| City of license | Richfield, Minnesota |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Minneapolis-St. Paul |
| Branding | 101.3 KDWB |
| Slogan | "#1 for Today's Hit Music" |
| Frequency |
101.3 FM (MHz) 101.3 HD-2 Party Zone (Rhythmic/Dance) |
| First air date | August 1959 (as WPBC-FM) |
| Format | Commercial; Top 40 (CHR) |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 315 meters |
| Class | C |
| Facility ID | 41967 |
| Callsign meaning | Derived from former sister station KFWB |
| Former callsigns | WPBC (1959-1972) WRAH (1972-1973) WYOO (1973-1976) |
| Owner | Clear Channel |
| Sister stations | KEEY, KFXN-FM, KQQL, KTCN, KTCZ |
| Webcast | Listen Live! |
| Website | kdwb.com |
KDWB-FM (101.3 FM) is an American commercial radio station broadcasting in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota, the radio format was known for over fifty years as a major contemporary hit radio Top 40 pop music outlet. Its transmitter is located in Shoreview, Minnesota. It broadcasts in 5.1 cinema-quality Dolby Surround audio sound. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications.
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Between its AM and FM frequencies, KDWB has been an uninterrupted Top 40 outlet since 1959. Originally starting out at 630 kHz, the station's owners purchased the 101.3 MHz frequency in 1976, later transferring the entire format there.
KDWB's origins on the AM dial date back to 1951, at 1590 kHz. The big station began as a collaboration between three brothers who named it WCOW, and it played country and old-time music. Vic, Nick, and Al Tedesco, who had previously put together a station in Stillwater, Minnesota, attempted to get into television on channel 17 the next year, but financial backing fell through. The channel 17 allocation was taken by Twin Cities Public Television in 1965. In the early days, WCOW signed on with a cowbell.
WCOW was not very successful, so the station transitioned to being a female-oriented station with the call sign WISK in 1957, and switched its frequency to 630 kHz the next year. Again, the format was not popular, and the station was soon sold to Crowell-Collier Broadcasting Company, who owned KFWB and KEWB in California. The top 40 format of those stations was brought to Minnesota, and the station was dubbed KDWB in 1959. It quickly became a major competitor to the established WDGY, which had been playing a pop music format for three years by that point. With the 630 kHz frequency, KDWB, calling itself "Channel 63", began its long uninterrupted run as a pop music station. KDWB and WDGY were fierce rivals throughout the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1970s, both stations gained even more competition, as KSTP and WYOO (U100) picked up the format.
An array of outstanding DJs, "the 7 Swinging Gentlemen" graced the airwaves of KDWB during the early to mid 1960s and 1970s including Hal Murray, James Francis Patrick O'Neil, Don Duchene, Randy Cook, Lou Reigert, Rob Sherwood, Charlie Fox, Bob Lange, Bob Shannon, Barry McKinna (Siewert), "True" Don Bleu, "Ugly" Del Roberts, Don K. Martin and Bobby Wayne. Program Directors included, Chuck Blore, Ted Randall, Sam Sherwood, Deane Johnson, Chuck Buell, Bob Shannon, and John Sebastian
KDWB allegedly was the first station to have been fined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It apparently had to pay $10,000 because of repeated willful violations of nighttime broadcast power restrictions on the AM band. A fire at the station knocked it off the air for a few days later that decade.
After two years of wrangling and obtaining start-up funds, WPBC officially signed on the air on October 18, 1949. The station was owned by the People's Broadcasting Company, founded by former WCCO announcer Bill Stewart and his wife Becky Ann. In contrast to WCCO and KSTP, WPBC carried no network programming, and wwas broadcast live and local all day. The station in the early years played a variety of MOR pop music and standards, and was even considered an innovator in the concept of singing jingles.
As it was limited by its then-daytime only license at 980 AM, it started up WPBC-FM at 101.3 MHz in August 1959, simulcasting the AM station.
