WDGY

WDGY was one of the first stations in the country to program rock and roll music in a top 40 format in the mid 1950s.

January 16, 1960.

It was then owned by Todd Storz, one of the pioneers in programming to the baby boom generation with music that theretofor had been rarely heard on "white" radio stations. Storz's stations were heavy on promotion, headline-grabbing contests, and high profile dee-jays (usually using echo-chamber microphones). Other Twin Cities station owners resented the attention WDGY received, but soon they too jumped on the top-40 bandwagon. Later they would admit that the Todd Storz they often disparaged very well may have saved radio at a time when television was stealing its audience.

The date is January 6, 1961 and Bill Diehl is behind the mic. [ LISTEN ]

Jimmy Reed cues up a record in the control room at WDGY in 1969.
Jimmy also worked at KDWB-AM and KRSI prior to this gig.

WDGY gained the (perhaps unfortunate) nickname Weegee after a time. By the 1960s, the station didn't use the name itself, but the name stuck among people in the radio industry for many years to come.

From about 1955 to 1977, the station played popular music and was one of the most popular stations in the area, primarily competing for music listeners with KSTP 1500 and KDWB 630, though WCCO 830 was the major force of the day with a mixture of music, talk, and farm reports.

Here's Hal Raymond playing records on July 3, 1963. [ LISTEN ] (22:27)

Hal was either the hero or the butt of the joke. He was an absolutely hilarious theatre of the mind - stunts jokes and pranks. He had a remarkable gift for writing comedy that people would belly-laugh out loud to.

1968

Mort Crowley in 1965. Part [ 1 ] (20:20) [ 2 ] (23:35)

Jay J. Bowman January 1968 with Curtis J. Johnson 20/20 News

This aircheck has a good sampling of the 'DGY Much More Music jingles along with some WDGY promo announcements on the Winter Carnival and 20/20 news covering al the school closings during the winter. A portion of Curtis J. Johnson's 20/20 newscast was saved on this recording, along with Jay J. Bowman and his upbeat style. [ LISTEN ] (10:18)

1965

1970

During the station's Top 40 heyday WDGY ran a variety on air listener contests. The “Fortune Phone” contest involved dialing local phone numbers obtained at random from the phone book and asking whoever answered the phone if they could name the current amount of the cash prize which started at $113.00 and then increased with every wrong answer. Done live on the air with no time delay, Johnny and the other DJs only had access to a kill switch if something went wrong.

Another contest was the “Mystery Song of the Day” which involved a DJ announcing the name of the song which would be played at some point during that day and then listeners would call up the station if they knew the song and heard it played.

Yet, another contest was the Tongue Twister Contest where listeners would mail in a “tongue twister” for the DJ, who had to repeat the tongue twister six times in a row without making any mistakes. If the DJ failed, the listener who submitted the tongue twister was mailed a check for $1.13 from Storz Broadcasting Company.

Here's DJ Diamond Jim Dandy on September 6, 1969. [ LISTEN ] (9:24)

Includes commercials for Minnesota Dragways, Mennen Dry Deodorant and Schells Beer.

Johnny Canton in 1971. Listen for the Schaak Electronics commercial! [ LISTEN ] (7:22) and Charlie Van Dyke & Donald K. Martin on May 2, 1972. [ LISTEN ]. (17:10)

A promotion known as “The Hit Man” involved Sales Manager Mark Kalman (or one of station interns) driving around town in a painted car and dressed up as a “hit man” stopping people on the street and asking them to name their favorite radio station. If the person replied “WDGY” they would get to go live on the air via the phone and would win a “Hit Man” t-shirt and other prizes.

Johnny Canton interviewing John Lennon on October 8, 1974 [ LISTEN ] (15:14) and Johnny again following Jim Dandy on November 9, 1976. [ LISTEN ] (28:01)

In February 1977, the station rebranded itself as Y-11 (never losing its WDGY call letters) and switched to progressive, album-oriented rock.

On September 2, 1977, the station changed its format again, this time to country, around the time when most music stations began shifting onto the FM band. The switch was preceded by a five minute retrospective radio collage of the history of WDGY. Station manager Dale Webber was quoted as saying the reason for the change was “getting out of the ridiculous Top 40 market.” There were three other country stations on AM in the market at the time.

The surge of relevance the station had regained on since taking on the Country format was felt by the staff as well as the listeners. Most Top 40 listeners had migrated to the FM band (which had necessitated the Mighty 1130’s switch in the first place.) But the Country format was gaining acceptance among older baby-boomers and melding that growth with WDGY’s big 50,000-watt signal gave new purpose to the station – and validation to a growing, willing audience that perhaps Country music’s time was coming.

The country format continued until 1989, when it became "News Talk 1130, WDGY". This format gradually morphed into the sports talk format, and the calls were changed to KFAN in 1991. Following this change, the WDGY call letters were ironically adopted by KDWB for the 630 kHz.

WHO WORKED AT WDGY? Here is the list: Herb Oscar Anderson, Catman Tom Barnard, Bob Berglund, Gary Bridges, Johnny Canton, Jim Dandy, Dan Daniel, Bob Dayton, Bill Diehl, Dick Driscoll, Sammy Hale, Dan Halyburton, Don Kelly, Donald K. Martin, Mike McCormick, Hal Raymond, Harry Scarborough, Perry St. John, Rob Sherwood, Rick Stephenson, and Tom Wynn.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Radio Tapes, Rock Radio Scrapbook, Twin Cities Radio Airchecks.