WNMT (650 AM) is 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

Hibbing, Minnesota Hibbing is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 16,214 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city was built on mining the rich iron ore of the Mesabi Iron Range an ...

. WNMT is owned by

Midwest Communications Midwest Communications, Inc. is a Wausau, Wisconsin–based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Il ...

. Midwest owns five radio stations on the

Iron Range The Iron Range is collectively or individually a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Much of the ore-bearing region lies alongside the range of granite hills formed by the Giants ...

; KQDX, WMFG, WNMT,

WTBX WTBX (93.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a U.S. radio station in Hibbing, Minnesota, serving the Iron Range region. The station is owned by Midwest Communications and airs a hybrid format of hot adult contemporary and modern adult contemporary. WTBX b ...

, and

WUSZ WUSZ (99.9 Hertz, MHz "Radio USA") is a commercial radio, commercial FM radio station city of license, licensed to Virginia, Minnesota, and serving the Iron Range region. It is owned by Midwest Communications and it airs a country music, country ...

. All five stations share the same studio location at 807 W. 37th Street, Hibbing. WNMT broadcasts a typical AM station pattern during the day which gives it good coverage over most of Northeastern Minnesota. However at nighttime, the station broadcasts a directional pattern from five towers which makes it difficult to receive south of the immediate

. This is done to protect signals to the south broadcasting on the same frequency; particularly

clear-channel station A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

WSM in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

History

Before changing its callsign to WNMT, 650 AM Hibbing was WKKQ. WKKQ signed on the air on June 1, 1975 at 1060 AM with a clear channel daytime-only signal. The station was variously known as "The Super Q" and "Clear Channel Country". The first song played was

John Denver Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American Country music, country and Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic m ...

's "

Thank God I'm a Country Boy "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", also known as "Country Boy", is a song written by John Martin Sommers and recorded by American singer/songwriter John Denver. The song was originally included on Denver's 1974 album '' Back Home Again''. A version re ...

". The station signed off at sunset with a special arrangement of " Happy Trails" ending with "Happy trails to you from WKKQ". WKKQ was affiliated with the

United Press International Radio Network Originally named "UPI Audio," the United Press International Radio Network was a news service for radio and television stations from wire service United Press International. It was the first such service offered by a major news agency and existed ...

and provided strong local news and community calendars to compete with Hibbing's pioneer station WMFG. The station moved to 650 AM in the mid-1980s and was allowed to broadcast on reduced power from sunset to sunrise. At one point in time, the station also broadcast in

AM stereo AM stereo is a term given to a series of mutually incompatible techniques for radio broadcasting stereo audio in the AM band in a manner that is compatible with standard AM receivers. There are two main classes of systems: independent sideban ...

. The move to 650 kHz coincided with a switch to ABC Radio and WKKQ took

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

from WMFG. In early 1998, the call letters were changed to the current WNMT, followed by a format change in April 1998.

References

External links

WNMT website
{{coord, 47, 22, 30.8, N, 93, 0, 56.7, W, type:landmark_region:US-MN_source:FCC, display=title Radio stations in Minnesota News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1975 1975 establishments in Minnesota Midwest Communications radio stations Itasca County, Minnesota