WCCO-TV

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WCCO-TV or WCCO 4 is a television station that serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota. It broadcasts on channels 4 (analog) and 32 (digital). Additional TV transmitters in the north serve Alexandria (KCCO 7, 24 DT) and Walker/Bemidji (KCCW 12, 20 DT). The call sign comes from the Washburn Crosby Company (now known as General Mills), which was an early owner of WCCO radio.

From 1947 to 1996, WCCO 4 and WCCO radio won twelve George Foster Peabody Awards, more than any other Twin Cities broadcast outlet.

Unlike most other CBS owned & operated stations, WCCO does not follow the CBS Mandate in its branding, using simply its call letters rather than "CBS 4".

History

WCCO has also been the market's only station to never change its affiliation. Because of this stability, WCCO-TV is one of CBS' best-performing affiliates.

The WCCO building in downtown Minneapolis

WCCO-TV participated in the first transatlantic television broadcast via the Telstar satellite on July 23, 1962 when a mobile crew provided video of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. This video was broadcast across the three major networks of the time: ABC, CBS, and NBC.

The station had broadcast from studios in the Radio City Theater building in downtown Minneapolis since the first WTCN-TV went on the air in 1949. Despite renovations in 1956, the space eventually became too small, so the station moved into a new space at the south end of Nicollet Mall when a new building was finished in 1983. WCCO is the only area TV station broadcasting from downtown Minneapolis today.

In 1987, WCCO bought KCMT, channel 7 in Alexandria and its satellite KNMT, channel 12 in Walker. KCMT had signed on in 1957 and had been the only full-power VHF station in central Minnesota. KNMT signed on in 1962 as a satellite of KCMT in northern Minnesota. They were renamed KCCO and KCCW respectively, and their local operations were progressively cut back until 2002, when local news segments on both stations were discontinued. WCCO has opened bureaus in Brainerd and St. Cloud, and stories produced in Alexandria, Brainerd and St. Cloud can be seen in the Twin Cities as well. Shortly after that, WCCO began identifying itself on-air as "WCCO-TV, channel 4, Minneapolis-St. Paul/KCCO Alexandria/KCCW Walker".

WCCO was purchased by CBS in 1992. Many believe that the station was mis-managed in the following years. And as a CBS station, WCCO 4 is simply branded as such as opposed to CBS4 under the CBS Mandate. Other sister stations not to follow this mandate are: KDKA in Pittsburgh - branded KDKA-TV as preferred by residents over CBS2 (there is a logo for this station though), WJZ-TV in Baltimore - branded WJZ 13 and KUTV in Salt Lake City - branded 2News.

In the May 2006 ratings period, WCCO's newscasts [claimed the top spot] in all of their timeslots, except during the morning when KARE still leads its competitors.

Until cable television became common in the early 1990s, WCCO was the exclusive carrier of most Twin Cities sporting events (Twins baseball, Minnesota Vikings football, Minnesota North Stars hockey and U of M athletics) on television and radio. Since 1992, however, rival Fox won NFL football from CBS and carried with it the Vikes, and the North Stars skipped town entirely; when hockey returned to Minnesota in the form of the Minnesota Wild, it would affiliate with former hometown independent KMSP.

WCCO experimented with cable in the 1980s. Known initially as WCCO II or 'CCO cable, it was a way to transmit programs that wouldn't ordinarily make it onto the over-the-air frequency. During this time, WCCO II aired local forecasts when not airing sports or other programming. This later morphed into the Midwest Sports Channel (MSC), which operated for several years. Following Viacom's purchase of CBS, MSC was sold to News Corp and became Fox Sports Net North.

WCCO also operated a local weather channel on cable systems in the Twin Cities area. Unlike The Weather Channel, WCCO Weather Channel did not have any on-camera personalities and instead consisted of computer graphics with voice-over provided by WCCO-TV's meteorologists. This programming ran in a loop until updates were made available. Ads on this channel were delivered in this way as well (voice-over consisted of radio-formatted advertising). During severe weather occurrences, the channel would interrupt the recorded voice-over with live weather bulletins provided by WCCO 830 AM. Twin Cities PBS affiliate KTCI-TV airs weather info in a similar way but with the following differences:

• no advertising
• format is geared towards aviators
• audio is provided by the Minneapolis Air Route Control Center (NOAA Weather Radio KEC65 during severe weather)
• digital multicast on channel 17.5 (originally shared airtime with PBS during the daytime and late night hours)

The WCCO building "on the plaza" at 11th St. South and Marquette Ave.

