What are the talk radio stations in town nowadays? (Minneapolis: rental car, rental)

[bostonguy1960]

Long passage ahead:

I enjoy talk radio of different formats, both sports and news, from stations here in Boston and also around the country on the iHeartRadio, tunein and radio.com apps.

I realize your WCCO 830 AM station is likely the prominent and leading radio news leader in MSP and beyond, and has been for years; I believe part of the day, and evening and overnight and weekends, is a combo of local and syndicated talk radio, correct?

And I realize WCCO just a few years ago carried Boston's WBZ 1030 AM overnight weekend talk show with Jordan Rich...it even received occasional calls from listeners in your region until WCCO was bought and dropped the program from Boston. Now they have separate ownership.

Anyway, I'm trying to locate talk radio programs on whichever AM or FM stations from the MSP market due to the awful rioting last night.

Is WCCO 830 AM still considered the leader in local talk? It's news only for part of the day, then local talk in the daytime and early evening...and overnight and on weekends has syndicated shows which started several years back when it eliminated its local overnight format?

I just had KFAN on very briefly past 6 pm or so your time, but it's strictly a sports station? Seems Dan B. is the host. They were taking about the riot at that moment, but it quickly ended and a new program came on with an interview of a new Vikings player.

My research shows WTLK 1130 AM as a talk station in your market. It's still a current station -- or maybe has had a change of format like many stations seem to have eventually? It has some local shows?

I imagine Minnesota Public Radio has some local talk shows weekdays or weekends along with the regular NPR shows available nationally and probably some BBC programming overnight? In Boston we have two such stations, WBUR and WGBH, both FM stations with some NPR programming thrown in. Does a bit smaller market like MSP also offer two public radio stations with a mix of local news and NPR programs, or maybe even some local shows?

MSP has two local sports talk stations, or just one?

I realize I can simply look all of this up, but it would be time consuming and sometimes I've learned that radio format information is not current anyway.

(For any other radio buffs, I was able to get Boston's powerful WBZ 1030 AM, though very weak, at 2 am while in a rental car around Duiuth 20 years ago, pre radio apps. But I can never seem to pull in your WCCO here near Boston whether at night in a car or home radio. Maybe WCCO, though powerful, isn't as strong as 50,000 watt WBZ radio? Yet I could get WBZ rather well at 10 pm on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago in a rental car,m ten years ago, but I doubt MSP listeners can get WBZ over the air?)

...

Wow... tuning in to the WBZ radio 8 pm to midnight talk show, Nightside with Dan Rea; and he listed the topics for the first few hours. Nothing on the Minneapolis riots! That's amazing. At least its sister station talked about it around noon for a bit.

Thanks for reading the long passage and for any local radio info!

[Astron1000]

MPR (based in St. Paul) is the biggest public radio producer in the Midwest and the 2nd-largest in the US. They also own American Public Media (based in Minneapolis), which is the largest public radio content producer in America after NPR.

[gweilo845]

https://www.radiolineup.com/locate/Minneapolis-MN

[CCbaxter]

I only ever listened to KFAN. Much more than sports.

[silverjet]

Well, all the action is over (hopefully) but in general WCCO AM is what I turn to on the radio. It's pretty impressive in this day and age that they have so much live and local programming, even on the weekends.

[mn55110]

WCCO-AM 830 is the dominate commercial news/talk station in the Twin Cities. They carry live and local programming from 5:00AM-1:00AM weekdays, with a little bit less on weekends. Syndicated programming during the overnight hours. WCCO still doesn't have an FM translator right in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro. Minnesota's 830 WCCO politically plays middle of the road, but their hosts and news anchors lean left. WCCO-AM is mainly sports in the evening with hosts Mike Max and Henry Lake. News/talk 830 WCCO also has Twins and Timberwolves play-by-play.

Minnesota Public Radio has a series of FM stations broadcasting MPR NEWS and Classical MPR, with both their news stations and classical music stations clearly reaching the entire state.

MPR also has their Alternative Music Stations "89.3 the Current" which has stations in the three largest metro areas in the state: Minneapolis- St. Paul, Rochester, and Duluth-Superior. The Current broadcasts to the eastern half of MN wheras both MPR NEWS and Classical MPR can be heard everywhere in MN.

MPR News (KNOW-FM 91.1 in the Twin Cities and 32-additional stations across MN) has full news during the morning and afternoon drive times; Morning Edition and All Things Considered respectively. Both programs have National News segments from NPR news along local regional news stories from the MPR studios in downtown St. Paul. Kerri Miller hosts a local show at 9 AM and Angela Davis begins her show at 11 AM. American Public Media, which is a subsidiary of MN Public Radio and headquartered in the same building at 7th and Cedar Streets, produces a lot of national programing that airs throughout the day.

KTLK-AM 1130 and translator 103.5 FM is the primary conservative talk station with a local morning show, "Justice and Drew" from 6-9 AM followed by: Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Joe Pags, George Norry, Gordon Dehl, etc.

There is a smaller conservative talker WWTC-AM 1280 and translator 107.5 FM "1280 the Patriot" along with a liberal/progressive talker KTNF-AM 950.

Minneapolis and St.Paul have two sports stations. The dominate one being "100.3 the Fan" KFXN-FM which carries live and local sports talk along with other current events/news topics from 5:30AM-6:30PM On KFAN 100.3 along with their regionwide network of stations in: Rochester, Duluth, St. Cloud, Mankato, Marshall, Worthington, Brainerd, Bemidji, Fargo, Bismarck m, Grand Forks, etc. Overnights and weekends bring Fox Sports Radio and CBS Sports Radio. Dan Patrick airs from 7-9 PM weeknights. Vikings, Wild, and Gophers play by play also air on 100.3 KFAN.

The second sports station in the Twin Cities is 1500 KSTP-AM, which is only one-of-two AM stations in Minneapolis and St.Paul to broadcast at the full 50,000 watts both day-and-night (WCCO being the second one). 1500 KSTP has to send their full nighttime signal west from their Maplewood transmitter, reaching 20-western US states and 5-Canadian Provinces after dark. This is to protect WTOP-AM in Washington DC, wheras WCCO-AM sends their full clear channel signal in a 360-degree circle from their Coon Rapids transmitter.

KSTP-AM has a couple hours of local sports talk weekday afternoons plus Minnesota FC soccer play-by-play with National programming from ESPN Radio most of the day.

I too listened to Jordan Rich when he was on WBZ-AM 1030, and also called into his show. WBZ is sometimes listenable in Minneapolis, however local station WCTS-AM 1030 is a local station which must reduce power significantly at night and broadcast in a narrow/ tight nighttime pattern from their antenna field on the Woodbury/Cottage Grove border.

Also hindering my reception of WBZ-AM is that 1040 WHO-AM is a 50,000 watt powerhouse from Des Moines and KJJK-AM 1020 from Fergus Falls, Minnesota mixes with KDKA-AM from Pittsburgh.

WCCO-AM is listenable in Washington DC, but I struggle a little to pick it up in Philadelphia. I've clearly picked-up 'CCO in the Carolina's, Tennessee and Georgia. Florida is hit-or-miss.

Two stations, I believe hinder reception of WCCO-AM in New England are 850 WEEI-AM in Boston which is also a 50,000 watt station, both day and night, and 820 WNYC-AM in New York, albeit not a full-power night station, still has a good signal just one dial position from 830.

WBZ-AM transmitting from Hull, MA is able to bounce their signal across Boston Harbor, using a large body of water to bounce their signal across, wheras WCCO-AM is close to the Mississippi River, but not next to any lake.