KCMP

Infobox Radio station
name = KCMP


city = Northfield, Minnesota
area = Minneapolis-St. Paul
branding = 89.3 The Current
slogan =
airdate = 1968 for WCAL / 2005 for KCMP
frequency = 89.3 MHz FM
HD Radio
89.3-2 FM Wonderground Radio Kids (HD Radio)
format = Public; Freeform/ecletic
power = 100,000 watts
erp =
class = C1
former_callsigns =
owner = Minnesota Public Radio
webcast = [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/tools/play/streams/the_current.asx Listen Live!]
sister_stations = KNOW, KSJN
website = [http://www.thecurrent.org/ www.thecurrent.org]
affiliations = MPR, NPR

KCMP (89.3 MHz FM), also known as 89.3 The Current, is a radio station owned by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) that broadcasts an eclectic music format including a significant rotation of songs by local artists. Licensed to serve Northfield, Minnesota, the station's transmitter is located nearly halfway between that city and Saint Paul, allowing the 100,000 watt station to reach most of the Twin Cities metropolitan area plus areas south and east. KCMP is rebroadcast on KMSE in Rochester at 88.7 MHz and on translator W248ASin Hinckley at 97.5 MHz. The station broadcasts worldwide via Internet radio streams in the MP3 and Windows Media Audio formats, and is carried on a digital subchannel of KPCC 89.3 FM in Pasadena, California.

Licensed as WCAL at 770 AM (in a time-share agreement with the University Of Minnesota) on May 6, 1922, the station was operated by St. Olaf College in Northfield for 82 years. It was known as "Classical 89.3" for the last decades and played what many considered to be "alternative" classical music along with a variety of sacred music and religious programming. MPR acquired the station in November 2004 during a drawn-out controversy and launched the new format on January 24, 2005, changing the call sign in the process. "Shhh" by the local hip-hop group Atmosphere was the first song to air under the KCMP banner at 9 a.m.. The station had an immediate impact, and after just three months was voted "Best Radio Station" by readers of the local "City Pages" alternative weekly newspaper. However, a March 2008 City Pages article criticized The Current for repetitious programming and losing touch with the format that endeared listeners during the first two broadcast years.

"The Current" service

The modern "third service" for MPR (the organization already operates "news and information" and classical music networks) programs a wide range of music. The KCMP "anti-format" was announced in mid-December 2004, along with the station's new program director Steve Nelson and music director Thorn. According to the Unofficial Current Playlist Archive, over 4000 different songs have been played from around 2000 different artists.

The station lineup currently consists of "The Morning Show", a long-running program of eclectic music and humor that has been hosted by Dale Connelly and Jim Ed Poole on MPR's classical music stations for many years. The show airs statewide on MPR's classical music network, but was deemed a more natural fit in the Twin Cities area on KCMP. Somewhat confusingly, the KMSE translator in Rochester switches between classical music in the morning and The Current for the rest of the day, a compromise reached because the signal range of KMSE is much smaller than MPR's KLSE-FM classical music transmitter in Rochester.

Weekend programming includes "American Routes" and a local music program simply called "The Local Show", which airs at 5 p.m. on Sundays. Kevin Beacham, who helps manage the Minneapolis underground hip-hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment, hosts "Redefinition Radio" on late Saturday evenings.

Additional staff members were hired in the weeks following December's announcement. Some, like Nelson, were already at Minnesota Public Radio. Steve Seel, for instance, had been a host on MPR's classical music service. Others, including Mary Lucia and Mark Wheat, were new to MPR, but already had long relationships with the region. Talent came from Minnesota stations such as KVSC and KFAI, but probably the biggest influences were the University of Minnesota's KUOM (770 Radio K) and 1990s station REV-105.

Thorn and Nelson had worked at Radio K in its early days, and remained on the station's advisory board until they were hired for "The Current" (they resigned from the board to dispel any perceived conflicts of interest). Mark Wheat was a well-known voice of Radio K, since he was the outlet's program coach and one of the most frequently-heard DJs for six years. Lucia had worked with Nelson and Thorn at REV-105, and continued as an on-air host with Thorn at the shortlived REV successor Zone 105. She remained one of the most-respected area DJs.

The name of "The Current" is meant to be evocative of several things, ranging from the flow of area rivers like the Mississippi to the "electric" nature of the local music scene in Minnesota. The call sign KCMP had no special meaning other than the fact that it rhymes with "eighty-nine three."

The station's first day of broadcasting was well-received by local music lovers. About 250 messages were left on the KCMP weblog, and the station was inundated with more than 1500 pieces of e-mail. The vast majority were positive or constructively critical messages. A power outage had knocked out power on the weekend prior to going on the air, and remained off in the early hours (the MPR building continued to operate on a backup electrical generator, but subject to the glitches inherent in switching between utility power and a local generator), so some of the music selections were thematically related to those troubles (the most explicit example would be "Hello? Is This Thing On?" by !!!). Hem visited the station the prior weekend and had their appearance recorded to play the first afternoon. The local group Spaghetti Western String Co. was featured live in the evening from MPR's Studio M. Spaghetti Western String Co. had previously been featured on shows aired by other MPR stations during 2004.

WCAL

The station began with physics experiments in 1918 when five students and a professor built a small radio transmitter at St. Olaf College. Using a wire antenna strung between the campus chapel and the college's "Old Main" (the tallest nearby building), signals from these experiments were picked up as far away as New Zealand. Eventually, the college gained the call sign 9YAJ for the experimental station. Later, on May 6, 1922, the college was granted an AM radio license and the WCAL call sign. They would broadcast two programs per week during the school year at 770 kHz in the AM band. One notable achievement by the station in the next few years was the broadcast of William Shakespeare's play "As You Like It", apparently the first time a play had been broadcast on radio.

