MSP to ATW

On the road for a few days but thankfully in some good radio country. I had two days in Minneapolis, and only made it out to The Electric Fetus once What a record store, it's like Mecca for music geeks. I bought a Duane Eddy Double Disc, EEVIAC by Man or Astro-Man and that album by Cast King, all out of the used bin. They gave me a MVY comp and a Bloodshot records comp. fair trade. I've been to Minneapolis before but so briefly I couldn't hit Mecca. I did revisit KFAI which now seems kind of pale beside KCMP. And I still cant get close enough to WMCN to hear it'd meager 5 watt signal. KUOM-AM still hold's it's own against "the Current" foregoing the softer Triple-A ish cuts for a far more indie playlist.

I blew town and crossed the border into the land of the Cheeseheads. Wisconsin has a simple, easily understood culture. Everything centers around cheese, beer and football. I had hoped to cut through Wasau and catch a little WRIG-AM but I took a wrong turn near Eau Claire after being very distracted by an incredible sandwitch at Moe's Diner called "the Dagwood" in Osseo. I ended up on Route 10 a couple hundred miles early. Eau Claire is riddled with LPs which was a plus.
96.3 WHYS-LP http://www.whysradio.org/
96.9 WJLM-LP http://www.wjls.com/
97.3 WHRC-LP http://www.whrcradio.com/
101.9 WRFP-LP
102.7 WIEC-LP http://www.wiecradio.org/
107.9 WLFK-LP

WJLM and WHRC are just religious talk, and WLFK closed in 2003 (story here) after less than a year of tunage. WHYS is pretty eclectic, running world beat that morning. But WIEC was MORE eclectic, "fat-free radio" mixing jump-blues and tabla jazz, the playlist is totally absurd. Piedmont College's WRFP is a college station but that one morning an inept sportscaster was fumbling his words. All this is in addition to WHWC, and WUEC, pumping NPR all night and day.I stopped in Steven's Point to catch 88.9 WWSP which was excellent. In Neillsville I stopped to see both Bessie the worlds largest talking Cow and WCCN. Bessie told me to visit the gift shop, not exactly sage advice. The building above was stolen from the world's fair in 1965 and dragged out here. Awesome, more here. Then in Auburndale on an impulse I stopped at Cutlers antiques. They had a dozen Edison Cylinders in good shape and a great collection of 78s. I picked up one cylinder and a 78 of the Light Crust Dough Boys. I couldn't resist. they had some, large print typewriters, and a working phonograph but in the back was the real beauty. Only $195 I almost bought it. I don't know idea what this is for sure. It looked like a turntable but it's not. On the bottom edge of the picture is my Size 10 boot for scale. This turntable is about two-feet in diameter. Next to it was a crate of discs sized for it. They were blanks manufactured by "audiodiscs" That shiny spot onthe disc is a penny for scale. Those discs weren't shellac or PVC, they were heavy as hell, probably copper.. I realized they were acetates. Beside it were some more normal 10 inch blank discs some by Duodisc, Microlet and more by Selmer. Yes, the same Selmer that makes Saxophones. The hint was that taped to the side of the phonograph was a small packet of "record-cutting needles" I think this was some kind of massive record lathe. It had no brand name on it and damn I couldn't think of a way to get it home.

I'm pretty familiar with Selmer as an manufacturer of high-end brass instruments, but not for making acetate blanks. Microlet is a bigger mystery and my picture didn't come out so I got nada. The exact type of lathe this is remains a mystery, but this"> site filled me in on acetates. It looks kind of like a Presto.. But that might be to much to hope for...

Sharing and simulcasting

With 14,000 radio signals in America, simulcasts are well known but the exception rather than the rule. half a century ago WCAL-AM and KUOM-AM spent a lot of quality time togehter. They split the limited operating hours of an AM dayshare.

On June 1, 1945 WLB-AM changed call letters to KUOM-AM. Due to clear channel restrictions they ran as a daytimer, and split the day with WCAL-AM owned by St. Olaf's college in Northfield, MN. When WCAL acquired an FM license on 89.3 They agreed to cede their portion of the AM operating hours of 770 to KUOM.

But the indie-rock obsessed Radio K, beloved to the Twin Cities only began in 1993. Previous to that 770 ran almost exclusively educational programming, it was even less exciting than WCALs classical programming. The license is owned by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Today Radio K has two small FM transmitters.

Their first aquisition was 106.5 in St. Louis park, an 8 watt Class D. That went online in April of 2003. then in September of 2005 they talked their way into a 10 watt repeater W264BR on 100.7 in Falcon Heights. While both FM sticks are very small, they both over densely populated downtown neighborhoods. But ultimately to the limited range of the FM signals, the station relies primarily on their old AM signal.

WCAL-AM had begun as a physics experiment in 1918. They ramped up and operated the with the call sign 9YAJ as an experimental station. In 1922 they were assigned the WCAL calls. Like a few other bold broadcasters they began FM experiments in 1948. As noted above they parted ways with KUOM in 1968 for their very own FM stick. In a very clever barter CAL traded their half of 770 for the right to brodacast from land owned by the University of Minnesota.

In 2004 St. Olaf got out of the radio buisness selling off WCAL-FM. In a rare decision based on the best interests of the community and not their wallet; the college sold to Minnesota Public Radio instead of EMF. Today that's KCMP a indie rock/triple A mix format blazing a trail for the future of publuic radio. The station is programmed larelgey by former staff of KUOM.

the WCAL calls went to immediate use in Western PA replacing the WVCS calls on 91.9 here. Thus improving the branding at the student voice of The University of California, Pennsylvania.