This television station was not always called KARE 11. Our company has been through two studios, three names, and countless faces. The year of 2003 marked our 50th anniversary.

The company started out in the radio business in 1925 as WRHM-AM, an affiliate on NBC's Blue Network - one of NBC's two radio networks. Ten years later, the name was changed to WTCN when the companies who owned the Minneapolis Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press bought the station. The "TCN" in the call letters stood for Twin Cities Newspapers.

In 1938, under pressure from the government, NBC sold its Blue Network to Lifesavers candy company founder Edward Noble. In 1944 the Blue Network was renamed the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

The owners of WTCN were eventually granted a television license to broadcast on Channel 4. The TV station started broadcasting on July 1, 1949. In September 1949, WTCN-AM radio and TV moved from their headquarters atop the Wesley Temple Building, a skyscraper attached to the Wesley United Methodist Church in downtown Minneapolis, into the Radio City Theater Building at Ninth and LaSalle in Minneapolis. In September 1950, WTCN-TV broadcast its first live network program. However, it wasn't long before WTCN Channel 4 ceased to exist.

On August 17, 1952, WTCN-TV merged with WCCO Radio. With the merger, the call letters of the television station were changed to WCCO-TV. WTCN Radio was then sold to the Minnesota Television Service Corporation, a group of Twin Cities businessmen headed by Robert Butler, a prominent St. Paul industrialist and former ambassador to Cuba and Australia.

Immediately after the purchase, Minnesota Television Service Corp. applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a television broadcast license for Channel 11. WMIN Radio in the mean time had also applied for the Channel 11 license. Because the FCC was not at this time taking action on a contested channel, WTCN and WMIN worked out an agreement whereby a joint application for the license was submitted.

Each station broadcast for two hours, alternating between studios throughout the day. WTCN-TV broadcast from The Calhoun Beach Hotel part of the day. The rest of the day, people saw WMIN, from studios in the Hamm building in St. Paul.

When the Channel 11 joint operation started on September 1, 1953, it became the area's third television station, with an effective radiated power of 70,000 watts video, and 42,000 watts audio. The Grade "A" coverage area took in a 30-mile radius of the Twin Cities. A year later, Channel 11 went to full power reaching an authorized radiated power of 316,000 watts video, and 188,700 watts audio covering a 51.5 mile Grade "B" radius. The transmitter was located in the Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis, where it remained until 1972. In November of that year, transmission was switched to a new "tall' tower in Shoreview. In 1973, full power was achieved from that tower, giving WTCN a 72-mile Grade "B" radius.

The General Manager at sign-on in 1953 was Edward G. Smith. General Sales Manger was Kendall M. Light, and Don Kraatz was Operations Manger. On-air personalities at the time, when a 17-inch television was sold for $159.99, included Sev Widman, Merle Edwards, Jack Thayer, Stuart A. Lindman, Daryl Laub, John Ford, Bill Diehl, Norm Page, Rollie Bakken, Steve Cannon, Hal Newell and Frank Buetel.

On April 6, 1955, the FCC approved the sale of time-sharing. WTCN-TV became part of the H. M. Bitner Group. By 1957, it had been purchased by Time-Life Broadcast, and had its first news team.

At that time, weather maps were quite primitive by today's standards. Weathercasters used pens to draw on a painted map.

The station's real draw was entertainment for children. There were characters like Sergeant Scotty, Wrangler Steve, and the most popular of all, Casey Jones, played by legendary Roger Awsumb.

"We were beating the other stations that were running news and weather and sports at that time," Steve Cannon remembers. "Shows you who was controlling the dial back in 1953 and '54. It was the children."

In 1964, Chris-Craft Industries bought WTCN. While the world was changing quickly in the '60s, the technology used to capture those events lagged behind. News stories were still shot and edited on film. Former photographer Doug Froemming said of the cameras, "You've got about twenty seconds of wind, and then it runs out. Then you have to rewind it, so you had to make sure when you were shooting you didn't start too soon. Or it would stop right in the middle of an important shot."

The 1960s also brought professional baseball to Minnesota. For years, fans could find the Twins on WTCN, with play-by-play from Halsey Hall.

The new decade of the '70s also brought a new owner. Metromedia bought WTCN in 1971. In 1973, the company broke ground on new studios in Golden Valley. After 21 years, Channel 11 had a place of its own, but hadn't lost its colorful characters from the '50s. WTCN wasn't all about making money. The station reached out to the community with the annual Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, and a weekly public affairs show, Concern, with veteran Stuart A. Lindman.

Channel 11 took itself directly to the people with live broadcasts from events such as the Aquatennial and the State Fair. A major milestone occurred on March 5th, 1979 when WTCN joined the NBC Television Network. To celebrate its first day with NBC, anchors Jane Pauley and Tom Brokaw broadcast the Today Show live from the top floor of the IDS Tower in Downtown Minneapolis.

Then in 1983, the Gannett Corporation bought Channel 11, reshuffling the talent deck, adding new faces, with plenty of humor to spare.

Coverage of the Winter Carnival became an annual ritual. Another wintertime tradition had our station teaming up with the U.S. Marines for Toys for Tots. In 1984, our station launched a highly successful system of recognizing volunteers, 11 Who Care.

By the mid-1980s, NBC's primetime programming also started to show promise, and the station got two sets of new call letters. On July 4, 1985, WTCN changed its call letters to WUSA. Then on June 11, 1986 Channel 11 was renamed KARE Television. The call letters WUSA were released for use by Gannett's Washington D.C. station, WDVM-TV.

KARE-TV spent the next decade building a strong national reputation in news. Our station had extensive coverage of the tornado of 1986. Over the next years, KARE-11 created many enduring images as it became known for award-winning storytellers and photojournalists. From documentaries that gave us a closer look at the rich and famous, to unprecedented in-depth news coverage that captured everyday heroes like Jake Empey, a boy battling epilepsy, KARE was there.

KARE covered the drama at the heart of disasters like the floods of 1997. In fact, the more turbulent the times, the more people have come to rely on KARE-11. When the emotion-packed U.S. Senate race came down to one historic debate, KARE was front and center, hosting the event.

Sports have also evolved into a primetime player in the Twin Cities with extensive daily coverage, and specials such as Prep Extra. The station has the largest weather team, with the most state-of-the-art forecasting equipment. The Saturday news show has also developed an intensely loyal audience. In fact, viewers in the 21st Century expect to see live local programming at all times of the day. For those of you who can't get enough, our station has found other platforms and other ways to reach people, with broadcasts such as those on sister station KPXM, and on the kare11.com website.

At KARE-TV, Channel 11, we haven't forgotten our roots. The award winning children's show, Whatever Show, has been going strong for years featuring cutting-edge fun, and celebrity interviews in Minnesota.

This station has never lost its heart.