In 1973, KTCR was the country station in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Both the AM and FM stations were country, but it was not a simulcast. The stations weren’t even in the same city! KTCR-AM was located on Winnetka Avenue in New Hope while KTCR-FM was on Minnehaha Avenue in Minneapolis.
Since 690 is a Canadian/Mexican clear channel, KTCR-AM had to sign off at sunset. They were also limited to just 500 watts, mainly due to close spacing with co-channel KUSD-AM in Vermillion, South Dakota. The 690AM signal was only of moderate strength at my location in Apple Valley, as you will hear.
Being just 8 years old, I had not yet learned the cardinal rule of airchecking stations: “Roll tape at ALL times, or else you WILL miss something good!” I was a bit late at getting the recorder turned on, so the intro is clipped. You will hear Greg St. Pete instruct listeners to tune to 50,000 watt KTCR-FM at 97.1 Megahertz until KTCR-AM returns to the air tomorrow morning. One small problem: most people did not have FM radios back then. If they did, they would likely be listening to the FM station in the first place. This was back in the days when stations actually took pride in their professionalism, including the sign off. Now, daytimer AMs are routinely just shut off with no announcement whatsoever. The carrier is simply cut, often in the middle of programming.
This recording was made on my trusty ‘ol Spartan/Atlantic unit with built-in AM radio. The ever-present Audio Magnetics “bag” cassette was also used.
KTCR_AM_Greg_St_Pete_Sign_Off_1973