WCCO-TV's transmitter is located in Shoreview, Minnesota, at the Telefarm paired tower installation also used by KSTP, KARE, and KMWB. The market's south & western portion gets WCCO from four low-power translators, all privately owned:

• K36FI, channel 36 Frost
• K51AL, channel 51 Olivia
• K54AC, channel 54 St. James
• K46AC, channel 46 Willmar

Logos

KCCO Screenshots

Notable personalities

Some notable personalities at the station have had long careers. Dave Moore, a Minneapolis native who had worked almost his entire career in the city, did evening newscasts from 1957 until the early 1990s when he moved to a more leisurely schedule broadcasting Moore on Sunday. In 1962 he had helped create The Bedtime Nooz, a satirical view of newscasts that aired on Saturday nights. Another program called The Scene Tonight was created in 1968. Both programs featured meteorologist Bud Kraehlig and other members of the regular station staff. Moore died in 1998.

Bill Carlson joined the station in 1959, working in several roles over the years including news anchor, and still provides film reviews as of 2006.

Don Shelby joined the station as a news anchor in 1978 and also has done investigative reporting, although he ended that area of his career when one of his reports was heavily criticized. Shelby suffered a mild stroke in early 2004, and returned to news reading duties by the end of that year. As of 2005, Shelby continues the unique dual responsibility of hosting an afternoon radio show which ends at 5:00, immediately after which he anchors the 6pm TV newscast. The 5pm news is also simulcast on radio.

Weather forecaster Paul Douglas, sports commentator Mike Max, talk show host Dark Star (real name George Chapple) and other personalities also cross over between TV and radio.

Current Anchors

• Don Shelby(10PM)
• [Amelia Santaniello](6&10PM)
• [Frank Vascellaro] (6 PM)
• Dennis Douda(5:00pm)
• Jeanette Trompeter (5:00pm)
• Bill Hudson (Mornings)
• Karen Leigh (Mornings)
• [Bill Carlson] (WCCO @ Noon)
• John Reger (Weekends)
• Esme Murphy (Weekend Mornings)
• Terri Gruca (Weekend Evenings)

WCCO Weather

• [Paul Douglas] (Weeknights)
• Brian Gotter (Weekday Mornings)
• (Weekend Mornings)
• Mike Fairbourne (Weekends)

• Jo Bender (Weekend Mornings)
• Paul Huttner (Weekend Mornings)

WCCO Sports

• Mark Rosen (Weeknights)
• Bob Rainey (Weekends)
• Mike Max (Various)

WCCO Reporters

• Bridgette Bornstein
• Jason DeRusha
• Karla Hult
• Pat Kessler
• Lisa Kiava
• Caroline Lowe
• Maya Nishikawa
• Darcy Pohlad
• David Schechter
• Mary Tan
• Ben Tracy
• Sue Turner

Former WCCO Anchors & Personalites

• [Andy Dominianni] (Mornings)
• [Noelle Walker] (Mornings)
• [Dave Huddleson]Morning Anchor (1999-2002)
• Cindy HillgerMorning Anchor (1998-2002)
• [Randi Kaye] (5:00pm) (Now with CNN)
• Christine Clayburg (Morning Weather)
• Dave Moore (Weeknight Anchor: 1957-1991)
• Bud Kraehlig (Meteorologist)
• [Rebecca Kohls] (Chief Meteorologist)
• Chandra Michaels
• Chris Grote (Morning Weather)
• Jim King
• Michele Tafoya (Now with ESPN and ABC Sports)

\"On Air @ The Fair\"

In 2003, WCCO installed a dunk tank at the fairgrounds. They dubbed this "Dunk Don" (named after lead anchor, Don Shelby who was the only anchor dunked the first year.) Since then, wcco.com visitors vote for who they want dunked. At 10 PM, a reporter or anchor goes into the tank and 3 lucky viewers are chosen to have a chance to dunk the anchor. If all 3 people miss, one of the other anchors charges the tank and hits the target.

Trivia

• In the movie Wrongfully Accused, a WCCO Channel 4 News Van is used as a get-away car by the freedom fighters after a botched attempt to assassinate Sir Robert McKintyre.

External links

• [WCCO-TV Website]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WCCO]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for KCCO]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for KCCW]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for K36FI]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for K51AL]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for K54AC]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for K46AC]

References

• (2001). [Radio and Television.] A History of Minneapolis. Minneapolis Public Library. Accessed September 25, 2004.
• (July 16, 2003). [History of WCCO-TV.] WCCO. Accessed September 26, 2004.

.54 billion USD (2005) | Employees: Unknown at this time. | Stock Symbol: NYSE: [CBS] | Website: [www.cbscorporation.com]

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