KSJN (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Owned by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), this station serves the Twin Cities region as the flagship of "YourClassical MPR", MPR's classical music network. KSJN's studios are located at the MPR Broadcast Center on Cedar Street in downtown Saint Paul, while its transmitter is located on the KMSP Tower in Shoreview.
The 99.5 frequency was established as commercial radio station WLOL-FM in 1957; the station achieved its most success as a top-rated Top 40 station during the 1980s under Emmis Communications ownership. After Emmis purchased the Seattle Mariners baseball club, the company sold WLOL to MPR in 1991. Relaunched as KSJN, the station has originated the public radio service's classical format full-time ever since.
Background
KSJN intellectual unit
Saint John's University in Collegeville, near St. Cloud, built and began operating the first station in the network, KSJR-FM (90.1), in January 1967. By 1968, however, it was obvious that there weren't enough listeners in the immediate St. Cloud area for the station to be viable. KSJR nearly tripled its power in hopes of reaching the Twin Cities, but even then it only provided grade B coverage of Minneapolis and completely missed St. Paul. To solve this problem, Saint John's signed on KSJN at 91.1 MHz, originally licensed to the northern Twin Cities suburb of New Brighton, as a full-time repeater of KSJR-FM. By 1969, Saint John's realized it was in over its head operating a full-service radio station, so it turned over KSJR and KSJN to a nonprofit corporation, Saint John's University Broadcasting. This organization later changed its name to Minnesota Educational Radio, and finally Minnesota Public Radio.
In 1969 and 1970, MPR assisted in the formation of National Public Radio (NPR) and was a founding member of the organization. Four years later, in 1974, the network began live broadcasting of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, one of the best-known programs on American public radio.
MPR purchased WLOL (1330 AM) in 1980 and relaunched it as a dedicated news and talk service centered around NPR programming as KSJN; this station was renamed KNOW in 1989.
History
On July 18, 1956, radio station WLOL (1330 AM) was granted a construction permit for a new radio station to broadcast on 99.5 MHz. The station, WLOL-FM, began broadcasting in February 1957, airing a classical music format. The station maintained the programming for its first 16 years of operation until the money-losing outlet was converted to an automated easy listening format in August 1973. The station donated its classical albums to KSJN and KUOM (770 AM); it also lost many of its sponsors with the change.
Ratings remained low as an easy listening station. When Midcontinent Broadcasting, the original owner of the FM, sold the WLOL pair to Bob Liggett of Liggett Broadcasting for $1.55 million in 1978, it sparked a format change. On August 20, Liggett, with a staff of nine new hires, led a flip to adult contemporary as Easy Rockin' FM 100 WLOL, bringing the station into competition with KSTP-FM and WCCO-FM. Ratings rose, but the station remained far off its direct competition.
Top 40/CHR era
On December 12, 1981, WLOL-FM changed formats again, this time to Top 40/CHR as 99½ WLOL. The ratings effect was quick to take hold; in the spring 1982 Arbitron survey, WLOL-FM more than doubled its performance and vaulted into third place in the Twin Cities, led by the revamped "Hines and Berglund" morning show hosted by John Hines and Bob Berglund.
Even while WLOL was surging, a sale was in the works. In 1982, an Indianapolis-based consortium headed by Jeff Smulyan acquired WLOL-FM for $6 million, a record price at the time for a Minnesota radio station. It was the first station purchase for Emmis Communications, which then bought two more stations the next year. The station peaked in the ratings in 1984 with a 9.9 share, closely behind second-place KSTP-FM and well ahead of direct format competitor KDWB. WLOL and KDWB would go on to have a bitter rivalry throughout the 1980s, with WLOL dominating the format in the Twin Cities for the next five years.