KCMP (89.3 FM, 89.3 The Current) is a radio station owned by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) that broadcasts an adult album alternative (AAA) music format including a significant rotation of songs by local artists. Licensed to Northfield, Minnesota, and covering the Minneapolis-St. Paul market, the station's studios are located at the MPR Broadcast Center on Cedar Street in downtown St. Paul, while its transmitter is located atop the Vermillion Highlands near Coates. The Current is also broadcast on stations in Rochester, Duluth-Superior, Pasadena-Los Angeles, translators around Minnesota, and online. The Current, which has been broadcasting its AAA format since 2004, debuted after MPR purchased WCAL-FM, the radio station of St. Olaf College in Northfield, in 2004. St. Olaf had put WCAL-FM on the air in 1968 as an extension of WCAL, a part-time AM station established in 1922 and eventually shut down in 1991. Format The modern "third service" for MPR (the organization already operates "news and information" and classical music networks) programs a wide range of music. The KCMP "anti-format" was announced in December 2004, along with the station's new program director Steve Nelson and music director Thorn Skroch. KCMP is modeled on noncommercial alternative stations established earlier, including KEXP (Seattle), KCRW (Los Angeles), the pioneering WXPN (Philadelphia), and the short-lived Twin Cities station REV-105, where some of The Current's on-air talent established themselves. History St. Olaf Era The station which would later become 89.3 FM began with physics experiments in 1918 when five students and a professor built a small radio transmitter at St. Olaf College, which used a wire antenna strung between the campus chapel and the college's "Old Main" (the tallest nearby building). The college was issued a "Technical and Training School" license with the call sign 9YAJ for the experimental operations, which was picked up as far away as New Zealand. On May 6, 1922, the college was granted a broadcasting station license with the call sign WCAL. It would broadcast two programs per week during the school year at 770 kc. in the AM band. One notable achievement by the station in the next few years was the broadcast of William Shakespeare's play As You Like It, apparently the first time a play had been broadcast on radio. In 1924, a financial crunch meant that the station might be forced to close down. The St. Olaf senior class and local newspaper, The Northfield News,