU sports.
The station attempted yet another format change on March 30, 2009, this time to an all-business format, carrying programming from the
Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...
business network. The station's slogan changed to "Business 1570 -- Twin Cities Business Radio."
KDIZ and Freedom 1570
On December 15, 2015, KYCR began stunting with a loop directing listeners to
KDIZ (1440 AM), with KYCR's business news format moving to that station. On December 24, Salem changed the call letters of 1570 AM to KDIZ. On January 11, 2016, the station relaunched as "Wellness Radio", a first-of-its-kind Health & Wellness talk format.
On November 30, 2019, KDIZ began
stunting with a loop of morse code, unusual noises, radio crackle, and voice messages, and advising listeners to tune in on the morning of December 2 for an announcement. On the promised date, KDIZ flipped to
conservative talk as "Freedom 1570".
Salem Launches Twin Cities Conservative Talker
Radioinsight – December 2, 2019
See also
* WWTC
WWTC (1280 AM broadcasting, AM, "The Patriot") is a commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Twin Cities region. It is owned by Salem Media Group and broadcasts a conse ...
References
External links
Radiotapes.com
Featuring historic airchecks and videos from Twin Cities radio stations including a video of KUXL from 1986.
{{coord, 44, 57, 39, N, 93, 21, 25, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
Radio stations in Minnesota
Radio stations established in 1961
Salem Media Group radio stations
Talk radio stations in the United States
Conservative talk radio