Midwest Communications was a broadcasting company based in the Upper Midwest United States. The company's history dates back to August 1952, when it was formed as Midwest Radio and Television as a merger of

WCCO (AM) WCCO (830 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios and offices are located on Second Avenue South in Downtown Minneapolis. WCCO features a talk radio format, with frequent newscasts a ...

and WTCN-TV. The company was a joint-venture of Mid-Continent Radio-Television (itself a partnership of the

Saint Paul Pioneer Press The ''St. Paul Pioneer Press'' is a newspaper based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It serves the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the east metro, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, a ...

and the Minneapolis Tribune Company, 53%) and

CBS Corporation The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and t ...

(47%). While the radio stations went to a separate owner, WTCN-TV became

WCCO-TV WCCO-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the CBS network to the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios ...

. The company expanded over the years, launching

WCCO-FM KMNB (102.9 MHz, "The Wolf") is an American commercial FM radio station in Minneapolis-St. Paul that carries a country radio format. KMNB is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its main transmitter is located on the KMSP Tower in Shoreview, Minnesota, with ba ...

(now KMNB) in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Midwest Radio and Television bought ABC affiliate

WFRV-TV WFRV-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on East Mason Street in Green Bay, and its transmitter is located north of Mor ...

in Green Bay and its satellite in

Escanaba, Michigan Escanaba ( ), commonly shortened to Esky, is a port city in Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located on Little Bay de Noc in the state's Upper Peninsula. The population was 12,616 at the 2010 census, making it the third-largest city i ...

WJMN-TV WJMN-TV (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Escanaba, Michigan, United States, serving the Central and Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains s ...

(CBS did not initially take an ownership stake in either of those two stations at the time as they had good relations with then-CBS affiliate

WBAY-TV WBAY-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located on South Jefferson Street in downtown Green Bay (across from the historic B ...

). Midwest Radio and Television also bought KCMT in

Alexandria, Minnesota Alexandria is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Minnesota, United States. First settled in 1858, it was named after brothers Alexander and William Kinkead from Maryland. The form of the name alludes to Alexandria, Egypt, a center ...

and its satellite in

Walker, Minnesota Walker is a city in Cass County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 941 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Cass County. Walker is part of the Brainerd Micropolitan Statistical Area. Minnesota State Highways 34, 200, an ...

, KNMT. The stations' calls became KCCO and KCCW respectively, and the stations became satellites of WCCO-TV. In October 1982, the company renamed itself Midwest Communications to reflect the company's expanded business that now included cable systems and two cable channels.

WCCO II WCCO II was an early local cable channel serving the Minneapolis area. The channel was owned by Midwest Communications and meant to complement programming on broadcast station WCCO-TV. History The network, launched by Midwest Radio and Televisi ...

was also launched around this time to become an early local cable channel that would evolve into the

regional sports network In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region. ...

Midwest Sports Channel Bally Sports North is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as a Bally Sports affiliate. The channel broadcasts coverage of sporting events involving teams located in the Upper Midwest region, with a focu ...

. In February 1992, the company merged with CBS, and WFRV/WJMN as well as WCCO became CBS

owned-and-operated stations In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

. Today, only the Minneapolis stations are retained by

Paramount Global Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...

(WFRV/WJMN was sold to

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company controlled by chairman John C. Malone. The company has three divisions, reflecting the company's ownership stakes in Formula One ...

in 2007, then to

Nexstar Broadcasting Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...

in 2011). Midwest also owned the ''Midwest Sports Channel'', which was originally associated with WCCO-TV. MSC became a CBS owned and operated network following its acquisition of WCCO. In 1999, shortly after CBS was acquired by Viacom, MSC was sold to Fox Sports Net, eventually becoming the current day

Fox Sports North Bally Sports North is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as a Bally Sports affiliate. The channel broadcasts coverage of sporting events involving teams located in the Upper Midwest region, with a focu ...

, along with later sister network

Fox Sports Wisconsin Bally Sports Wisconsin (BSWI) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. Operating as the "Wisconsin" sub-feed of Fox Sports North until 2007, the channel was known as Fox ...

. Midwest Radio and Television was not associated with ''Midwest Television'', owners of KFMB,

KFMB-FM KFBG (100.7 FM, "100.7 Big FM") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to San Diego, California and broadcasts an adult hits format. The station is owned by Local Media San Diego. It shares studios with LMSD's other stations in the S ...

, and

KFMB-TV KFMB-TV (channel 8) is a television station in San Diego, San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with CBS, The CW, and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Tegna Inc., it has studios on Engineer Road in the Kearny Mesa, San Diego, Kearny Mesa section ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, nor

Midwest Communications Midwest Communications is a Wausau, Wisconsin-based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Illinois and ...

, which also has broadcasting interests in Northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, North Dakota and Tennessee.

References

Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Paramount Global subsidiaries 1952 establishments in Minnesota 1992 disestablishments in Minnesota {{US-media-company-stub