WCCO Radio: 100 Years

In 2002, just 10 days prior to the Election, Minnesota DFL Senator Paul Wellstone, his Sheila, daughter Marcia, and four others were killed in a plane crash in northern Minnesota. WCCO brought Minnesotans another tragic, memorable day in the 100 year history of the station. (Image: Senator Paul Wellstone during a speech to protesting farmers in front of the Capitol September 13, 1999. Michael Smit...

87 years after the R.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg and sunk in the North Atlantic, her voice was resurrected. In St. Paul in February of 1999, the whistles of that famous ship blew again. WCCO was there, another of our 100 moments in 100 years!  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In 2009, WCCO's Michele Tafoya and Jeff McKinney brought listeners the shocking news that Michael Jackson had suddenly died. Jackson was just 50-years old and the iconic pop star died after going into cardiac arrest. Another memorable moment in WCCO's 100 years. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images)

He was part of Boone and Erickson for decades. Then, he hosted Saturday mornings for many years. And he's one of the most famous voices not just on WCCO Radio, but in broadcasting, period. December 18, 2010, the great Charlie Boone signed off WCCO for the final time with a very emotional goodbye. Another of our 100 Moments in 100 Years.

It's a moment we'll never forget. "Gaetti he has it, throws to Hrbek and the Minnesota Twins are baseball's world champions!" The great Herb Carneal brought joy to Minnesota as the Twins beat St. Louis in Game 7 of the 1987 World Series, another of WCCO's 100 Moments in 100 Years! (Photo by BRUCE BISPING/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

It was the closest Presidential Election in U.S. history. After more than a month of challenges and questions about who won, including a pivotal Supreme Court decision, Vice President Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush and announced he accepted the decision of the court. It is one of WCCO's 100 Moments in 100 Years without question. (Image: US President elect George W. Bush meets with Vice Preside...

In 2016, after three decades, the mystery of one of Minnesota and the country's missing children was sadly solved when Jacob Wetterling was found. We look back at another of the most significant moments heard on WCCO over the last 100 years. (Photo By Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

He was a St. Paul and University of Minnesota star, but he made his mark in baseball mostly in San Diego and New York. But Dave Winfield ended his hall of fame career back home in a Twins uniform. That's where hit number 3,000 happened. Another of WCCO's 100 Moments in 100 Years! (Image: Getty Images / JED JACOBSON/ALLSPORT)

How could it not be part of WCCO's 100 year celebration? In the 1990s, over the course of several years, WCCO hosted a Sid Hartman soundalike contest. The winner? They got to have dinner with Sid. No word on who paid though. Here's one from the Mall of America in 1993 

It may not exist according to the NCAA. But the 1996-97 Gopher Basketball team went on a run Minnesotans will never forget. All season long, the great Ray Christensen brought us win after win as the Gophers ran all the way to the Final Four for the first and only time (even if it doesn't count!). It's another of WCCO's 100 Moments in 100 Years. (Photo: Ron Mercer of the Kentucky Wildcats shoots th...

In August of 1945, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the surrender of Japan, war came to an end. This historic audio signifying the end of WWII includes cuts from VJ day and celebrations on Hennepin Ave. in Minneapolis as we continue our 100 moments in 100 years, looking back on the most important moments of the last century. (Image: 11th August 1945: Women, wrappe...

He was the gold standard for political journalists for three decades on WCCO Radio, and a key part of the morning show too. On May 21, 2010, it was the end of an incredible run for Eric Eskola who said goodbye to listeners that day with some great stories. It's all part of WCCO's 100 moments in 100 years celebration! (Image: Eskola in his perfectly organized office at the State Capitol. WCCO / CBS...

It is definitely one of the most memorable recent moments in WCCO 100 year lookback. The first reports of George Floyd dying after being pinned to the ground by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. This is what it sounded like in May of 2020 before anybody knew what would come of it over the next days and weeks.  (The memorial of George Floyd at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Ave...

