All Systems "Go" For a New Radio Station

Philco 90 "cathedral" style radio from 1931. Courtesy of Scott Robinson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Pohlad family, after a few years of trying to make KTWN (96.3) FM radio work with various formats, including its current one of shoehorning Minnesota Twins baseball games (also part of their portfolio) into its Adult Alternative programming, is going in another direction.

Their company Go Media (until recently Northern Lights Broadcasting) purchased longtime religious outlet KNOF (95.3), then turned it into contemporary hip hop station KZGO.  In fact, both KTWN and KZGO will be branded as Go 96.3 and Go 95.3, in that order.  The Pohlads are hoping that the millenials they want to attract will know the difference between the two signals, even if some baseball fans might not.

Go Media has been down the hip hop road before, having tried and failed with B96 a few years ago.  Since then, two throwback rap stations owned by major radio chains--Hot 102.5 (iHeart) and Vibe 105 (Cumulus)--have opened up.  So it was apparently decided to bring hip hop up to date around here.  And unlike the other guys, the DJs are live and local.

This means Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and The Weeknd will no longer be restricted to KDWB (101.3).  And Twin Cities-based artists like Dessa, POS and anyone else associated with the Doomtree collective will finally get airplay beyond The Current (89.3).  All of this coming with plenty of FCC-friendly bleeping, in between a solid block of commercials.

Maybe another hip hop station will work in an increasingly diverse market like this one, maybe not.  But if Go Media insists on branding two different stations with the same name while holding a Major League Baseball team's broadcasts hostage on an incompatible format, they're going nowhere fast.

In other radio news . . .

• Salem Media, the purveyor of conservative Christian and secular talk that already owns three AM signals here (KKMS, WWTC and KYCR), has bought their fourth.  They took KDIZ (1440) off of The Walt Disney Company's hands as part of the Mouse House's selloff of all but one of its Radio Disney children's radio empire (they're keeping the one station in Los Angeles for streaming purposes).  What Salem did with 1440 is to switch places with KYCR's business news and talk shows on 1570.  KDIZ has moved to 1570 with a format to be determined.  As of 1/5/16, KDIZ is running a loop telling whatever listeners they still have that the business shows have moved to the slightly stronger signal of 1440 AM.
• 2015 was they year when several popular local radio figures saw their fortunes change.  Barb Abney was let go by The Current, only to be picked up by Go 96.3, which dropped BT Turner.  Brian Oake left an increasingly confusing Adult Pop format on Cities 97 (97.1) to become the morning man on The Current.  And Mary Lucia recently returned to the air at 89.3, following a leave of absence having to do with a man who was stalking her.  He was eventually sentenced to probation and fined.

UPDATE (1/11/16):  Salem has found a format for the new KDIZ/1570, and it's Health and Wellness.  It's supposed to be talk shows combined with sponsored programming on how to stay healthy which, according to Wikipedia, is a "first of its kind" format.  We'll soon see if this new station has any kind of pulse.