The Stewarts sold the stations in 1972 to Fairchild Industries for $1.5 million. Fairchild subsequently dismissed the entire staff and overhauled both stations. On November 3, 1972, the AM station was relaunched as WYOO, picking up an oldies format (with rock 'n roll included). A few days later, WPBC-FM became WRAH and programmed an automated Album oriented rock (AOR) format. When the oldies format of WYOO started to slide in the ratings, more middle of the road (MOR) music was added, but ratings slid even further. Fairchild contemplated selling the station. The general manager and program director, both hired from established Top 40 station KDWB, felt a major change needed to be made.
Station management decided to flip to a Top 40 format. The new station was christened "U100" and debuted on August 26, 1974 during a remote broadcast from the Minnesota State Fair. The new U100 quickly became the topic of conversation throughout the area with its rowdy, outrageous mix of Top 40 and hard rock. Though neither station's frequency had anything to do with the number 100, the placement on the dial at 980 AM and 101.3 FM, close enough to the big "100" on the dial, gave management enough of a reason to call the simulcast U100, since all radios at the time were analog and showed the number "100" on the dial near where both stations were located.
During the next two years, U100 quickly became one of the most talked-about radio stations in town. Competition was fierce in Top 40 radio at the time, and compared to U100, WDGY, KDWB and KSTP seemed a bit tame in their on-air presentation. As an added advantage, U100 was the first Twin Cities Top 40 station to broadcast on the FM dial in stereo (in addition to 980 AM).
U100 was not to last forever. The AM dial in the Twin Cities was crowded with top 40 stations, with U-100, KDWB, WDGY and KSTP all fighting for the same audience. AM music stations also desired to transition to the increasingly popular FM dial. In early 1976, Fairchild Industries decided to put both stations on the market. The owner of easy listening FM station WAYL was interested in the AM operation, to simulcast WAYL's signal for greater exposure to listeners. Since one company could not own more than one AM or more than one FM station in the same market at the time, it needed to find a buyer for the FM station, and sought out the owners of various AM stations in the area. Doubleday Broadcasting, owner of KDWB, wasn't actively seeking an FM station at the time but offered to buy 101.3 FM in February 1976 after it was offered a rather generous deal for $750,000 that included WYOO-FM and the building in Eagan that housed both stations. KDWB's general manager at the time, Gary Stevens, claimed that it did not buy WYOO-FM to shut down a competitor, but rather to take advantage of what it saw as a good deal.[1]
U100 signed off for the last time at midnight on Wednesday, September 15, 1976, and KDWB morning personality True Don Bleu launched the new KDWB-FM simulcast the following morning at 6 am. The simulcast was permitted under the FCC rules of the time because the FM station was licensed to Richfield, a community with a population of less than 100,000. An FM licensed to Minneapolis or Saint Paul would have had to air at least 50% non-simulcast programming.
Helped by the stereo simulcast on 101.3 FM, KDWB quickly regained its position as the dominant Top 40 station in the Twin Cities. Their fierce young rival, U100, was now gone. After a brief stint with a CHR/AOR hybrid as “Y-11," WDGY switched to a country format on September 2, 1977. KSTP began to lean Adult Top 40 during the late 1970s and evolved into a talk station by the early 1980s (as its music focus shifted to FM sister, KS95). By the end of the decade, KDWB was the only ongoing Top 40 station in town.
With the active competition gone, KDWB-FM split apart from the AM station's Top 40 simulcast in September 1979 and became a pop/rock hybrid as "K101." The station soon morphed into "Stereo 101", an AOR station designed to go up against KQRS-FM, which had recently dumped its freeform rock presentation and adopted a stricter playlist. "Stereo 101" would be mildly successful in its four year run, even topping KQRS in the ratings several times, but never became a serious long term competitor to KQRS. By summer 1983, "Stereo 101" began to move from active rock to mainstream rock, and eventually evolved into its current CHR format the next year. KDWB's AM signal continued with the Top 40 format during this time.