When engineers at WCCO Radio walked off the job in 1979, all of the programming staff joined them in solidarity. What do you do as a radio station with an FCC license when all of your announcers, producers, and journalists disappear? You put just about anybody on the air. Here's a unique look back on a crazy month for WCCO in our 100 moments in 100 years!

It was one of the most shocking moments of the last 100 years, and one of the toughest of WCCO's 100 moments in 100 years. August 1st, 2007, the 35W Bridge fell into the Mississippi River killing 13 and injuring 145. Here's what it sounded like that stunning afternoon.  (Photo by Joshua Adam Nuzzo/US Navy News Photo/MCT/Sipa USA)

It's the storm that lives in every Minnesotan's memory. On Halloween, 1991, a blizzard began that dumped 28 inches over parts of the Twin Cities and over 36 inches in Duluth, socking most of the state in huge swaths of snow and shattering not just daily, but monthly snowfall records.  (Photo By Duane Braley/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Minnesota needs no introduction to this one, surely one of the greatest moments in the last 100 years. Game 6 of the 1991 World Series, Kirby Puckett's extra-inning walk-off home run sent a shot of energy through this state never seen before or since.  (Photo by Joe Rossi/St. Paul Pioneer Press/KRT)

On June 1, 2012, one of WCCO's most unique and colorful characters, Dark Star, passed away. WCCO mourned one of its own that day. Here's what it sounded like as part of our 100 memorable moments in 100 years.  (Image: Dark Star at the Metrodome in the 1990s. Audacy / WCCO)

We're looking back on 100 of the most memorable moments as heard on WCCO since 1924. In 1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North, effectively ending the Vietnam War. The consequences were drastic and here is what is sounded like on 'CCO!  (Image: A CIA employee helps Vietnamese evacuees onto an Air America helicopter from the top of 22 Gia Long Street, a half mile from the U....

It was quite a race for Governor in 1998 when former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman and Attorney General Skip Humphrey battled it out with sudden politician Jesse Ventura, the former wrestler and radio talk show host. And it was Ventura's turn to "shock the world" in another of WCCO's 100 moments in 100 days! (Image: Ventura hosting his radio show as Governor on WCCO Radio in 1999)

Before WCCO, there was the "Call of the North Station WLAG", a forerunner of WCCO. This is likely the earliest recording of a radio station in the Twin Cities and it is something called the National Defense Day Program in September of 1924. This broadcast took place about a month before WCCO went on the air October 2nd and is certainly one of the 100 moments in 100 years of 'CCO! (Image: The origi...

It started as a spoof. It became a morning show staple for six decades. We remember one of our 100 moments in 100 days by looking back at the iconic Minnesota Hospital! This one comes from Boone and Erickson in 1988, the earliest we could find in our archives.  (Image: Roger Erickson and Sid Hartman laugh it up with Minnesota Hospital at the State Fair)

In January of 1970, the Minnesota Vikings were heavy favorites against Kansas City in the last year prior to the NFL-AFL merger. It was going to be a walk in the park for Vikings in Super Bowl IV. Not so fast. It's still one of the big game's largest upsets and it was heard on WCCO, one of the most memorable moments in the station's 100 years.  (Vikings quaterback Joe Kapp scrambles up field again...

In 2018, 13-year old Jayme Closs was abducted after a man broke into her family's home in Barron, WI and fatally shot her parents. Three months later, she was found after escaping the man's home in one of the most shocking breaking news events in recent memory. It's another of WCCO's most incredible 100 moments in 100 days! (Photo credit: KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images)

It's remembered as one of the largest fires in Minneapolis' history. On Thanksgiving Day, 1982, flames erupted from the vacant Donaldson's store in downtown Minneapolis. It spread quickly and eventually engulfed an entire block between Marquette and Nicollet Avenues.  It's another of WCCO's 100 memorable days in 100 years.  (A firefighter carries a hose between an ice-covered fire engine and burni...