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 backup facilities on the nearby Telefarm installation. The station's studios are located on Second Avenue South in Downtown Minneapolis. History Early years as WCCO-FM The station began as WCCO-FM in 1969. It was the FM counterpart of local powerhouse WCCO, owned by Midwest Communications. As the station was hampered by its limited signal of only 2,700 watts, it had to temporarily transmit from the Foshay Tower at reduced power pending the completion of the Telefarm tower facility in Shoreview. It carried programming separate from the AM, with a mix of Beautiful Music and MOR album cuts and soft vocals, not unlike the pre-rock KQRS. The station later added two DJ shifts separate from the AM, hosted by Denny Long and Lou Lattson, playing a free-form rock music format, which included some underground rock tracks, along with full-service elements such as news and weather. Until 1973, the station only operated for the minimum amount of time required to keep the license. In August 1973, when the transmitter was upgraded to full power at 100,000 watts, a broad-based music format was launched. By 1975, the format evolved to adult contemporary music, though WCCO-FM continued to play deeper album tracks than most AC stations. In that same year, WCCO-FM picked up the syndicated "Dr. Demento Show" for weekends. Personalities included Paul Stagg, Carl Lensgraf, Terri Davis, Tom Ambrose, Curt Lundgren, Johnny Canton, Peter May and Pat O'Neill. Tim Russell, who went on to be a cast member on NPR's "A Prairie Home Companion," hosted middays and created memorable characters like traffic reporter "Captain Buzz Studley." Switch to Top 40 WCCO-FM was a modestly successful station until new IDS Center transmitters for competing stations were built in 1979. That caused interference to WCCO-FM's broadcast signal. In addition to the interference, the station was affected by a strike at about the same time. The striking FM air staff was temporarily replaced with announcers with little experience, making the station sound unpolished compared to its usual presentation. The station also began to face formidable competition after a relaunch of KSTP-FM "KS95," with a comparable live AC format. The station gravitated to a stricter playlist as the