WCCO-TV, is the CBS owned and operated television station that serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota. It broadcasts a digital television signal on channel 32 . It also operates two full-powered satellites - KCCO-TV in Alexandria (channel 7) and KCCW-TV in Walker (channel 12). The station's studios are in downtown Minneapolis, while its transmitter is at the Telefarm complex in Shoreview, Minnesota.
From 1947 to 1996, WCCO-TV and WCCO-AM won twelve George Foster Peabody Awards, more than any other Twin Cities broadcast outlet.
Unlike most other CBS owned-and-operated stations, WCCO does not follow the CBS Mandate in its branding, using simply its call letters rather than "CBS 4".
When Twin Cities Newspapers sold all its radio holdings, including WTCN Radio, in 1952, it created an opportunity to purchase WCCO radio (AM 830 and FM 102.9, now WLTE) and merge the two companies into Midwest Radio and Television, Inc. The new company changed Channel 4's call letters to match its new radio sisters. The call letters of WTCN would later be picked up by KARE, also WCCO's former sister station now carries the WTCN calls.
Channel 4 has been the market's only station to never change its affiliation. Partly because of this stability, WCCO-TV is one of CBS' best-performing affiliates.
In 1954, a live CBS broadcast from the Foshay Tower provided a view of an early-morning solar eclipse, the first time such an event had been televised nationally. In 1955, a mobile unit was formed, using a van dubbed the "Blue Goose" which would be used for more than a decade.
WCCO-TV participated in the first 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.
Rival KSTP-TV led the news ratings competition with WCCO until 1968, when Channel 4 debuted a new, chattier format called "The Scene" at 6 & 10 p.m. Conceived by news director Joe Bartelme and consultants McHugh & Hoffman, the "Scene" format propelled WCCO into a news ratings lead that would last until the mid-70s, when KSTP-TV firmly established its Eyewitness News format along with new anchors. After KSTP self-destructed in the early 80s, WCCO took the lead again before battling a resurgent Channel 11 (WTCN/WUSA/KARE) in the middle of the decade.
Since the May 2006 ratings period, WCCO's newscasts have claimed the top spot in total household ratings for most news programs. The exception has been the mornings, where KARE still leads all local competitors. In main demographic groups, WCCO usually comes in second place. May 2009 showed a third place finish behind KSTP at 5:00 p.m.
Under Bartelme's guidance, WCCO became a kind of farm club for CBS News. CBS eventually hired more than a dozen WCCO reporters, including Phil Jones, Bob McNamara, Jerry Bowen, Susan Spencer, and Don Kladstrup. A handful more signed on with other networks, including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Stewart_(television_journalist)Bill Stewart], who was killed covering fighting in Nicaragua for ABC.
Channel 4's studio was renovated in 1956, but as the station grew the space eventually became too small. In 1983, the station moved to a new studio on the south end of Nicollet Mall. Channel 4 is the only area TV station broadcasting from downtown Minneapolis today.
In 1977, WCCO-TV unveiled the "Circle 4" logo. At the time of the unveiling, the "4" was colored blue and was placed inside a yellow circle. The first newscast title to use that logo was called NewsWatch 4. By the 1980s, a blue circle encompassed a white "4". The disc was changed to red in the 1990s.
In 1987, WCCO bought KCMT, channel 7 in Alexandria, and its satellite KNMT, channel 12 in Walker. KCMT signed on in 1958 and had been the only full-power VHF station in central Minnesota. KNMT signed on in 1964 as a satellite of KCMT in northern Minnesota, serving Bemidji and Brainerd. KCMT and KNMT were renamed KCCO and KCCW, respectively, and began carrying WCCO programming with the exception of brief news inserts produced in Alexandria and placed within WCCO's newscasts, local commercials, and a small number of other local interest programs. KCCO/KCCW's local operations were progressively cut back until 2002, when WCCO discontinued the local news segments and shut down the KCCO studio in Alexandria. In its place, WCCO opened local news bureaus in both Brainerd and St. Cloud, but those too were shut down after a few years. Today, WCCO identifies itself on-air as "Minneapolis-St. Paul/Alexandria/Walker," and both KCCO and KCCW are full-time satellites of WCCO, airing the same programming and commercials as their parent station.
WCCO was purchased by CBS in 1992; it had been a minority owner of the station for many years. It does not follow the CBS Mandate; it is branded as WCCO 4 rather than CBS4. Other CBS O&Os; not to follow this mandate are KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh (branded by its call letters), WWJ-TV in Detroit (branded by its call letters), WJZ-TV in Baltimore (branded WJZ 13), and WBZ-TV in Boston (branded as simply WBZ).
WCCO experimented with cable in the 1980s. Known initially as WCCO II or
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 member station KTCI-TV airs weather info in a similar way but with the following differences:
A later experiment in 1995, this time in the field of evening newscasts, also proved to be interesting. WCCO partnered with KLGT (channel 23, later KMWB and now WUCW) and fed a second news show to that station. This was known as "News of Your Choice", where the news anchors would periodically describe the upcoming items on each channel. This allowed viewers to decide which stories they wanted to see. Multiple factors contributed to the shutdown of the experiment after about one year.
