WCCO marks 75 years on air this year: "WCCO's history is Minnesota's history"

WCCO celebrating 75 years on air

MINNEAPOLIS — Lights, camera ... action!

What started with a 10-second countdown has turned into 75 years of compelling storytelling, community journalism, cutting-edge investigative reporting, and delivering top headlines from Minnesota and around the world.

Though, some things have changed since our premiere.

When we first went on the air as WTCN-TV on July 1, 1949, we could still turn the lights off at night, and certainly wouldn't have had the news on at 5 o'clock in the morning. There were a mere 26 employees.

Picture from 1955 shows Dave Moore, Bud Kraehling, Rollie Johnson, E. W. Ziebarth. Pavek Museum

Three years later, the station merged with WCCO Radio and changed its call letters to WCCO-TV. At the time, the call letters came from the Washburn Crosby Company, which is now General Mills.

We've also moved our operation since the first day we aired.

WCCO used to be produced out the Radio City Theater on Ninth Street. We moved to 11th Street in 1983, and remain the only TV station located in downtown Minneapolis.

Also, did you know that our weather coverage used to be part of a 5-minute Tastee Bread commercial? How times have changed!

WCCO has had many iterations since its start — and continues to evolve.

But one thing is for sure, our focus has already remained the same: tell Minnesota's story.

Mackenzie Lofgren

Mackenzie Lofgren is a web producer and digital content producer at CBS Minnesota. She writes web articles and produces short-form video content used on CBS Minnesota's streaming platforms.