In 1924, a financial crunch meant that the station might be forced to close down. The St. Olaf senior class and local newspaper, The Northfield News, campaigned for donations. Money came in from across Minnesota and several nearby states. This made WCAL the first listener-supported station in the United States. From 1928-circa 1954, WCAL was entirely listener-supported and received no direct financial support from St. Olaf College. In 1949, the station's card file held the names and addresses of over 60,000 donors. The station's AM signal was heard as far as the western United States, Mexico, Florida, Alaska and Canada.

The station first experimented with FM broadcasts in 1948, but didn't begin regular broadcasts until the 89.3 MHz signal was allocated in 1968. A few years later in 1971, WCAL became one of 90 founding members of National Public Radio organized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Twenty-four hour broadcasts began in 1984, and a new 100 kilowatt transmitter went online in 1991, meaning that the station could be picked up across most of the Twin Cities region (Northfield is on the southern edge of the area). The transmitter was placed on land owned by the University of Minnesota in exchange for WCAL turning over its 770 kHz AM frequency, which had been shared with KUOM for many years. Since 770 kHz was a clear-channel frequency which couldn't be used by either broadcaster at night, each station only broadcast an average of about six hours per day. The shutdown of WCAL-AM allowed KUOM to stay online throughout the daytime hours.

WCAL focused on classical music programming and related musical genres. The "Christmas at St. Olaf" program was one of several annual events that have been broadcast by the station. Over the years, the station regularly broadcast religious services, and expanded them into a number of different languages. Another first that WCAL takes credit for is the first play-by-play broadcast of a sporting event. The station eventually became affiliated with AMPERS, the independent public radio network in Minnesota.

On August 11, 2004, St. Olaf College announced that they had decided to sell WCAL in order to enhance the institution's endowment. At least eleven offers were reportedly received, but apparently only two were presented to the board of regents, including one from California-based EMF Broadcasting, a non-commercial religious broadcaster which originates the K-Love network. St. Olaf announced in August that they chose to sell to Minnesota Public Radio instead. This drew outcry from thousands of donors to WCAL, prompting the formation of a group known as SaveWCAL that attempted to halt the sale to Minnesota Public Radio. These efforts were unsuccessful. Continued activism from SaveWCAL, however, resulted in a state district court judge characterizing the transaction [http://minnesotaindependent.com/view/donors-group-demands] as an illegal sale of a charitable trust by an irresponsible trustee [http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/06/judge_in_wcal_c.php] . SaveWCAL has since requested that the Minnesota Attorney General's office to declare the sale void [http://savewcal.livejournal.com/121725.html] .

WCAL's sale agreement was finalized on Friday, November 19, 2004. The station ceased broadcasting from its Northfield studios at 10 p.m. two days later, and began simulcasting Minnesota Public Radio's classical music stream. The two-day delay allowed for final broadcasts of Sunday religious services.

A few WCAL employees were hired by MPR, and some changes were made to MPR's classical music service to attempt to appeal to former WCAL listeners.

On February 1, 2005, the "WCAL" call sign was sold by MPR to the student run radio station of California University of Pennsylvania. [http://wcal.cup.edu/] [http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=63559]

External links

* [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/the_current/ 89.3 The Current]
* [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/tools/play/streams/the_current.pls 128k mp3 audio stream]
* [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/tools/play/streams/the_current.asx 64k Windows Media audio stream]
* [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/the_current/songs_played/ KCMP playlist]
* [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/music_blog/ The Current Music Blog]
* [http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/minnesota/radio/the_current/zero/current_zerohour Launch of The Current in RealAudio]
* [http://minnewiki.publicradio.org/index.php/Minnewiki_Home Minniwiki-The MN Music Wiki]
* [http://www.publicradio.org/columns/minnesota/conversation/ What's up with 89.3? - The Current Weblog - no longer updated]
* [http://savewcal.livejournal.com SaveWCAL: The story of the first listener supported radio station in the USA] : weblog of a group opposed to St. Olaf College's selling of the WCAL charitable trust assets
*FMQ|KCMP
*FML|KCMP
* [http://articles.citypages.com/2008-03-26/news/the-current-shrinks-its-playlist/ The Current Shrinks It's Playlist]

Current "Current" D.J.s

*Barb Abney
*Dale Connelly
*Bill DeVille
*Jim Ed Poole
*Mary Lucia
* Jill Riley
*Steve Seel
*Mac Wilson
*Mark Wheat

References

*(2002). 80 Years of WCAL: Did five physics students imagine "this"? WCAL. Accessed November 20, 2004.
*(December 16, 2004). [http://access.minnesota.publicradio.org/press_releases/releases/20041216_wcallaunch.php Minnesota Public Radio to Launch New Music Station in the Twin Cities.] Press release, Minnesota Public Radio. Accessed December 16, 2004.
*Deborah Caulfield Rybak (December 16, 2004). A different beat for WCAL's successor. "Star Tribune". Accessed December 16, 2004.
*(January 21, 2005). [http://access.minnesota.publicradio.org/press_releases/releases/20050121_893launch.php The Twin Cities' Newest Radio Station — 89.3 The Current — Takes to the Air at 9 a.m., Monday, January 24 ] (press release). Minnesota Public Radio. Accessed January 21, 2005.
*Amy Carlson Gustafson (January 21, 2005). KCMP goes on the air Monday. "Saint Paul Pioneer Press". Accessed January 21, 2005.
*Jeff Miller, editor (December 30, 2004). [http://members.aol.com/jeff560/chrono1.html A Chronology of AM Radio Broadcasting 1900-1960.] History of American Broadcasting. Accessed January 21, 2005.