KARE

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This article is about a television station. For the former Apple Computer employee and graphic designer, see Susan Kare.

KARE
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
Branding	KARE 11
Slogan	Telling the Stories of Life
Channels	11 (VHF) analog, 35 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC NBC Weather Plus (DT2)
Owner	Gannett
Founded	1953
Call letters meaning	pronounced as "Care" [1]
Former callsigns	WTCN (1953-85) WMIN (1953-55) WUSA (1985-86)
Former affiliations	ABC (1953-61), DuMont (1953-1956)[2], Independent (1961-79)
Website	www.kare11.com

KARE (or commonly KARE 11) is a broadcast television station serving the Twin Cities market of Minnesota and western Wisconsin in the United States, with studios located in the suburb of Golden Valley. It is currently owned by Gannett Corporation and affiliated with NBC. The station is noted for having a number of Emmy-winning photojournalists and has had a highly-rated newscast for well over a decade. The station broadcasts on VHF channel 11 and digitally on UHF channel 35 (through virtual channel numbering, it appears as channel 11-1). It operates KARE 11 WeatherPlus on its DT2 feed.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Other notable events 1.2 Past logos 2 Programming 3 Newscasts 3.1 Current anchors 3.2 Weather 3.3 Sports 3.4 Reporters 3.5 Former anchors and personalities 4 Broadcasting facilities 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

KARE-11 was first known as WTCN (the “TCN” stood for “Twin Cities Newspapers”), though it was not the first TV station in the Twin Cities to carry that name. Channel 4 originally carried the WTCN name, but it was changed to WCCO following the station's merger with WCCO Radio in 1952.

In 1953, the station started broadcasting on channel 11 with a time sharing agreement with station WMIN. Each station would use the transmitter for two hours, then allow the other channel to take over for the next two. The two stations eventually merged. The original transmitter for WTCN and WMIN was located atop the Foshay Tower in Minneapolis, the tallest building in the city at the time. A growing city center meant that the transmitter would eventually have to go, and it was moved to the Telefarm installation in Shoreview, Minnesota in 1972. Additionally, the new transmitter greatly increased the station's reception area.

WTCN was first operated by Minnesota Television Service Corporation, but the station changed ownership several times over the following years. It was sold to the H.M. Bitner Group in 1955, Time Life Broadcasting in 1957, Chris-Craft Industries in 1964, and Metromedia in 1971.

WTCN was originally the Twin Cities' ABC affiliate. It also carried programming from the now-defunct DuMont Television Network [3]. In 1961, KMSP-TV took the ABC affiliation, and WTCN became an independent, with its 10 pm newscast moving to 9 pm. As a traditional general entertainment independent station, WTCN offered cartoons, sitcoms, old movies, locally produced shows, news, and dramas. It had also been home to the Twin Cities first primetime newscast. When ABC moved from KMSP to KSTP-TV in 1979, WTCN took over KSTP's former NBC affiliation.

As a result of WTCN's affiliation with NBC, its cartoons and about half of its syndicated programming moved to the newly independent KMSP, and WTCN evolved into a more traditional network affiliate.

Metromedia sold WTCN to Gannett in 1983, and the station changed call letters to WUSA in 1985. The next year, the station changed call letters again to KARE, with the WUSA calls moving to WDVM in Washington, DC (which Gannett recently purchased).

The WTCN call letters are now used by a My Network TV affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, as WTCN-CA, which, ironically, is co-owned with WCCO-AM and WCCO-TV.

KARE has won the NPPA's award for station of the year in 1985, 1995, 2001 and 2006.