A late ice storm on April 6, 1997, caused the KXJB-TV mast to collapse. As a result, several cable systems in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota were unable to receive CBS programming. Some cable systems temporarily or permanently replaced KXJB with WCCO, KDLO, KXMB, KXMC, etc.
On about June 29, 2006, WCCO introduced "The Plaza Studio", a renovation to its existing studio, on 11th St. South and Marquette Ave.
On about April 25, 2009, WCCO launched local news in widescreen standard definition.
On May 30, 2009, WCCO launched local news in High Definition. Beginning with its 5pm evening newscast, it became the third station in Minneapolis to switch to HD, after KARE and KMSP.
WCCO also operate these satellite stations outside of the Twin Cities area.
{| class="toccolours" border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse" | Station | City of license | Channels | First air date | Former callsigns | ERP(Digital) | HAAT(Digital) | Facility ID | Transmitter Coordinates |- style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;" | KCCO-TV | Alexandria | Digital: 7 (VHF)Virtual: 7 (PSIP) | October 8, 1958 | KCMT (1958–1987) | 29 kW | 339.6 m | 9632 | |- style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;" | KCCW-TV | Walker(Bemidji/Brainerd) | Digital: 12 (VHF)Virtual: 12 (PSIP) | January 1, 1964 | KNMT (1964–1987) | 59 kW | 286.4 m | 9640 | |- style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;" |} Note: Both of these stations were affiliated with NBC (primary) and ABC (secondary) from their sign-on dates until the summer of 1982, when they switched to CBS. Both stations were acquired by WCCO in 1987.
Some notable on-air staff at the station have had long careers. Dave Moore, a Minneapolis native who worked his entire career in the city, anchored the 6:00 p.m.and 10:00 p.m. newscast from 1957 until September 1985. He continued to anchor the 6:00 p.m. news until 1991, when he moved to a more leisurely schedule broadcasting a public affairs program. In 1962, he created The Bedtime Nooz, a satirical view of newscasts that aired on Saturday nights. For more than 20 years, Dave anchored with weather forecaster Bud Kraehling. Moore died in 1998.
Bill Carlson joined the station in 1959, working in several roles over the years including news anchor. He was with the station until he died due to complications of prostate cancer on February 29, 2008.
Don Shelby joined the station as a news anchor in 1978 (at the time WCCO's newscasts were branded "The 6 PM Report" and The 10 PM Report. [WCCO-TV never used the name NewsWatch 4]) 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 anchor duties by the end of that year. As of 2005, Shelby continued the unique dual responsibility of hosting an afternoon radio show which ended at 5:00; for a while, immediately after the show, he anchored the 5 pm TV newscast. As of 2006, the radio show goes an extra hour, and the 5 pm news has been moved to 6 pm, still simulcast on radio but now minus Shelby. Today, Shelby only does the 10:00 news on television. In May 2010, Shelby announced his retirement, which took place in November with his last show on November 22, 2010 after 32 years at WCCO.
Sports commentator Mike Max, talk show host Dark Star (real name George Chapple) and other personalities also cross over between TV and radio.
Silvia Gambardella was a consumer affairs reporter, but later removed from this role after filing reports that were critical of the practices of local car dealers, inspiring the dealers to cancel their advertising contracts with the station.
In April 2008, WCCO, affected by the cutbacks at CBS News announced the layoffs of a list of employees, most notably, weekend anchor John Reger, and chief Meteorologist Paul Douglas. In March 2009, WCCO, affected by the economic downturn, announced the layoff of Jeanette Trompeter .
March 5, 2010 brought the sudden passing of Darcy Pohland, a reporter for WCCO who worked at the station for three decades; and one of the only quadriplegic TV journalists in the country. Most of the 5 p.m. newscast that evening was dedicated to Pohland. The opening of the newscast was silent, with a still-shot of Pohland. Anchors Frank Vascellaro and Amelia Santenello along with reporters fought back tears throughout the newscast.
WCCO Weather Team
WCCO Sports
Reporters
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.) Then from 2004–2006, wcco.com visitors voted for who they wanted to be dunked. At 10 PM, a reporter or anchor went into the tank and 3 "lucky" viewers (or local celebrity) were chosen to have a chance to dunk the anchor. If all 3 people missed, one of the other anchors had a chance to hit the target. Dunk Don was replaced in 2007 in favor of the "Go Green" News campaign that sees how much human energy it would take to power each live newscast.
Dunk Don 2004 "Dunkees"
Dunk Don 2005 "Dunkees"
Dunk Don 2006 "Dunkees"
On August 24, 2007, WCCO completed the first ever human powered newscast.
Category:CBS Corporation television stations Category:CBS network affiliates Category:Channel 32 digital TV stations in the United States Category:Channel 4 virtual TV stations in the United States Category:Television channels and stations established in 1949 Category:Peabody Award winners Category:Television stations in Minneapolis, Minnesota
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
