 The channel originated in 1986 as WCCO II, a local cable channel owned by Midwest Radio and Television, and created as a project by CBS affiliate WCCO-TV (channel 4, now an owned-and-operated station of the network) that was originally intended to complement to the over-the-air WCCO with its own slate of local and general entertainment programming.Over the course of the three years that followed, though, it gradually focused more on sports programming.It formally became a regional sports network in 1989, when it was relaunched as the Midwest Sports Channel.