On April 27, 2006, KARE-11 became the first channel in the Twin Cities (and among the first in the US) to broadcast news in High definition television. As part of this transition, the station completely replaced its news set, originally built in 1986 and updated in the 1990's, with a new state-of-the-art news set. At the current time, the station is still broadcasting in analog (with the news shot in a way that is still usable on the smaller 4:3 format of analog sets).[4]

[edit] Other notable events

• 1957 – WTCN's first news team is formed.
• 1973 – The current studios are built in Golden Valley.
• 1979 – WTCN joins NBC as an affiliate
• 1983 – The purchase by Gannett causes a reshuffling of the station's staff. News anchors Paul Magers and Diana Pierce, among others, come to the station.
• 1985 – The station's call letters are changed to WUSA for about one year before becoming KARE.
• 1997 – The station receives the Edward R. Murrow Award for overall excellence. The award is also received in 2001 and 2004.
• 2003 – Paul Magers leaves to work for KCBS in Los Angeles, California.
• 2006 – Michael Pomeranz joins the station as main anchor from WCBS-TV in New York

• 2006 – First station in the Twin Cities that broadcasts news in High definition television

[edit] Past logos

WTCN logo as Independent station. (1970s)	Variant of the same logo, with the "Metromedia Television" byline. Also used by then-sister station KTTV in Los Angeles.	WTCN's first logo as an NBC affiliate, used from 1979 to 1985. The logo was also similar to KTTV's. Logo is the 1976 version.	Same logo with new (for 1979) NBC logo.
Alternate logo without NBC logo.	WUSA logo (1985-1986), first logo to use the current "11" graphic	First version of the KARE logo

[edit] Programming

A locally-produced children's program, Lunch with Casey, is remembered as being one of the unique contributions of the station. The show, featuring Roger Awsumb as Casey Jones, ran from 1954 until the end of 1972, with a brief reappearance in 1974. Sidekicks on the show included Joe the Cook, played by Chris Wedes, and Roundhouse Rodney, played by Lynn Dwyer. Wedes went on to play the clown J.P. Patches in Seattle, Washington, credited as partial inspiration (along with Portland, Oregon's Rusty Nails) for Krusty the Clown on The Simpsons.

KARE has dominated the local TV news market since the mid-1980s. The station experimented with a 40-minute newscast at 10 PM, before 35-minute nightly newscasts—now the standard—became common (being in the Central Time Zone, Minnesota stations generally broadcast news at 5, 6, and 10 PM). The nighttime newscast often features a "KARE 11 News Extra", an extended news story. A special sports show is put together periodically, and the station also broadcasts a group of morning shows each weekday. Beginning April 27, 2006, KARE will begin to produce evening news broadcasts in HDTV.

Weatherman Paul Douglas worked for the channel for several years. He is known for doing "backyard" weather, reporting from outside the studio. Douglas left the channel in the 1990s to work at a station in Chicago, Illinois. He returned to the Twin Cities in 1998 to work at WCCO. Other people on the weather staff at KARE continued to report from outside every day. Douglas and others at WCCO also frequently cover the news from a rooftop setup there.

The station made weather history on July 18, 1986 when helicopter pilot Max Messmer was flying out to cover a news story and noticed a funnel cloud forming over the Springbrook Nature Center in Fridley. Photojournalist Tom Empey was on board the chopper and shot amazing and unprecedented video of the twister. The images were broadcast live. The funnel soon formed into a full-fledged tornado as it touched the ground, and KARE broadcasted images of the funnel for 30 minutes. In the years to come, this first aerial video of a tornado was heavily studied by meteorologists, and contributed significantly to what is known about tornado formation. It was moderate in intensity, with winds of 113-157 mph, and caused $650,000 damage.

The short-lived game show Let's Bowl (filmed in the Twin Cities) had some episodes air on the channel in the late '90s before it was remade for Comedy Central. In January 2005, a local cable access program began airing. Called The Show to Be Named Later..., it is described as "The first (and only) sports talk, comedy, and variety show," somewhat of a cross between Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Fox Sports Network's The Best Damn Sports Show Period. A weekly show for teenagers called The Whatever Show (or simply Whatever) and an outdoors program known as Minnesota Bound have both aired on the channel for about a decade. Former Minnesota Twin Kent Hrbek also has hosted his own outdoors show "Kent Hrbek Outdoors" on the channel since 2004.