Late in 1981, a serious new Top 40 competitor arrived in the Twin Cities. WLOL dropped its soft rock format and turned itself into a high-profile hit music station (heavy with power pop and new wave), immediately shooting to the top of the ratings. And at the other end of the spectrum, KS95 was competing somewhat with its older-leaning soft rock format. WCCO-FM also briefly switched to Top 40. Meanwhile, 63 KDWB faded quickly in the ratings, as AM music stations were slowly becoming a thing of the past. To protect its heritage, take a chunk of WLOL's stellar ratings and finally make the move of its legendary station to the FM dial, KDWB-FM dropped AOR in early 1984 and reverted back to the Top 40 simulcast, though the AM station was running its own programming at times. In a role reversal, the FM signal was now deemed the priority, as 630 AM attained secondary status. The AM station continued with Top 40 through 1985, before it flipped to a separate oldies format in early 1986. In the 1990s, 630 AM would take on the WDGY call sign of former Top 40 rival.
The new 101 KDWB struggled for years against upstart market leader WLOL, which featured a fresher music selection, more popular DJs, and a highly-rated morning show. KDWB was viewed by many as stuffy, stale, boring and misguided, and it went through several unsuccessful morning shows. It was argued by many that its promotions, music selection and on-air presentation paled in comparison to WLOL.
Finally, in 1988, newly-hired program director Brian Phillips cleaned house, as he dismissed many of the air personalities, overhauled the music, and brought in Steve Cochran to host the station's new morning show. He also hired a new air staff, introduced 12-song commercial-free music sweeps, changed the overall on-air presentation, and created a new logo, which is still in use today. As the rechristened 101.3 KDWB, its fortunes changed. KDWB quickly became the top CHR station in the market, starting a dominance that continues to this day. Now WLOL was playing catch-up, as ity tried various minor overhauls and tweaks before moving in a rhythmic-oriented direction in 1990.
KDWB also gained national attention in 1989 for helping to break "The Look" by Roxette, the first of four US number-one songs for the Swedish duo. In February 1991, WLOL came to a sudden and premature end, as owner Emmis Broadcasting experienced financial problems and began to divest of many of its properties. Minnesota Public Radio purchased WLOL and turned it into the flagship for their classical music service. Throughout the rest of the 1990s, KDWB had virtually no CHR competition.
In 2000, KDWB got a new rival of sorts when upstart KTTB (B96) went on the air with a rhythmic Top 40 format, heavy with hip-hop and urban contemporary music. While B96 hasn't been a major ratings threat, partly due to its rimshot broadcast signal and smaller promotional presence, it has given KDWB the most formidable competition it has had in recent years. At the other end of the spectrum, KS95 also competes somewhat with its older-leaning Hot AC format. Since 2010, KTTB was rebranded as KHTC, leaning more toward KDWB's format and relocating their transmitter to the heart of the metro area.
In late September 2006, KDWB-FM's Dave Ryan, Corey Foley and Steve-O performed a comedy skit based on radical Islamic ideas and behaviors that dominate the news. The skit, modeled on the popular TV game show Jeopardy!, included an announcer using a fake South Asian accent introducing contest categories such as "infamous infidels" and "potent portables." The skit also included a threat to behead a female host (Corey Foley) when she got an answer wrong. Many, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group, thought otherwise. After receiving complaints about the skit, it demanded an apology from KDWB.
On October 2, 2006, the station's website contained a short apology: "KDWB does not condone making light of Islam and Muslims. We regret that listeners found the 'Muslim Jeopardy!' comedy skit of one of our on-air hosts to be insensitive."
On April 25, 2006, Clear Channel announced that KDWB's HD2 subchannel will carry a format focusing on dance hits. The HD2 signed the following July as the Party Zone. "Party Zone" is also the name of the Friday and Saturday night show on KDWB simulcasted from local clubs that in the past has been hosted by the likes of Tone E. Fly, Gerry Dixon, Jeremiah Kubiak and Michael Knight. After six months of running jockless, the subchannel began to add announcers (from KDWB) to its programming.
The Dave Ryan in the Morning Show is KDWB's morning broadcast, it has been broadcasted on KDWB for 15 years. It broadcasts Monday through Friday from 6 to 10 am. Current hosts of the show are Dave Ryan (Host), Steve-O (Producer), and Crisco (Stuntman)
Here is a list of things performed on The Dave Ryan in the Morning Show.
Former morning show staff include:
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