[edit] Newscasts

Weekdays

• KARE 11 News First Edition - 5-6AM
• KARE 11 News Sunrise - 6-7AM
• KARE 11 News at 5PM - 5-5:30PM
• KARE 11 News at 6PM - 6-6:30PM
• KARE 11 News at 10PM - 10-10:35PM

Saturday

• KARE 11 News Saturday - 8-10AM
• KARE 11 News at 5PM - 5-5:30PM
• KARE 11 News at 6PM - 6-6:30PM
• KARE 11 News at 10PM - 10-10:30PM

Sunday

• KARE 11 News at 5PM - 5-5:30PM
• KARE 11 News at 10PM - 1 0-10:35PM

[edit] Current anchors

• Mike Pomeranz (weeknights)
• Diana Pierce (5:00 and 6:00pm anchor)
• Julie Nelson (weeknights at 10)
• Rick Kupchella (weekends)

• Belinda Jensen(weekend mornings)
• Eric Perkins (weekend mornings)
• Kim Insley (morning anchor)
• Tim McNiff (morning anchor)

[edit] Weather

• Belinda Jensen (Monday-Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings)
• Jonathan Yuhas (weekday mornings)
• Sven Sundgaard (Friday-Sunday evenings)

[edit] Sports

• Randy Shaver (Weeknights & Sports Director)
• Charles Gonzalez (Sports Reporter)
• Eric Perkins (Weekends)
• Pat Sidoti (Sports Producer/Reporter)

[edit] Reporters

• Roxane Battle (Reporter/Fill-in Anchor)
• Pete Busch (Traffic Reporter)
• Allen Costantini
• John Croman (Capital/General Assignment Reporter)
• Mark Daly
• Joe Fryer
• Scott Goldberg
• Boyd Huppert
• Rondah Kinchlow
• Rena Sarigianopoulos
• Ron Schara Minnesota Bound host
• Scott Seroka
• Jana Shortal
• Ken Speake
• Renee Tessman
• Greg Vandegrift
• Trisha Volpe
• Pat Evans

[edit] Former anchors and personalities

• Paul Magers (weeknights from 1983-2003)
• Frank Vascellaro (weeknights, December 2003-2005; mornings 1996-December 2003)
• Ken Barlow (weeknight weather, 1994-2005)
• Paul Douglas (weeknight weather until 1994)
• Joan Steffend (weekend anchor)
• Eric Olson (reporter/anchor 1985-1997)
• Pat Miles (anchor)
• Tom Ryther (sports)
• Jeff Passolt (sports ,1981-1994)
• Steve Carroll (sports)
• Bernie Grace (crime reporter 1979-2006)
• Dale Schornack (anchor/reporter in the '80s)
• Kathy Vara (previous Sunrise and Today anchor)
• Asha Blake (reporter)
• John Bachman (anchor)
• Amy Powell (former reporter, Sunrise anchor)

[edit] Broadcasting facilities

In addition to the main transmitters in Shoreview, KARE uses a network of broadcast translators to carry its analog signal to outlying parts of the state:

K56BZ 56 Appleton K18DG 18 Alexandria KLKS-LP 14 Breezy Point K14KD 14 Frost K53EV 53 Jackson K53AO 53 Olivia

K68BJ 68 Redwood Falls K52AB 52 St. James K67BZ 67 Walker K39FE 39 Willmar K62AI 62 Windom

[edit] References

• kare11.com: History of KARE-11
• Northpine.com: Minnesota TV Translators and Satellite Stations

[edit] External links

• KARE homepage
• KARE 11 at Twin Cities Tv Soruce
• Lunch with Casey Jones
• Minnesota Bound
• The Show to Be Named Later...
• Station of the Year
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KARE
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K56BZ
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K18DG
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for KLKS-LP
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K14KD
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K53HR
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K53AO
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K68BJ
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K52AB
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K67BZ
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K20GD
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K62AI